Philippe Cassard

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“The highlights of the festival came from Cédric Pescia and Philippe Cassard. They played Debussy’s two-piano arrangement of Schumann’s Op 56 Studies for the pedal piano, a long-obsolete instrument that emulated the organ by giving the piano a pedal board. These studies are now most often heard in organ recitals, where some of the pieces take on a kind of fairground music feel. It was good to hear them in more sensitive and shapely accounts that more accurately reflect their true nature. And it was Pescia and Cassard who brought the festival to a blazing close, in Liszt’s two-piano arrangement of Beethoven’s Choral Symphony. Pescia and Cassard have already recorded the two-piano Beethoven Choral Symphony, in Berlin last year, on a pair of Bechstein concert grands. The clarity of the recording studio was not delivered on Steinways in New Ross, but the spirit of the music was just as well served in a reading where the shape and grandeur of the music – and, of course, some glorious and not so glorious moments of pianistic clamour – brought the audience leaping to their feet.” Irish Times, September 2021

“Cassard strikes a dapper figure and his playing is elegant without being unnecessarily showy. Waltzes were dispatched with the lightest of touches, wistfully teasing the line….But it is in Debussy that Cassard is truly at home, cradling and caressing phrases as if discovering them for the first time.” WIGMORE HALL RECITAL, Bachtrack, November 2017

“Mr. Cassard played beautifully throughout, his musicality admirable in moments like the introduction to Brahms’s “Lerchengesang” (“Lark Song”).” RECITAL WITH NATALIE DESSAY, New York Times, March 2014

“The world class level of his performance is unmistakable from the very first moments…” SCHUMANN RECORDING (Ambroise) Malcolm Hayes in Classic FM Magazine – February 2005

“Here is a disc of fine Schumann playing, superbly recorded and on a beautifully voiced piano…a recital that merits the highest praise.” SCHUMANN RECORDING (Ambroise) Jeremy Nicholas in Gramophone (Editor’s Choice) – February 2005

“Cassard’s piano sound is rich in shades and colours, he has a light but firm touch and it seems that his artistic personality is devoid of all extremes…the piano was virtually singing under his hands.”
BUDAPEST PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY Tünde Szita in New Musical Herald – May 2003

“Cassard draws you into Debussy’s works with drama and contrast.” DEBUSSY DAY IN SINGAPORE Tan Shzr Ee in Straits Time, Singapore – May 2003

“…hats off to Cassard for his sensitive voicing, liquid phrasing and judicious overall pacing; he makes all these things seem far easier to achieve than they actually are.” SCHUBERT SONATAS
David Fanning in Gramophone – March 2003

“…Cassard’s command of colouring, idiom and nuance made the experience into one that constantly gripped the imagination and kept concentration intact over a broad musical spectrum…..Cassard spun a fine lyrical line, using delicacy and filigree flourishes as a means to a musical end, but he was not afraid to bring musicle and explosive spontaneity to bear either.” WIGMORE HALL RECITAL
Geoffrey Norris in The Daily Telegraph – December 2002

“…it was rewarding to hear Cassard present a programme full of high musical challenges and do justice to it…impeccable control of tone, volume and textural balance was at service of deep-thinking musicianship…The sonata became a musical drama, as the character of each movement was judged for its relation to its neighbours, contrasts within movements were pointed up vigorously, and the many corners were turned as if each was opening up a new discovery. A treat!” DUBLIN CASTLE RECITAL
Martin Adams in The Irish Times – November 2002

“Tortelier and Philippe Cassard did wonders with the slow movement, lingering over its delicate gestures as though it were one of Debussy’s great masterpieces.” DEBUSSY FANTASIE/BBC PHILHARMONIC
Pauline Fairclough in The Guardian – February 2002

“…in the sympathetic hands of French virtuoso Philippe Cassard, it presaged the colourful musical landscape that Debussy would late navigate so magically.” DEBUSSY FANTASIE/BBC PHILHARMONIC
David Harrison in The Manchester Evening News – February 2002

“Cassard showed wonderfully sensitive rubato in the second movement, and his cadenzas showed imagination as well as technique.” MOZART K467/EDMONTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
DT Baker in The Edmonton Journal – April 2001

“As an all-day experience for the listener, this Debussy Day was both exacting and stimulating. For Cassard it was a singular triumph, and as a 10th anniversary gesture towards the country which helped launch his international career, it has firmly left the larger debt with us.” NATIONAL GALLERY, DUBLIN

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