Music Reviews

-- New York Times
He was able to conjure up a beguiling web of sonority in rapid passages thanks to his remarkably developed finger independence, while legato phrases were fashioned with appealing suavity.

-- New York Times
Throughout his playing, there was a rhythmic suppleness within an over-all steadiness that gave his interpretations a nice plasticity.

-- New York Times
The harpsichordist Lionel Party offered a short, elegant solo before the Andante, which consists of only two chords.

-- Vevey/Riviera, Switzerland
Le virtuose stupéfie un auditoire mélomane et connaisseur, par un admirable sens de la couleur-pas evident au clavecin-,une merveilleuse liberté stylistique et un phrasé éblouissant.

-- The Berkshire Courier
Talk about blood-this guy’s on fire.

-- Journal de Nyon, Switzerland
Tous les amoureux du clavecin on suivi avec un extrême plaisir le recital de Lionel Party au Château de Coppet. Ce jeune artiste né à Santiago et de renommée internationale allie une exceptionelle maîtrise instrumentale avec une sensibilité non moins extraordinaire. La communication est immédiatement assurée entre l’interprète el le public.

-- Mitteldeutsche Neueste Nachrichten, Leipzig
Zu einem besonderen Höhepunkt gestaltete sich die Aufführung des Konzertes für Cembalo und kleines Orchester von Bohuslav Martinu. Der in den USA studierende chilenische Cembalist und Bachpreisträger Lionel Party stellte dieses Werk in einer ausgezeichneten Interpretation vor, dabei die Strenge in der Melodieführung ebenso herausarbeitend wie die grazile Schönheit vor allem des Adagio.

-- The New Yorker
He seems not restricted by the harpsichord but liberated by it.

-- The Philadelphia Enquirer
Party’s artistry has many strengths, which came through clearly. One is a flair for the rhythmic nuances and irregularities shaping the French and Italian schools more than the German symmetries. Another is the delicacy of touch and instinct for color ideal to the secular composers of the Latin courts. A third is a combination of intellectual and emotional understanding necessary to unlock the original conceits of the too-little-known Frescobaldi. Party’s passagework savored the harmonic twists and rhythmic thrusts of a radical mind.

-- The Philadelphia Enquirer
On his own, Party played, with zest, Couperin’s Huitieme Ordre, a suite whose dancing movements he genially explained beforehand.

-- Welcomat
Party was just as polished as he’s sounded every other time I have heard him-and he threw in some exceptionally witty historical comments in addition.

-- Houston Chronicle
His playing exemplified the beauty of all three performances: fluid, gracious, true to the basic pulse of each movement. His handling of rhythm was very natural, without any of the artificial push and pull of some approaches to harpsichord playing.

-- La Presse Riviera Chablais, Switzerland
Sous les doigts inspirés de musicien, l’instrument sonne avec munificence et une sonorité veloutée dans trois extraits de la Suite en si bémol majeur de Georg Friedrich Haendel. L’interprètre empoigne à plaines mains les deux claviers et fait passer le frisson à l’assemblée.

-- Mount Desert Islander
Mr. Party electrified the audience with his approach to the instrument. Mr. Party used his arms and body along with a prodigious technique to produce a kind of rolling sea of music. Magical!