Martin Fröst

“almost every piece is a novelty in Martin Fröst's dance-themed programme...This partnership of soloists and orchestra is an inspired one, not least in the smaller-scale pieces...There is a quirky and highly personal essay in lieu of booklet-note from Fröst himself.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2012

“No point in pulling my punches: this is a wonderful disc. The playing is superb, and these dance-inspired pieces will put a skip in your own step...It's obvious that Frost and his Australian colleagues must have had enormous fun recording this programme and their enjoyment bubbles through at every turn. Frost's virtuosity is a delight in its own right, but it's deployed in the service of unquenchable good humour.” International Record Review, February 2012

“Performed in both the original and revised versions, Copland's hot, slick Clarinet Concerto bookends a programme that incorporates waltz, schmaltz, tango and klezmer. Not all of it works. Brahms's Hungarian Dances are downgraded to vehicle status as a showcase for Fröst's dexterity. But elsewhere (Piazzola, Hillborg, Högberg) soloist and orchestra sizzle.” The Independent on Sunday, 8th January 2012 ****

“Obviously a must for clarinettists; but other performers, and listeners too, will enjoy this demonstration of what can be achieved with impeccable technique, a fertile imagination and a light touch.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2010 *****

“This disc not only presents the brilliant Swedish clarinettist Martin Fröst in a dazzling range of encore pieces but, with the help of his own explanatory notes, also provides a charming potted autobiography...altogether a wonderful showcase for a superb artist.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2010

“Better recorded performances of these towering masterpieces may exist, but I have never heard them. In their technical proficiency, style consciousness and broad, yet never exaggerated emotional range, they shine as major achievements.” International Record Review, 2011 edition

“The Swedish clarinettist Martin Fröst plays… with flawless technique, considerable panache and moments of magical quiet tone. The Gothenburg under Kamu provides first-rate support, with the wind principals clearly relishing their moments of prominence…” BBC Music Magazine, March 2009 *****

“Okko Kamu provides lively and supportive accompaniments; Martin Fröst has the full measure of this delightful music and ably scales the virtuoso roulades, while often playing the lyrical tunes on their reprise very gently and touchingly. The bravura pyrotechnics of the finales are presented with aplomb.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2009

“Here is another example of a largely unknown composer who has been revived through recordings of his music.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“Those who cherish earlier versions of Neilsen's masterpiece… will know how deep this music runs and how haunting it is. The young Swedish clarinettist give what I must say is the most searching and gripping performance of all, and reveals qualities of imagination and insight that make you listen with new ears. Kalevi Aho's... 2005 concerto was written for Martin Fröst... It strikes me as one of his finest pieces, immediate in its appeal and full of compelling musical incident and a dazzling virtuosity that Fröst takes effortlessly in his stride.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2007 *****

“Kalevi Aho's Concerto starts arrestingly but without a trace of the attention-seeking that afflicts certain other clarinet concertos of recent times. There is something in Aho's five continuous movements that recalls Nielsen's directness and free-flowing succession of ideas, and the cadenza that forms the second movement even brings momentary echoes of Nielsen's uncompromising skirls and flourishes.
But the Finn's sights are set more on the starkly elemental than on the quirkily personal.
For Aho the Vivace con brio third movement is the 'centre and culmination', and it is certainly exuberant – dangerous, even – in its restless virtuosity, rather like Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel driven mad by inner demons. After this a sad slow movement brings sober reflection, and an Epilogue concludes the work on a note of mystery.
There can have been few equally impressive head-on engagements with the concerto medium in recent years.
There are eight or so modern accounts of the Nielsen Clarinet Concerto in the catalogue.
Most have fine qualities. Yet for sureness of idiomatic touch none dislodges Ib Erikson's classic 1954 Danish accounts (now available on Dutton Labs).
Closer to the mark than any modern rivals is this new issue from Martin Fröst, the clarinettist of the moment for all-round artistry allied to adventurous approach to repertoire. He seems to have Nielsen's irascible masterpiece in his bloodstream, as surely as he has its technical contortions under his fingers. Vänskä ensures that the Lahti players are never fazed by the exposed edges in the accompaniment, and only the very drawn-out final bars come across as slightly self-conscious. Detail for detail, phrase for phrase, this team takes the palm over the old Danish recording, even before considering BIS's immeasurably superior sound quality.
Even so, Erikson and Wöldike remain a benchmark for insight into the character of the piece.
In sum, a CD of rare distinction.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Fröst just may be the finest clarinetist (sic) alive, and this entire production is typical of what we have come to expect from BIS…There is no more exciting label around today” Classics Today

“The Swedish clarinettist Martin Fröst plays with admirable virtuosity and smoothness of tone, and it’s hard to imagine the music better performed.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2007 *****

“Martin Fröst's style of playing is well suited to Weber: he has a clear, fresh tone and fingers undefeated by even the most sensational of the applause music that ends some of these works.
He is not afraid of considerable tempo variations within a movement, as Weber is on record as having wanted.
This all contributes to a charming, eloquent performance of the Concertino. However, the F minor Concerto (No 1) does not need its opening Allegro to be taken quite so fast for it to make its points, and the finale, here sounding like a brisk allegro verging on presto, is actually marked Allegretto, which gives the music more space and freedom. The slow movements of both concertos are played simply, without affectation, and Fröst remembers that the alla polacca of the finale of No 2 is a dance. He takes a bright lead in the Quintet; it is played here as a concerto with full strings, which is a pity but, given the quatuor concertant nature of the work, not as disastrous as it would be with Mozart. This is a fresh, amiable performance that responds to the music's varied nature.
Fröst also plays some cadenzas of his own, rejecting those which were later added by Carl Baermann, son of the much-admired dedicatee of the works, Heinrich Baermann. He further adds a few flourishes: unnecessarily, but there is no need to be too purist here. These are attractive, exhilarating performances, clearly recorded so as to do justice to the orchestral effects which were always part of Weber's exuberant invention.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010