"Six of the most engaging sets of variations are interspersed with several of the more austere, virtuosic toccatas, along with two of the ‘echo’ fantasias in which precisely repeated musical fragments are deployed without any of the tedium one might expect from such rigorous repetition.
It’s a delightful mix of music by a composer whose music too often comes off as stern and abstract. Vivanet is clearly devoted to Sweelinck’s lighter, brighter side, bringing a nice dancelike bounce to the theme of the variations built on ‘Onder een linde groen’. Much of Sweelinck’s music lives as happily on the organ and harpsichord as it does on the modern piano, and Vivanet takes his cues from the step-like gradations of volume from both organ and harpsichord."
Philip Kennicott, Gramophone (September 2024)
Interview for The New Listener :
Tägliche Liebe zur Musik | The New Listener (the-new-listener.de)
René Brinkmann, Andrea Vivanet (December 2021)
"An all-round recommendable production."
Holger Sambale, Klassik Heute (November 2021)
"His performance of the well-known works of Taneyev and Shostakovich is simply exemplary."
Norbert Florian Schuck, The New Listener (November 2021)
"With this recording, the Italian pianist Andrea Vivanet demonstrates a masterful command of this thoroughly versatile repertoire. His sovereign virtuosity as well as his empathy for lyrical passages make this recording an interesting listening experience."
Bernd Wladika, Piano News (February 2020)
"A terrific CD, almost a legacy. Now I am very curious about what Andrea Vivanet will present next, and I hope that we will hear from him soon…"
Christoph Schlüren, Klassik Heute (September 2019)
"Probably no one has performed these works so masterfully in the last decades."
Ulrich Hermann, The New Listener (September 2019)
"...one of the most deeply felt, intuitive and clear recordings of Szymanowski's music."
Oliver Fraenzke, The New Listener (September 2019)
"The Italian pianist Andrea Vivanet plays with great skill and commitment as well as a feeling for the special sound of the short pieces included in his programme. Each of these miniatures can exist on its own, but together they form a rich, multifaceted spectrum with calmer and more powerful, rhythmically brilliant and intimate moments. Andrea Vivanet gives a strong and individual profile to the various pieces, thus taking the listener on an interesting journey through the piano music of the Polish composer."
Remy Franck, Pizzicato Magazine (09/08/2019)
"Staying with Bartók, Vivanet tackles the famous Dance Suite of 1923. Much competition exists here, perhaps most obviously in the shape of András Schiff (on Denon) and Kocsis. Vivanet makes a spectacularly good case for the piano version."
Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine (Sept/Oct 2019)
"In Vivanet’s hands, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is more than a collection of loosely related movements partially held together by the Promenade; it emerges as an integral whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts. This is everything the piece can and should be. An outstanding accomplishment."
Jerry Dubins , Fanfare Magazine (July/Aug 2019)