The Dutch pianist Joop Celis proves an enthusiastic and highly virtuosic exponent of York Bowen and he offers a valuable anthology of his solo piano music Fine realistic recording makes this a most desirable issue."
The Pengiun Guide – 1000 Greatest Classical Recordings 2011-12
The Dutch pianist Joop Celis proves an enthusiastic and highly virtuosic exponent of York Bowen and he offers a valuable anthology of his solo piano music Fine realistic recording makes this a most desirable issue."
The Pengiun Guide – 1000 Greatest Classical Recordings 2011-12
The Dutch pianist Joop Celis plays with accuracy (some minor alterations to the text of the Preludes apparently follow the example of Bowen’s performances) and clarity even in some very full textures.
BBC Music Magazine
Dutch pianist Joop Celis displays impeccable technique in Bowen’s demanding scores. He is clearly an excellent musician. Chandos offers clear, vibrant sound. A lot of dedicated work and effort has gone into this recording.
American Record Guide
Amazingly, the Sixth Sonata receives its first recording, its breadth and, in the finale, crazed exuberance played to the hilt by Celis. Here, then, is both a creative and recreative revelation magnificently recorded. Is it too much to hope that Joop Celis and Chandos will give us a complete York Bowen cycle?
Gramophone
Celis (who was born in 1958) is, though, a thoroughly sympathetic advocate of Bowen’s work (and writes enthusiastically about it in the booklet note). His CD includes the first recording of the 15-minute Sonata No. 6, Bowen’s last composition… Chandos’s very clear recording… reveals Celis’s playing as powerful and poised, nimble and sensitive.
International Record Review
The very first bars well you why Bowen was nicknamed ‘the British Rachmaninov’: you hear the same combination of dark tone and long-fingered, fluid counterpoint. But although Rachmaninov lurks in the background as an obvious influence, it becomes clear that there is a very English sensibility at play here – Rachmaninov edited by John Ireland, if you like…I hadn’t come across the Dutch pianist Joop Celis before, but he’s plainly a player of the first order, coping easily with Bowen’s fearsome demands. Good sound and informative notes by Celis himself.
Pianist