Friends of Mozart (Comments about CD Recordings)

“The pianist’s performance, in true dialogue with the orchestra, are among the finest I have listened to with respect to musicality, capturing the traditional Mozart style with a high degree of sensitivity and technical skill, throughout my longstanding connection with Mozart’s works... Soloist and orchestra provide the listener with unforgettable experiences.”
Erna Schwerin, President and Founder
Friends of Mozart, Inc., New York, NY

"Wonderful recordings! I love Christiane Engel's Mozart playing... It is terrific... Her legatos are great (slow movement)... She's doing a really musical great job - and so is the orchestra... I enjoyed listening.”
Lukas Foss, Famous American Composer, Pianist & Conductor

“ I have listened to recordings of Christiane Engel's performance and have heard her in concert. Her playing deeply impressed me. She has the courage to engage in a very personal, unique style. Her playing of Mozart is extraordinarily beautiful, profoundly felt, entirely born out of her love for music. Her performances have an intimate character and distinguish themselves clearly from the routine smoothness of many concerts. With emotional freshness, secure knowledge and an exceptionally warm sound the listener is left with unforgettable impressions.”
Werner Baertschi, Internationally reknowned Swiss pianist and composer

EExcerpts from Recent Concert Reviews
Playing Mozart Piano Concertos either together with the Stern Orchestra Prague or the Stern Quartet Prague


Swiss Newspaper: Linth Zeitung [Kt. Zurich]

"That went to the heart," Joseph Haydn once declared after he heard a piano performance by Mozart…There is no doubt that Christiane Engel very closely approaches this ideal. As a Mozart expert, she enchanted the audience with her subtle tonal presentation…Christiane Engel cast a spell on her audience. Light as feathers, her fingers flitted over the keys, eliciting sparkling passages and embellishments from the instrument and playing the Forte with emphasis, but never with force. The sounds in the Larghetto appeared to be floating from the grand piano in a tender, almost fragile way, and evoked a quiet melancholy while they dancingly enticed the listeners…the artist seemed relaxed and played as if she were the original source from which this music arose in its purity.

German Newspaper: St. Georgen und Umgebung

The pianist Christiane Engel, together with the Stern Quartet from Prague, blessed the numerous listeners with a wonderful evening of chamber music…
Christiane Engel has a lovely, soft touch that makes it possible for her to shape the melodies in an expressive way…Both the tonal beauty of the second movement and the tangible joy of playing felt in the final rondo were enchanting.

French Newspaper: Alsatian News

“An Exceptional Concert”

It was a moment of rare musical quality…The great moment of the evening was the appearance of Christiane Engel…She revealed her virtuosity by playing with exceptional grace and expressed the charm of Mozart’s composition with much temperament and taste.

Swiss Newspaper: Zurichsee Zeitung

Christiane Engel’s sensitive interpretations…lovingly accentuate all of the details…beautiful dialogues…sensitive playing between the soloist and the strings in a chamber music approach was delightful.

The melody of the slow movement with its soulful tempo appeared to be drenched in mellow moonlight, and the pleasing sonatina melody of the piano was tenderly emulated.
The intensive verve was felt in the third movement as the fingers skillfully flew over the keys with the passages like pearl necklaces in a calm luminous glow. The pianist had won the hearts of the audience…Enthusiastic shouts of "bravo" showed the intensity of the listeners' response.

Swiss Newspaper: Zuger Presse

Christiane Engel played her way into the hearts of the numerous listeners with sparkling piano sounds…she elicited dazzling sounds and painted enchanting tonal colors in the musical heavens. The listeners were spirited away into an atmosphere of cheerfulness and lightness.

Swiss Newspaper: Tageszeitung fur das Zurcher Oberland

Christiane Engel’s interpretation reveals…tonal beauty. This is a Mozart without any rough edges, an internalized Mozart as if from another world…In harmony with the orchestra…a sparkling touch that is as light as a feather and a whispered pianissimo are virtually her trademark.

Swiss Newspaper: ZURICH EXPRESS (The Daily Newspaper for Zurich)

Humanitarian Classical Music
Emotional Mozart in the Volkshaus

Christiane Engel does not want to be like many other modern artists. She is not primarily concerned about playing piano in a technically perfect way. Which does not mean that she is not capable of it. However, she desires more than technique. She wants to make it possible to "experience the essence of the music." She explains this emotional demand by pointing out that in addition to the music conservatory, she is a trained physician. Engel's concerts follow the same principle as her work with patients: People should feel joy and healing power. This aligns her with the tradition of her famous grandfather, Albert Schweitzer, who intensely influenced her. Engel's favorite composer is Mozart: She shares his belief in humanity…

“Your beautiful performance with the Toda Symphony Orchestra still resounds within my heart. I have never heard Mozart played with such rich and kind expression.”
Motoyasu Morishita
(Fellow conductor who attended her
concert in Tokyo, January 21, 1996.)

Excerpt of a Review from a Concert in New York

Friends of Mozart Inc.
President and Founder: Erna Schwerin, New York

Program Sonatas for Piano and Violin by W. A. Mozart
Performed by Christiane Engel and Jiri Tomasek

…A truly superb performance…Christiane Engel has such a special gift for playing Mozart.

Professor J. Sarboch, Chairman of the Friends of the Classical Music Club in Slany, Czech Republic - Mozart Concert in Slany, January 25, 2006, Christiane Engel, Piano, Alexander Frey, Conductor and Stern Orchestra Prague.

"On the eve of the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart birthday, an indeed royal opportunity arose for the royal town of Slany. Important personalities of the cultural world visited our town to honor the great master. In the museum chapel, Swiss-American pianist, Christiane Engel performed two famous piano concertos by W.A. Mozart, piano concerto in D minor KV 466 and piano concerto in Bb Major KV 238. Her performance touched the auditorium with a broad scale of her interpretative dimension. Maturity of her musical performance was felt in each phrase... The town of Slany had the chance to hear the best concert of Mozart's music in modern history."

Mozartfeierstunde mit Christiane Engel (Klavier)
Beeindruckendes Benefizkonzert im Klosterkeller Kappel

Die in den USA (Los Angeles) lebende Enkelin des Urwalddoktors Albert Schweitzer, Christiane Engel, gab am vergangenen Freitagabend zusammen mit dem «Stern Orchestra Prag» auf ihrer diesjährigen Europatournee ein beglückendes Konzert, dessen Erlös vollumfänglich der Organisation «Médecins Sans Frontières Schweiz» zu gute kommt.

Von Ernst Schlatter

Die Organisatorin dieses Anlasses, Rösli von der Crone (Hedingen), schilderte zu Beginn ihre Beziehung zur Pianistin. In Männedorf aufgewachsen, gingen die beiden miteinander in die gleiche Schulklasse. Sie hat den Kontakt zu ihr nie abgebrochen und freute sich nun ganz besonders, dass Christiane Engel zugesagt hat, in Kappel aufzutreten.
Christiane Engel ist vor allem eine Interpretin von Mozarts Klavierwerken (ihr Grossvater war Bachspezialist) und hat – ebenfalls mit dem Stern Orchestra Prag - alle 23 Klavierkonzerte von W.A. Mozart auf zehn CDs aufgenommen.

Mozarts Musik: erhebende Freude und heilende Kraft

«Mozarts Musik widerspiegelt meine eigenen Ideale von Harmonie, Liebe, Frieden. Mitgefühl und Verständnis für den Menschen sowie den Glauben an eine höhere Macht. Es ist meine Hoffnung, dass ich durch meine Interpretation die erhebende Freude und die heilende Kraft von Mozarts Musik weitergeben kann. Ich kenne ihre therapeutische Wirkung nicht nur als Musikerin, sondern auch als Ärztin, denn oft habe ich sie an meinen Patienten und an mir selber erfahren», bekennt sie im Gespräch. (Sie hat – neben Musik – auch Psychologie, Sozialanthropologie und Medizin studiert und war auch als Ärztin tätig, bevor sie sich ganz der Musik widmete).

Stupende Leichtigkeit der Interpretation

Dass dies nicht nur ein Lippenbekenntnis ist, bewies ihr Auftritt in Kappel. Sowohl im Klavierkonzert No. 13 in C-Dur (KV 415) wie im abschliessenden Klavierkonzert Nr. 6 in B-Dur (KV 238) strahlte sie während dem Spiel, genoss es sichtlich, dem Publikum diese beiden Werke nahe zu bringen.
Und sie tat dies mit einer stupenden Leichtigkeit, obwohl etliche, lange Kadenzen (zum Beispiel im «Rondeau/Allegro» des Klavierkonzerts No. 13) höchste Konzentration erforderten.
Es gelang ihr auch - dynamisch äussert differenziert - das Oszillieren zwischen Melancholie und tief gegründeter Lebensfreude herauszuarbeiten. Inspiriert, manchmal fast entrückt wirkend, interpretierte sie die beiden Mozartklavierkonzerte: Glasklar sich an die mozartsche Vorlage haltend, niemals romantisierend und mit meisterlichem Pedaleinsatz.

Mit dem hochkarätigen Prager Stern Orchestra (eigentlich ein Quartett) hat sie eine ideale Ergänzung für ihre Art der Interpretation gefunden. Mit den Divertimento in D-Dur, KV 136 und dem Quartett in G-Dur, KV 156 gaben die vier Musiker (Michael Skampa, und Jana Koprivova, Violinen; Jan Sedlacek, Viola und Vladimir Ruzicka, Cello) zwei Beispiele ihres Könnens zum Besten: Mitreissend die Allegri und Presti, verhalten, verinnerlicht das Adagio im Quartett in G-Dur. Musikgenuss der feinsten Art, der in der besonderen Atmosphäre des Klosterkellers zum bleibenden Erlebnis wurde.

Bild: Von links: Michael Skampa, Violine, die Solistin, Christiane Engel, Klavier, Jana Koprivova, Violine, Jan Sedlacek, Viola und Vladimir Ruzicka, Cello im Klosterkeller Kappel. (Bild eschla)