AlexanderGavrylyuk

Press

• Rachmaninov 'Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini', Op. 43 with WA Symphony Orchestra

  Winthrop Hall, Crawley, Australia

  Mar 2025

  • The studiously dapper Gavrylyuk was a livewire from the start, galvanised by pinpoint gymnastics in the ensemble, duetting with soloists and sections in meticulous style through the theme and 24 variations. Gavrylyuk made fiendish flurries and diabolically difficult runs seem easy, with more genuinely rhapsodic passages caressed by shimmering strings. Gavrylyuk rode the tiger while Fisch barely stirred his charges to maintain momentum, with plangent phrases passing from front to rear of stage and back in constant dialogue, grandiose to the last whimsical dismount.

    • David Cusworth, The West Australian
    • 10 March 2025

  • ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ So all-encompassing is Gavrylyuk’s fluency in this music that it’s hard to pluck out highlights, but one would find it hard to go past the cheeky sparring between soloist and orchestra in Variations 2, 8 and 10, the dazzling virtuosity of 3 and 6, Variation 18’s big romantic gesture and the (mostly) fast and furious ride of Variations 19 through to 23 before the eruption of 24, as the Dies Irae theme is strongly asserted not as Death Triumphant but as acknowledging the primacy of human agency, the apotheosis of art transcending death. For my money, Gavrylyuk had never achieved a better symbiosis of showmanship and lyricism, nor, at least I thought right then, Fisch and WASO a better balance between subservience to the score and freshness of interpretation.

    • William Yeoman, Limelight
    • 08 March 2025

• Solo Recital in Sydney

  City Recital Hall, Sydney

  Nov 2024

  • ★★★★½ Gavrylyuk captivates with his phenomenal execution, interpretative insight and wonderfully expressive left hand. Gavrylyuk opened the recital with Mozart’s Rondo in D, playing with immense delicacy, elegant tonal contrasts and filagree runs like strings of pearls, extraordinarily even in tone. In the hymn-like opening of Chopin’s Ballade No. 2, Op. 38 in F, Gavrylyuk brokered tenderness, the poignant repeated notes like a beating heart. Attentive to the emotional divide in Chopin’s work, the languid exposition was abruptly dispersed by a brilliant explosion of speedy descending and ascending gestures. ...his phenomenal execution, interpretative insight, wonderfully expressive left hand and structural clarity resulted in an accessible, luminous performance.

    • Limelight
    • 07 November 2024

• Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no. 1 with Rheinische Philharmonie

  Saalbau Neustadt an der Weinstrasse

  Feb 2024

  • Ein Spiel, das bei allen, die dabei waren, lange nachklingen wird: der ukrai-nisch-australische Pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk bei seiner berückenden Interpretation von Tschaikowskys b-Moll-Klavierkonzert. A performance that will resonate with everyone who was there for a long time: the Ukrainian-Australian pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk in his enchanting interpretation of Tchaikovsky's Bb Moli Piano Concerto

    • Gertie Pohlit, Die Rheinpfalz
    • 28 February 2024

• Prokofiev Piano Concerto no. 3 with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

  Poole Lighthouse

  May 2024

  • ★★★★ Gavryluk gave a huge, romping performance, bursting with personality and responsive to the unexpected moments of intimacy.

    • Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph
    • 16 May 2024

  • ... soloist Alexander Gavrylyuk gave what can only be described as a spelling binding performance, man and instrument totally at one. His face and whole body seemed to be gripped by the emotion of every single note. The audience loved him too and cheered him to the rafters

    • Andy Martin, Bournemouth Echo
    • 16 May 2024

• Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no. 1 - Sydney Symphony Orchestra

  Sydney Opera House

  Nov 2023

  • Alexander Gavrylyuk, aided by the sure-footed conducting of Sir Donald Runnicles, produced a miraculous performance. ...his rendition was beyond exceptional, not only for his blistering technique but his phrasing – which bathed this familiar concerto in a new light. I’m running out of superlatives to describe Gavrylyuk’s Tchaikovsky. Suffice to say it was the best rendition I’ve ever heard – live or recorded.

    • Fraser Beath McEwing, J-Wire
    • 02 November 2023

• Prokofiev Piano Concerto No.1 in Db, Op.10

  Sydney Town Hall

  Jun 2023

  • ...We were also treated to highly acclaimed piano soloist, Alexander Gavrylyuk, now an Australian citizen but Ukrainian born, playing a concerto written by a much-loved Russian, demonstrating, perhaps, that music knows no borders... After a late switch by Alexander Gavrylyuk, we were treated to Prokofiev’s Piano concerto No.1 in D-flat major instead of the Rachmaninov second. I heard Gavrylyuk play and record this Prokofiev concerto with Ashkenazy conducting the SSO in 2009. He was a rising star pianist then but now is regarded as being among the world’s best. Notwithstanding my memory being eroded by time, I was eager to compare the two versions, separated by 13 years. In a word, Gavrylyuk’s performance last night was simply stunning. He owned the Prokofiev from the fist octave hammer blows that announced his towering technique. But this was more than the feats of a remarkable keyboard athlete. There were noticeable refinements in the delivery and an interpretive assurance that placed this performance in a class of its own.

    • Fraser Beath McEwing, J-Wire
    • 02 June 2023

• Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.1 in Db, Op.10

  Sydney Town Hall

  Jun 2023

  • Ukranian-Australian pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk attacked Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with a kind of manic delight and steely brilliance, its first sections shifting mood like fairground scenes mixing bright energy, burlesque and funereal parody. The slower section of this single-span work discarded the parodistic mask for subtly-timbred intimacy of sound and idea before returning to madcap and hair-raising virtuosity from Gavrylyuk.

    • Peter McCallum, The Sydney Morning Herald
    • 02 June 2023

• Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.1 in Db, Op.10

  Sydney Town Hall

  Jun 2022

  • Listeners got a scintillating performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s explosive first concerto when Ukrainian-born Australian pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk raised the roof of Sydney Town Hall with Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s last concert in the venue before moving back to the newly renovated Sydney Opera House Concert Hall... Gavrylyuk dispatched the solo cadenza with power and faultless articulation and there was a sense of defiance in the middle section where he played against the ominous beat of the orchestra. The finale, with all the energy and momentum of a scene from a silent action movie, and lots of fun and humour to boot, built to a crashing crescendo with the soloist catapulted back on the piano stool for the final flourish. The performance encapsulated the brilliance of a pianist who moved to Sydney with his family at the age of 13 and who first came to the notice of local audiences when he made his SSO debut under Vladimir Ashkenazy playing Rachmaninov 3...

    • Steve Moffatt, Limelight
    • 03 June 2023

• Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54

  Federation Concert Hall, Tasmania

  Jun 2022

  • First, Alexander Gavrylyuk. His performance of Schumann’s Piano Concerto was profoundly moving. Despite the concert being named after him, this performance was definitely all about Schumann. Gavrylyuk’s humility was evident throughout: there was an admirable absence of flamboyant gesture and a quiet commitment to the music. As he played his final notes he leaned respectfully in to the piano, as if bowing before the genius of Schumann. It goes without saying that he managed all the virtuosic fireworks with apparent ease. Beyond technical prowess, he has an extraordinary mastery over time, stretching and pushing it in service to the music. As he stretched an interval, I could feel every semitone of the space between the notes, giving an emotional meaning far beyond that inherent in the notes themselves. His choice of encore – Traumerei from Schumann’s Scenes from Childhood – was perfect. It’s quiet, dreamlike magic didn’t break the spell of the worshipful ending of the Concerto, and his nuanced interpretation of time perfectly conveyed the improvisatory, dreamlike feeling of this most beautiful little piece.

    • Jo St Leon, Limelight
    • 26 June 2022