Carolin Widmann

Press

• DRP Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern

  Saarländischer Rundfunk, Saarbrücken

  Jan 2025

  • Widmann explores the diverse, even extreme sound possibilities of the instrument. "Una Ricerca" searches for the instrument's "own voice", "sounds, shapes, gestures, connections" that allow the soloist to use unusual playing techniques.

    • Saarbrücker Zeitung
    • 03 February 2025

• Halle Orchestra: Mendelssohn Violin Concerto

  Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

  Apr 2024

  • This was a very special performance where the spotlight remained on the soloist. Rustioni ensured that the orchestra gave her the necessary support, and never overwhelmed her. For her part Widmann did not try to impose a personal interpretation. Her cadenza in the first movement was dazzling but was never virtuosity for its own sake. Everything was at the service of the music. There was nothing adversarial between orchestra and soloist; rather they came together as co-operators.

    • Bachtrack
    • 25 April 2024

• City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra: Ligeti Violin Concerto

  Symphony Hall, Birmingham

  Nov 2023

  • All this aural magic danced by on light feet, thanks to wonderful playing from the orchestra under Nicholas Carter’s alert direction, and the intelligence and virtuosity of the soloist Carolin Widmann. The opening spider’s-web tracery of undulating sounds had a gauzy magic, and in the tranced high melody of the third movement time truly seemed to stand still, thanks to Widmann’s superb steely control (and the CBSO’s too—this piece is every bit as hard for them as it is for the soloist). She gave a tender glow to the folk-like melody in the second movement, and the soaring rhapsodic quality of her closing cadenza (solo spot) had us on the edge of our seats

    • The Telegraph
    • 02 November 2023

• Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2

  Queens Hall Edinburgh, City Halls Glasgow, Aberdeen Music Hall

  Nov 2019

  • Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto also bristled with orchestral detail, from the macabre dance of the first movement to the tick-tock winds of the second and the raucous waddle of the third. The violinist Carolin Widmann was an excellent partner, a model of control in the busy passagework and the long-breathed lyricism of the violin’s melodic lines. And then, as if to top it off, Emelyanychev took to the piano to accompany her in a delicately understated performance of Ravel’s Habanera.

    • The Times
    • 18 November 2019

• Wigmore Hall: Berg Concerto

  Wigmore Hall, London

  Sep 2019

  • With the O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra & Hugo Ticciati for the Wigmore Hall’s Beethoven 250 Festival. In the Violin Concerto the sensual and supernatural textures of Berg’s writing were intensified by playing of great distinction. Carolin Widmann was immersed in the band, physically, but musically she simply shimmered above them: an outstanding performance, conveying the drama and transcendence of love and loss, here the death of Manon Gropius, daughter of Alma Mahler and Walter Gropius.

    • Classical Source
    • 14 September 2023

• BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: Stravinsky Concerto

  City Halls Glasgow

  Feb 2019

  • With the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Ilan Volkov. … a splendidly characterful account by Carolin Widmann. Strongly projected and with impeccably chiselled articulation, Widmann managed to balance an apt sense of ironic detachment with rich, impassioned playing, slithering through the second movement and finding a moving rawness to the slow movement.

    • The Scotsman
    • 22 February 2019

• Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin : Schumann Violin Concerto in D minor

  Philharmonie Berlin

  Nov 2018

  • With the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and Dima Slobodeniouk. ... Zu jedem Zeitpunkt aber gestaltet Widmann die Solostimme mit völliger Textfreiheit und so natürlich, dass man ihr jedes Wort glaubt. Sie erzählt anhaltend spannend, formt ihren Ton zerbrechlich dünn, aufgebracht kratzig oder samtig weich. Alles mit beeindruckender Präzision in Artikulation und Phrasierung... .. At all times, however, Widmann moulds the solo voice with complete freedom of text and so naturally that you believe every word she says. She narrates with sustained suspense, moulding her tone fragile and thin, raspy and velvety soft. All with impressive precision in articulation and phrasing..

    • Der Taggespiegel
    • 09 November 2018

• BBC Philharmonic: Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor

  Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

  Oct 2018

  • With the BBC Philharmonic and Ben Gernon. … [Carolin] rose to the challenge to deliver a commanding, engaging performance, flaunting her immense skill and sensitive musicality. Treating the audience to high registers that rang through the hall and indulgent tones from the instrument’s lowest notes, Widmann’s performance oozed in charm, dexterity and musicality that made this work seem completely afresh.

    • Bachtrack
    • 14 October 2018