Press

• Cassandra Miller Viola Concerto

  Royal Albert Hall

  • The concerto [which] unfolded with sublime assurance and a transcendental gentleness by the superb soloist Lawrence Power and the BBC Philharmonic directed by John Storgards, made such a beguiling impact on the ear and so direct an appeal to the emotions that it almost rendered intellectual analysis unnecessary. Almost, but not quite. The entire piece sounds like a solo improvisation over a drone. But it’s far more subtle than that. The soloist proceeds by microtone slithers, melodramatic vibratos that quiver into full-blown trills, and raw octaves that evoke some ancestral Balkan folk lament. Meanwhile, the orchestra refines that drone in a thousand different ways, sometimes making it sound like the far-off swell of the ocean, at other times shooting dazzling flecks of woodwind through the texture or, just before the end, accompanying the viola with strummed pizzicatos in what sounds like, but probably isn’t, a nod towards Elgar’s Violin Concerto. It’s a work that deserves many performances.

    • The Times
    • 01 August 2024

• Lawrence Power and Simon Crawford-Phillips

  Wigmore Hall

  May 2023

  • His programming is so imaginative and his musicianship so independent of his instrument that it’s the message, not the medium, that is paramount

    • The Strad
    • 19 July 2023

• Anders Hillborg Viola Concerto

  Dresden Philharmonie

  Jun 2023

  • While Ligeti offered all the atmospheres between calm and excitement, Anders Hillborg's Concerto for viola and orchestra, premiered in 2021, was clearly hooked on excitement. The "concerto" turned out to be a mad, twenty-minute Étude for the soloist. With Lawrence Power, however, it's not just the name that says it all, he's also a shaper - something he's already proven several times at the Moritzburg Festival. Technically mastering the piece was not in the foreground, but rather its swaying and wandering. With many glissandi, the composer ensured a constant transformation, set accents with sharp Bartók pizzicati in the double basses, alienated the sound so that the violins in the harmonics seemed to imitate the screeching of passing seagulls. The "range of sounds" alone, however, does not make a work - when something new is presented in such an exciting way as in the partnership Power - Philharmonie, one can be amazed!

    • Neue (musikalische) Blätter
    • 21 June 2023

• Anders Hillborg Viola Concerto

  Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

  May 2023

  • The British violist begins alone and creates a noble sound. He elicits nuances from his instrument that can never be heard in the orchestra. Hillborg's powerful, contrasting new creation blossoms. An exciting experience.

    • Frankfurter Neue Presse
    • 13 May 2023

  • Power's viola playing was far removed from the cliché of a somewhat sedate basic character of his instrument, pushing forward aggressively even at the uncompromising opening and never coming to rest for more than 20 minutes in a supreme demonstration of virtuosity. The soloist's baroque encore, Johann Paul von Westhoff's "Imitatio ne della campagne", was all the more spherical.

    • Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
    • 15 May 2023

• Cassandra Miller Viola Concerto

  Scottish Chamber Orchestra

  May 2023

  • ★★★★ Eking its way out of the silence, Power’s viola produced tremulous textures, delicately shaped, that used microtones and glissandi to plumb emotional depths. It’s a stroke of genius to do this on the viola.

    • The Times
    • 06 May 2023

  • ★★★★ Power seized on that equivocation brilliantly, his limitless and penetrating tonal vocabulary, even in the viola’s topmost reaches, a constant source of vibrant impetus. It was a mesmerising performance of a valuable new addition to the viola repertory.

    • The Scotsman
    • 08 May 2023

• Anders Hillborg Viola Concerto

  Sinfonieorchester Basel

  Apr 2023

  • With the "Concerto for Viola and Orchestra (2021)" by Anders Hillborg, Lawrence Power is able to demonstrate and enjoy all the tonal and technical facets that a viola has to offer. The wild character traits of this instrument, which otherwise acts rather discreetly as a connecting link between the violins and the bass instruments, also come to the fore and are consciously perceived by the audience thanks to the technically brilliant and emotionally differentiated performance by the violist.

    • Online Merker
    • 20 April 2023

• Cassandra Miller Viola Concerto

  Brussels Philharmonic

  Mar 2023

  • Lawrence Power gives a staggering account of the solo part, with Ilan Volkov and the Brussels Philharmonic providing vehement support

    • New Yorker
    • 17 April 2023

• MacMillan Viola Concerto

  BBC Philharmonic

  Jul 2022

  • Power, who plays an Italian instrument from 1610, achieves an expressive range of limitless variety, from muscular to lyrical to ethereal. His encore, the Imitations of Bells from Johann Paul von Westhoff’s Sonata No 3 in D minor (50 minutes in on BBC Sounds), turned the viola into a shimmering carillon.

    • The Guardian
    • 23 July 2022