Review Quotes:
Nuvo
News (Indianapolis, IN) February 28, 2007 Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, KY) February 25, 2007 Neue Musik Zeitung (Germany) January, 2007 The Daily Camera (Boulder, CO) December 31, 2006 The Durango Herald, October 10, 2006
Saratovskaya Oblastnaya Gazeta (Russia) May 20, 2006
Courier-Journal, (Louisville, KY) April
7, 2006
The Daily
Camera (Boulder, CO) December 29, 2007
"Vital violin
- In December Ingolfsson was joined here by her recital partner Vladimir Stoupel
in a program that set new standards for CU recitals.
Eugene Ysaye's works for violin solo have made a sudden return to the repertory,
and in most performances one wonders why. They often come across as poor
man's Bach.
Ingolfsson unveiled both the power and the beauty of Ysaye's Ballade No. 3 in
a performance that had the audience on the edge of its seat."
“In Stravinsky’s L’Histoire
du soldat, her tone and her timbres carried just the right insouciance
to join convincingly in the battle for the soldier’s soul... the
violinist confirmed her status among the top laureates in the IVCI’s
history.”
“It is a disconcerting
world that inhabits Sibelius' Violin Concerto... the violin is a furious,
stormy wind, and Ingolfsson rode that wind with aplomb. Her best tone was
her singing low strings, as though a human voice is offering solace. She
negotiated the virtuoso sections of the finale like a kayaker in ruinously
difficult river rapids -- not one wipe-out.”
“The violinist Judith
Ingolfsson was musically outstanding in her performance of Mozart’s
Violin Concerto in A major.”
"Violinist Judith Ingolfsson gave a knockout performance of the Tchaikovsky Concerto"
"Ingolfsson... played
with a pure, singing tone and projected ease and
confidence from the stage. So masterful were the virtuoso sections that
they became truly expressive gestures rather than piles of notes. Combined
with her exotic beauty and widely-noted style sense, Ingolfsson's musicality
kept the audience rapt."
“The naturalness of her artistic message, beautiful, deep sound,
meticulously pure intonation, along with her lovely appearance and stage
presence, made an extremely strong impression.”
"Mozart's K. 219 concerto benefited from Ingolfsson's balance of assertiveness
and cool precision. Few violinists can play softly without sacrificing
the fullness of their musical lines; Ingolfsson succeeded whenever the
challenge presented itself."
Chestnut Hill LOCAL, (Philadelphia, PA) October 20, 2005
"Internationally acclaimed violinist Judith Ingolfsson was the splendid
soloist in Mozart's 'Turkish' Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major. Her playing
was characterized by a clear yet sweet tone, immaculate pitch, digital
integrity and touching lyricism."
The Strad, September 2005
"Mendelssohn was also the highlight of a Solstice Music Festival performance.
An intriguingly diverse set of songs was followed by Wieniawski's Fantasie
Brillante on themes from Gounod's Faust and Mendelssohn's Octet. Violinist
Judith Ingolfsson, the festival's artistic director, is a fine player;
Her octaves were clean, her left hand agile and her tone often seductively
sweet... The Mendelssohn was an unmitigated delight. Ingolfsson led a lithe,
lively performance, joined by violinists Gil Morgenstern, Stefan Milenkovich
and Wen Qian, violists Daniel Panner and Vivek Kamath, and cellists Wendy
Warner and Hai-Ye Ni. The Andante offered lots of lovely, soft playing;
the Scherzo was deliciously poised and delicate; and, some tonal gruffness
aside, the finale's vivacity was bracingly conveyed. Ingolfsson was a confident
leader and not at all domineering (a common fault in this work), and all
the musicians seemed to relish the music and each other's company."
The Vancouver Sun, April 26, 2004
"Ingolfsson brought an affecting sense of commitment to the piece [Barber
Violin Concerto], wonderfully poetic and even improvisational in the first
movement, darkly expressive and dramatic in the second. She commands both
the technique to take the Moto perpetuo finale at breakneck speed and the
tone to make it sound."
Omaha News Herald, April 17, 2004
"In the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto...Ingolfsson was able to effectively
execute the acrobatics of the piece with ease and keen musical insight.
Her playing was most enjoyable during the more intimate, melodic moments
of the piece, when she lingered on phrase endings and harmonics to let
us hear the lustrous sound of her 1736 Stradivarius, "Muntz"."
Indianapolis Star, February 4, 2004
"For concertgoers who had enjoyed individual performances by Ingolfsson
or Milenkovich before, it might have been gratifying to hear the almost
overwhelming synergy they produced in the Prokofiev sonata from the 1930s.
The sonata began rather inconspicuously with an "Andante" movement mainly
marked by symmetry of the players in imitative passages. The ensuing "Allegro" brought
out Prokofiev's crackling percussiveness, and the violinists seemed to
drive each other on, in a sort of perpetual cat-and-mouse game. Emotive
playing from Ingolfsson distinguished the third movement, marked "Commodo." The
finale brought out busy textures of almost orchestral proportions."
The Wichita Eagle, Sun, Oct. 12, 2003
"The best piece on Saturday night was the Violin Concerto by Samuel Barber,
played by the superb young violinist Judith Ingolfsson. Ingolfsson ingratiated
her sound superbly with the ensemble; she was at once a part of the orchestra,
and above it. Her instrument, a priceless Stradivarius made in 1736, projected
a meaty, gorgeous sound in all registers, and Ingolfsson negotiated the
lyrical melodies and the more agitated measures with soulful assurance.
In the "perpetual motion" third movement, Ingolfsson displayed
the precise bravura technique that won her the top prizes at several prestigious
competitions."
The Washington Post, January 13, 2003
"The best seats in the house for the Barns of Wolf Trap concert Friday
were in the back rows. From there, the jeweled intensity of Judith Ingolfsson's
Stradivarius, her finely honed bowing and stylistic finesse had their most
telling effect. This was all the more impressive in that these aspects
of her playing suited two works worlds apart: Bach's Solo Partita in B
Minor, BWV 1002, and songs from Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess", arranged
by Jascha Heifetz. In the Bach, Ingolfsson's bow defined the minute yet
determining stylistic subtleties that divulge the particular character
of each dance in the suite. Then she transformed her violin into a voice
easily calling on the "portamento" swoops that capture the precise qualities
of Gershwin's dramatic intent."
New Haven Register, May 18, 2002
"Guest soloist Judith Ingolfsson is a violinist whose star has risen,
the winner of the prestigious gold medal in the quadrennial International
Violin Competition of Indianapolis in 1998, and a native of Iceland. She
tucked her 1683 Stradivarius under her chin and played the early upper-register
strains of the neo-Romantic and arresting Violin Concerto in D major by
Korngold. Ingolfsson used every millimeter of the bow and dispatched upper-register
scale runs with searing intensity. Most impressive was her ability to make
the instrument sing, communicating emotion with an ethereal magic. The
balance between the orchestra, with its bell-like wind passages, and the
soloist was dynamically perfect. The playful and frenetic third-movement
allegro and vivace showed Ingolfsson at her finest."
San Juan - El Nuevo Dia (Puerto Rico), February 19, 2002
"This authentic virtuoso gave a lesson in good taste, interpreting with
warm sound and grand sonorous phrasing. The artist revealed not only her
almost inhuman virtuosity, but also her magnificent musicality."
The Washington Post, February 3, 2002
"Judith Ingolfsson played Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto with just the
right mixture of easy grace, sonic luster and patrician refinement."
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN), September 22, 2001
"Judith Ingolfsson...captivated the audience with a romantic work by Wieniawski.
Despite difficult passages, she played the piece deftly, producing a bittersweet
effect by neither using too much force nor too much coloration. The audience's
standing ovation rewarded her emotional performance."
The Baltimore Sun, October 4, 2001
"The performance was spectacular. It goes without saying that this violinist
has mastered the mechanics of her craft, but what this budding superstar
revealed went beyond technical command. She made this concerto absolutely
and unmistakably her own...and approached it all with a panache of a true
virtuoso. Nothing was held back...she was out to galvanize the orchestra
and her listeners with the energy and power of Khachaturian's music."
The Los Angeles Times, October 20, 2000
"...an individuality one cannot ignore."
Strings Magazine, June/July, 2000 issue
"She is a truly outstanding player. Her effortless virtuosity is a tool
in the service of the music; her tone is ravishingly beautiful, pure and
adaptable, her sense of style is unerring, her expressiveness simple, direct,
and strongly felt. Most striking, however, was Bach's C-major Solo Sonata:
grand and noble in concept and execution, with every chordal and contrapuntal
voice standing out, it was played with flawless sound and intonation, perfectly
controlled pacing, phrasing and dynamics."
The New York Times, April 6, 2000
"On Saturday evening she gave a technically assured and interpretively
astute recital at Carnegie Hall. Ms. Ingolfsson produced a tone that is
firmly centered, gracefully rounded and tinted to match the score at hand...a
sizzling account producing both fireworks
and a singing tone...She moved easily between the work's ruminative and
ecstatic passages and made her performance a journey to the soulful core."
NPR's Performance Today, May 17, 1999
THE DEBUT ARTIST OF THE YEAR AWARD recognizes a performer or ensemble
for an outstanding radio debut:
"Ms. Ingolfsson's personality and temperament are reminiscent of a pre-WWII
violinist. She plays with a remarkable intelligence, musicality, and sense
of insight."