LUCA BURATTO
pianist
The interpretation of the Beethoven concerto - Piano Concerto n.5, op.73 - by Luca Buratto (and here I must apologize because I did not know him!!) was of excellent quality, able to capture all aspects of the maturity of the Bonn composer with an elegant phrasing and at the same time never manieristic.
Giovanni Neri - Kurvenal (Un sito irriverente e libero che recensisce gli eventi musicali) - Bologna, Italy, November 26, 2021
Luca Buratto – MiTo Milano 10 Settembre 2023
Devo fare ammenda: ...non conoscevo Luca Buratto prima del concerto di ieri sera. Un interprete veramente raffinato, dotato di un’impeccabile tecnica (non una nota falsa in tutto il concerto, anche nel difficilissimo Gaspard) e capace di estrarre dalle partiture di Ravel tutte le sfumature che il compositore francese ha inserito nelle proprie composizioni. Veramente bravissimo e poco altro si può dire se non notare una piccola “pecca” nel primo tempo della Sonatine dove un eccesso di lirismo non si è ben accompagnato con lo stile neoclassico del brano. Ma per il resto onore al merito e mi chiedo come mai Buratto non ha la fama che si meriterebbe. Naturalmente non si vive di solo Ravel ma le premesse sono di altissimo livello e non si può che auspicare di assistere a un concerto con un programma più variegato. Ancora un concerto decentrato ma il pubblico non è quello locale ma quello di sempre dei concerti semplicemente spostatosi in perferia. Quindi un commendevole sforzo ma con risultati probabilmente lontani dalle aspettative. Un bis dopo un programma molto impegnativo.
Giovanni Neri - KURVENAL: LE RECENSIONI MUSICALI - Bologna, Italy, September 11, 2023
MESSIAEN, Sinfonia Turangalîla per pianoforte, onde martenot e grande orchestra
[…] Notevole anche il dialogo instaurato con il pianoforte solista, per l'eccellente interprete quale si è dimostrato Luca Buratto. Del pianoforte viene sfruttata soprattutto la parte percussiva, ma senza disdegnare quel tipico tentativo di riprodurre il canto degli uccelli che è parte fondante della poetica di Messiaen da un certo punto in poi della sua produzione. Buratto sa alternare, con notevole capacità di adattamento, entrambe le tendenze, con tecnica eccellente e ricavando dal pianoforte quella timbrica di cristallina precisione richiesta dal compositore. […]
[…] Dell’Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano […] una esecuzione che rimarrà senza dubbio tra le serate migliori della pur ottima stagione in corso.
Emanuele Amoroso - MUSICA n. 346 - Maggio 2023 - Zecchini Editore - Varese, Italy, May, 2023
Che concentrazione eccellente ha LUCA BURATTO mentre suona!
Quasi racchiuso dal e nel pianoforte, ne trae luci ed ombre "in primis" per sé e poi per noi tutti: l'impostazione della lettura è molto razionale seppur particolarmente viva in Bach e nella 110 di Beethoven, dove il contrappunto si erge grandioso e le voci sono trattate con chiarezza e qualità di suono esemplari, in perfetto bilanciamento tra le voci. La Partita di Bach era magnifica, un monumento di colori e caratterizzazioni, e così pure la Sonata di Beethoven, ripiegata nei momenti struggenti e accesa nei tratti dolorosi, esasperati dai trilli e dall'iterazione dei "la". Il suo Schumann concede poco all'abbandono, ma resta originale, personale, come pure il Brahms giovanile delle Variazioni su tema di Haendel, scavato nell'interiorità, più che sul versante tardo-romantico. Un bel successo: pubblico catturato dall'ascolto e attentissimo... e dal silenzio si sono staccati i due bis schumanniani, acquerellati con grande finezza! Buona fortuna ai pianisti-musicisti laboriosi e intelligenti come Luca Buratto!
Fedra Florit - ACM Associazione Chamber Music - Trieste, Italy, September 23, 2020
[…] Venendo all’esecuzione, non si può che parlar bene del giovane Luca Buratto.
Sobrio e concreto nella sua performance, il ventisettenne pianista milanese ha nel suo palmarès affermazioni in importanti concorsi all’estero, che gli hanno procurato una reputazione di artista sensibile e profondo, oltre a numerosi ingaggi. Per LaVerdi è Giovane Artista Residente già da due stagioni.
Dal punto di vista della tecnica pianistica, è sorprendente osservare che questo giovane artista è tanto impeccabile quanto immune da ogni tentazione di esibire la propria abilità prestidigitatoria. La sua tecnica quasi scompare dietro la volontà di rendere al meglio il pensiero del compositore. Le roteanti quartine del primo movimento, per intenderci, non sono eseguite vorticosamente per compiacere il pubblico, ma calando l’effetto dentro la logica musicale del pezzo. Decisamente interessante è stata poi l’esecuzione della cadenza: Buratto sceglie quella più lunga e densa di effetti pianistici innovativi per l’epoca (decidendo tuttavia di accorciarla leggermente). All’interno di essa, egli riesce ad illuminare efficacemente molti passaggi (con improvvisi fortissimo, o prolungando in modo suggestivo il basso). Il tutto con una musicalità sempre misurata e, si può dire, centrata. Nel Rondò la preoccupazione principale del pianista milanese è quella di far risaltare le trovate armoniche, tecniche, timbriche, che il compositore dispensa a piene mani.
La sensazione complessiva è che Buratto sia un artista “pensante”, nel senso letterale del termine: ogni frase è stata valutata, meditata, scolpita, levigata con una chiarezza di intenti davvero rara in un musicista così giovane. Il risultato è che egli non suona semplicemente una buona approssimazione di ciò che vuole realizzare, ma la corrispondenza tra idea e resa sonora è piena. Resta da dire che questo atteggiamento squisitamente cerebrale non va mai a detrimento della piacevolezza e scorrevolezza del discorso musicale. […]
Infine, nel bis (Von fremden Ländern und Menschen da Kinderszenen op. 15 di Robert Schumann), Buratto dimostra che la sua fama di interprete schumanniano non è usurpata: la cantabilità non è forse la caratteristica più evidente in lui, mentre lo è l’arcana dolcezza e la discrezione che aleggiano in tutto il pezzo, veramente evocativo di mondi lontani.
Lorenzo Cannistrà - L’ape musicale - Milano, Italy, August 22, 2020
Beethoven danza sul pianoforte di Buratto
Alla Verdi insieme alla Settima sinfonia il Primo concerto affidato al talento maturo del giovane pianista milanese.
[…] cuore della serata si è rivelato il Concerto n.1 in do maggiore per pianoforte e orchestra. Ed è stato così grazie a con Luca Buratto perché il pianista milanese, classe 1992, ha impresso la sua personalità alla pagina del 1798 (e l’eredità mozartiana si sente), un fiume in piena di idee che Buratto asseconda, esalta, aggancia alla tradizione e proietta nel futuro con una lettura analitica e calcoltissima che non manca mai, comunque, di trasporto e sentimento (senza cedere nel patetismo). Tanto pedale quasi in una danza (si agitano sotto la tastiera le gambe di Buratto) sui ritmi che Beeethoven mette nelle sue melodie che fatichi a non canticchiare o a tamburellare con le dita sulla poltrona. Orchestra piccola (cinque primi violini e cinque secondi, due violoncelli e due contrabbassi) per un suono che avvolge le evoluzioni della tastiera di Buratto, ben governato da Flor.
Pierachille Dolfini - Milano, Italy, Agoust 21, 2020
Sfavillante Toccata da «Le tombeau de Couperin» di Ravel che Luca Buratto ha suonato come bis. Dopo una lettura del «Concerto in sol» che ha dispensato molte idee e pungoli critici a proposito della vitalità interpretativa inesausta di questo capolavoro, di cui Buratto - neo-artista residente della «Verdi» - con la complicità totale e creativa del direttore ha proposta un’idea quasi metafisica ma solidamente radicata nella sofisticata tessitura contrappuntistica, anche dell’Adagio assai, e nella calibrata scala di colori che segna ogni enunciazione delle frasi e pigmenta ogni sezione ritmica.
Angelo Foletto - Milano, Italy, February 03, 2020
Nel celebre «Concerto in Sol di Ravel» abbiamo trovato al pianoforte il milanese Luca Buratto, interprete oramai in carriera da anni grazie ad importanti vittorie in Concorsi internazionali[...]. Decisamente di rilievo l'interpretazione fornita da Buratto, per un lavoro di grande virtuosismo che, tra il classicismo ed i sapori jazz, rivela l'eccellente qualità d'orchestrazione di Ravel in un rapporto dialettico tra solista e orchestra di grande pregio estetico. L'abilità pianistica di Buratto, definita da chiarezza timbrica, da eloquente discorsività e da sciolta definizione dei rapporti melodico-ritmici - assai presenti nei movimenti laterali del concerto - ha portato ad una rilevante resa qualitativa complessiva. Tutti i tre movimenti, dal deciso Allegramente iniziale, al pacato e riflessivo Adagio assai centrale, sino al ritmico e virtuosistico Presto, sono stati resi splendidamente dal pianista, in perfetta sincronia con l'ottima orchestra e la direzione di Bignamini. Grande successo e fragorosi applausi. Di qualità il bis concesso da Buratto con la celebre Toccata di Ravel da "Le tombeau de Couperin". […] Da ricordare.
Cesare Guzzardella - corrierebit.com - Milano, Italy, February 03, 2020
La Toccata da «Le tombeau de Couperin» di Ravel è diventata un distintivo di presentazione di Luca Buratto, una pagina di immensa difficoltà risolta con un senso del ritmo e del gioco pianistico inarrivabili.
Luca Chierici - Milano, Italy, February 02, 2020
Excellent début montréalais pour le pianiste Luca Buratto à la salle Bourgie […] sa musique, pour laquelle nous étions venus avec expectative, nous a vraiment enchantés. Son disque sur Hypérion le met hautement en valeur.
Eric Sabourin - Les ArtsZé - Montréal, Canada, September 22, 2019
Luca Buratto, […] introduced the concert series with a magnetic performance that was pure both in emotion and technique. […] he settles quickly into performance mode and his quiet intensity is a marvel to watch. […] Buratto’s impressive technique seems effortless and never self-conscious […].Regardless of how familiar this music has become, Buratto delivers many surprises. Many might be tempted to let the music’s unbelievable acrobatics carry its emotional intensity but Buratto’s nuances shape the energy so that it never slips out of control.
Les Roka - The Utah Review, Utah, USA, October 17, 2018
Superb Mozart double from Luca Buratto and Davide Cabassi last night in Milan.
Luca winner of the prestigious Honens Competition and Davide Cabassi a top prize winner of Van Cliburn each with their own individual personalities as they conversed via Mozart with such evident ‘joie de vivre’ even in these strange hooded times. Davide the most sensitive of pianists with a tone palette reminiscent of Radu Lupu played with extraordinary flexibility and colour. Luca’s exemplary precision and noble musicianship made for a scintillating conversation in the company of Mozart in one of his most joyous creations.
Christopher Axworthy - Milano, Italy, March 19, 2021
[…] Buratto's dramatic, enthusiastic playing style was a delight to watch in and of itself; the performance seemed to reveal an intimacy between Buratto and the piano; at times, I felt like an intruder on a secret rendezvous, as the pianist was so clearly in his own. […] The audience seemed equally entranced by Buratto.
Erin Bensinger - Revue and Revue Holding Company - Grand Rapids, MI, USA, September 18, 2018
[…] Giunge quindi il momento del talentuoso pianista milanese Luca Buratto, protagonista assoluto nella celebre Rapsodia in blue di Gershwin. Il giovane interprete, vincitore di concorsi internazionali e già invitato a esibirsi in festival e sale da concerto di assoluto rilievo, è perfettamente affiatato con il direttore Montaño e con l’organico orchestrale. Il brano, che prende avvio con il caratteristico trillo e con la lunga scala cromatica del clarinetto, non ha di certo bisogno di presentazioni. Gli interventi impeccabili di Buratto nei fraseggi virtuosistici del pianoforte, sempre in dialogo con il tessuto orchestrale, hanno reso al meglio lo spirito di una delle composizioni che più efficacemente fonde elementi caratteristici della musica colta alle sonorità del jazz e del blues. […]
Emanuele Lavizzari - AMADEUS news - Milano, Italy, July 24, 2018
Exquisite musicHe [Florent Heau] and Buratto played with an ease that comes with complete mastery of their instruments […]. They produced a rich, clear and wonderfully nuanced sound, the best that this reviewer has heard in the cosy, slightly over-damped acoustics of the Esplanade Recital Studio.[…][…] with superb piano playing from Buratto made this a performance to savour. […]
Mervin Beng - The Straits Times - Lifestyle - Singapore, May 21, 2018
Il concerto ascoltato in Auditorium ieri sera ha avuto come momento più rilevante una rarità esecutiva quale il Concerto n.2 in Sol minore Op.16 di S. Prokof'ev. […] Sul palco insieme al direttore Claus Peter Flor il pianista milanese Luca Buratto. Buratto [...] ha mostrato rilevanti qualità interpretative in questo lavoro del grande russo scritto nel 1913 in stile "futurista" per la dinamicità e la fragorosità delle timbriche. Le difficoltà tecnico-esecutive del brano sono apparse superate con apparente facilità da Buratto per una restituzione esemplare nella limpidezza dei particolari timbrici. L'interiorizzazione di ogni dettaglio, anche nei frangenti più difficili, dimostrano le alte potenzialità di questo giovane pianista […].
Cesare Guzzardella - corrierebit.com - Milano, Italy, April 13, 2018
[…] This concert at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall was very well attended. With the exception of Prokofieff 's Piano Sonata No. 7, the program was unusual: Ligeti's Etudes, Book III; Janacek's Sonata 1.X.1905; Thomas Ades's Traced Overhead; and the big closing piece, Schumann's rarely heard Humoresque […].Buratto is a serious performer. His technique is complete, and the variety of sounds he elicits from the piano is quite amazing. […] We all left left the hall knowing this was a young pianist to watch.
James Harrington - American Record Guide - Jan/Feb 2018
Buratto in Rachmaninov
Di Buratto interprete, sin dai primi accordi, emerge la definita personalità ed un sentire profondissimo, lucido, mai eccessivo: con un fare abbandonato alla purezza di suono e sentimento e la postura, il movimento che, a tratti, ricordano Gould sulla storica sedia, Buratto va a toccare le corde più sensibili con un’assortita gamma di colori che va dall’autentico, al pirotecnico, al cristallino. […]
Marta Cutugno - Carteggi Letterari - January 02, 2018
Buratto, pianista analitico
Pianista, milanese, giovanissimo, nipote d’arte - il nonno era il compositore Renzo Massarani - Luca Buratto si sta facendo largo come vincitore di concorsi che contano e solista in sale da concerto prestigiose. Hyperion pubblica un suo disco schumanniano che è un biglietto da visita.
La prima cosa che colpisce è che Buratto non violenta lo strumento come la maggior parte dei giovani pianisti emergenti. Predilige invece rilevare analiticamente (e poeticamente) la sostanza formale di ciò che suona - qui Humoreske, Blumenstück e Davidsbündlertänze - e restituirla attraverso una strategia di dinamiche e colori, sicché del suo Schumann emerge soprattutto il lato preimpressionistico.
Enrico Girardi - Corriere della Sera - Milano, July 2017
Presto ImpossibleIs Only The Start
The great novelist’s description could apply, in varying forms, to all the choices of Luca Buratto last night. The young Italian’s selections were iconoclastic, even daring. So, while I had never previously known of the pianist, attending this concert was mandatory. […]
Mr. Buratto’s iconoclasm was all too apparent simply in the placing of the Prokofiev Seventh Sonata. Any ordinary pianist would put it right at the end where those madly percussive final notes would bring an audience to its collective feet. Mr. Buratto chose to put the barnburner right in the middle. As if to say, “Yeah, I can handle this fiery stuff fine. But maybe you should use your brain instead of your feet.”
So finally we came to the work which involved impulse, intellectual power and extreme difficulty. Thomas Adès’ music involves all three, just as his composition, pianism and conducting are never-ending wonders. […]
Mr. Buratto played the three chorales as if the complexities never existed. Mr. Adès worked them to their utmost, then let loose with measures of pure Chopin (or Rachmaninoff!) before the end.
The composer was in the audience, saluted Mr. Buratto, and, like the rest of us in Zankel Hall, realized we were experiencing an artist who is both illuminating and unafraid.
Harry Rolnick - ConcertoNet.com - New York , October 11, 2017
[…] Italian pianist Luca Buratto's approach and interpretation are such that he seems to have found the perfect balance between the two animas and combined them into a single persona, which may explain the coalescence between the two bipolar extremes. He also brings a graceful clarity to the music by which the key notes are always well delineated and expressed. Under the wrong hands, Schumann's piano music can often sound pedantic and lifeless, and in some extreme cases even come out as tedious work. Certainly not the case here. The autonomous and unhurried flow of Buratto's technique first and foremost serves to bring out the music's narrative nature. […]
Jean-Yves Duperron - Classical Music Sentinel - Canada, July 2017
The trio of Schumann works includes piano cycle Humoreske in B Flat major, Op. 20 composed in 1839, that Buratto approaches with an innate understanding of its poetic romanticism. He also heightens the dreamy Eusebius and more passionate Florestan contrasts of its seven sections performed attacca, displaying sublime lyrical phrasing and luminous tone throughout.
His elegant sensibility underscored by technical prowess is further showcased during the album’s second cornerstone Davidsbundlertanze, Op. 6, that ranges from its pensive second movement Innig, to more forceful thirteenth, Wild und Lustig. The pianist also brings out the good-natured twelfth, Mit Humor, and sixteenth section, Mit Gutem Humor, that always fit tastefully within the greater whole.
Buratto’s interpretation of the lone single-movement work Blumenstuck in D flat major, Op. 19 recalls kinder, gentler times, despite its darker second theme hinting at coming storms for the mentally anguished composer.
Holly Harris - Winnipeg Free Press - Winnipeg, Canada, July 2017
From the first tender notes of Robert Schumann’s five-piece Humoreske in B flat major Op. 20, pianist Luca Buratto envelops the listener in what feels like the composer’s authentic presence, bringing out melody, harmony, and inner voices with both raw feeling and fragile-seeming sensitivity. The second piece with its long-held chords and drifting rhythms is as emotionally dense and finely calibrated as the familiar themes of the first and third, contrasting effectively with the frenetic drive in the middle of the fourth.
A winner of Canada’s Honens Prize and numerous other awards, Buratto deploys his magisterial technique entirely in the service of the music, rather than of his own virtuosity. Nor does he over-romanticize the music’s lyricism and passion, knowing that it contains within itself all that’s needed.
[…] Schumann wrote Clara that he’d put into the “dances” “many wedding thoughts” and that the whole sequence should suggest a polterabend, a wedding-eve party featuring a ritual smashing of crockery. The rolling chords and thoughtful pauses of No. 7 (marked simply “Nicht Schnell” – “Not Fast”) shatter into the frantic, pounding drama of No. 8 (“Frisch – “Fresh”). Buratto finds both the romance and the demolition.
[…] The suite ends in a dark place with the deep bass notes of No. 18, but Buratto makes the penultimate No. 17 (“Wie Aus Der Ferne” – “As From Afar”) his real closing statement, feeding all his finesse and feeling into its complex moods in a mere three minutes and change. It’s yet more evidence of the affinity Buratto seems to have for this famously troubled composer. The pianist’s earlier album Live at Honens 2015 included Schumann’s “Fantasy in C Major,” and in my review I wrote that his performance of the first movement was “blessedly non-flamboyant…with assured grace.” He brings the same qualities to this new recording, which also includes the charming “Blumenstück” Op. 19. Buratto distills his thoughtful approach to a fine point here, drawing a honeyed tone from the piano’s midrange and treating this compact piece of many melodies like a miniature songspiel, each number flowing naturally into the next, with exquisitely timed rubatos.
Jon Sobel - Blog critics - June 2017
You expect musicians heavily involved with a particular composer to express their closeness to what they're working on. When such expressions are linked to marketing, even in the low-key manner of a publicity release, the affinity can hardly be expressed too strongly. The bear hug seems entirely natural.
Still, when Luca Buratto, the most recent laureate of the Honens Piano Competition (2015), writes that "the music of Schumann has become almost an obsession with me - a kind of religion," some forgivable hyperbole might be suspected.
Yet the recording that accompanies these words of devotion bears him out. Hyperion has released his all-Schumann disc, and it's a stunner. The Italian-born and -trained pianist seems to be channeling the troubled avatar of 19th-century Rhineland romanticism.
[…] Humoreske is a mixture of Schumann excellences and eccentricities - there's a darting energy, sometimes suddenly turned inward, but often effervescent. Granted, it's a little short on melody and cohesion. What is remarkable in Buratto's performance is how he manages to make variations in tempo and dynamics seem to emerge from within the music rather than be imposed upon it. This kind of shift comes upon the listener such that you wonder if it's a caprice of the performer; you look down at the page, and it turns out to be right there in the score.
That improvisational illusion is entirely proper to Schumann, it seems to me. "Organic" is a much-overused word in praising artistic achievements, but where structure and melodic riches don't seem to be of overwhelming importance, the ability to make a composition seem substantial and well-considered by bringing out how it grows and pulses from inside is much to be prized.
After a well-chosen palate freshener, the Blumenstück in D-flat major, op. 19, a more controlled masterpiece fills the latter half of the disc: Davidsbündlertänze, op. 6. This expansive piece, the product of great care by a composer expressing contrasting sides of his own personality, is quite well delineated here. Those aspects, represented as the flamboyant Florestan and the reflective Eusebius, are contrasted in successive movements and sometimes combined and played off each other in the same section. Buratto clearly admires and yields to the bipolarity of this music. He immediately catches and sustains the mood characteristic of each turn of the Schumannian kaleidoscope.
Buratto's whole-hearted investment in the adventure of Davidsbündlertänze is evident in every phrase. And his ability to make Humoreske sound better than it probably is must be applauded. If this is an obsession, it has proved to be - unlike most obsessions - more of a blessing than a handicap.
Jay Harvey - Upstage - June 2017
The playing of Luca Buratto is perfectly attuned to Schumann’s rhetorical and technical demands. The sound of the Steinway is warm, and there is just enough gauze over the highs to keep a prominent feature of Schumann, the occasional agitated galloping, from jarring, as it so often does with this repertoire. […] Buratto plays with gusto, […] a player of depth and distinction, joins the glittering constellation on what is certainly an auspicious debut.
Fritz Balwit - Audiophile Audition, June 11, 2017
An assured performer, he plays with impeccable technique. His approach to the music of Schumann on this Honens-sponsored disc Schumann - Davidsbündlertänze, Humoreske, Blumenstück (Hyperion / Honens CDA 68186) reveals an uncommon gift for fresh thinking. Buratto has captured Schumann’s Romantic urgings and compellingly channeled them through the keyboard. He has cut loose the classical moorings that many pianists respect and instead allows his interpretations to drift freely into currents where forms become more fluid. It’s here that we feel the deep pull of Brahms, Chopin and Liszt.
Humoreske in B-flat Major Op.20 demonstrates Buratto’s ability to transcend the composer’s signature melancholy that is too often the extent of a performer’s achievement. Buratto moves beyond this by creating an ethos of mysticism rarely experienced in this music. The Davidsbündlertänze Op.6, too, reveal new possibilities for understanding how far Schumann wanted to propel the music of his time from its conservative shelter. Buratto exploits every opportunity to do this by stretching inner tempos and even pulling them apart a little, as if to experiment with left and right hand being out of sync.
None of this happens at the expense of the music because Buratto plays with such conviction that you immediately know he is certain he has revealed Robert Schumann’s true voice. It’s a deep connection that he sustains effortlessly through the entire recording. Hear him live if you can.
Alex Baran - The WholeNote - Toronto, Canada, June 2017
Dit is mijn eerste kennismaking met de Italiaanse pianist Luca Buratto die met dit Schumann-recital wereldklasse demonstreert. Waarom ik nog niet eerder van deze artistieke grootheid had gehoord? Geen idee eigenlijk. Zijn biografie is weinig anders zoals er al zoveel zijn, met speciale aandacht voor de vele concoursen, de binnengesleepte prijzen, de vele podia waar hij (al) zijn opwachting maakte en de orkesten en dirigenten met wie hij samenwerkte. Dat zegt vaak niet alles; of zelfs weinig. Hoe vaak komt het niet voor dat zo'n doopceel de hoogst denkbare verwachtingen wekt en dat het in de praktijk dan behoorlijk blijkt tegen te vallen. Niet Buratto, die met grote virtuositeit en poëtische distinctie, in een grandioos spel van subtiele accelerandi en rubati deze in letterlijke zin fantastische muziek voor zich laat spreken. Heftig, krachtig, maar ook subtiel en lyrisch, vol kleur, sfeer en verbeelding kan worden genoten van een volkomen idiomatische Schumann die grootheden in dit repertoire als Wilhelm Kempff, Maurizio Pollini, András Schiff, Martha Argerich en Claudio Arrau naar de kroon steekt. Als u even wilt proeven: de Davidsbündlertänze, nr. 10 (Balladenmässig, Sehr rasch) en nr. 15 (Frisch). Woorden schieten gewoon tekort.
Andrew Keener en Simon Eadon zorgden voor een ideale Steinway-klank die grote helderheid paart aan een bronzen sonoriteit. In het cd-boekje schreef Buratto: 'This recording is the result of many years of work and faith: thank you to Hyperion and Honens teams for making this possible.' Honens is de speciale Hyperion-serie gewijd aan zeer talentvolle laureaten die een professionele carrière nastreven en door het label daarbij een handje worden geholpen. Een warm initiatief dat een even warm welkom verdient. Dat Luca Buratto een van de musici is die daarvoor is uitgekozen is - dit recital spreekt boekdelen - meer dan terecht. Een formidabele pianist die naar ik aanneem mag rekenen op een verder vervolg van een glanzende carrière.
Aart van der Wal - Opus Klassiek - Holland, May 2017
Beethoven in an informal and intimate setting
There were two parts to the programme. The first was an hour-long sharing recital, where about 75 listeners crammed the stage of Victoria Concert Hall to hear Italian pianist Luca Buratto and Taiwan- born violist Huang Hsin-yun speak and perform. The session was informal and intimate, opening with the fiery Appassionata Sonata from Buratto's capable hands. […] Buratto delivered the complete Book 3 of Ligeti's finger-twisting Etudes with unnerving ease.
The evening concert showcased three great Beethoven works […] and Tang was joined by Buratto in Beethoven's 10th and last Violin Sonata in G Major (Op. 96). Contrasted with the tension-laden string quartet, the sonata was more congenial, with its four movements radiating mostly sunshine. The mood was maintained through Tang's lively interpretation and Buratto's crisply minted fingerwork, culminating in the finale's playful set of variations.
Chang Tou Liang - The Straits Times - Singapore, May 30, 2017
It’s often said that genius comes close to madness, and in no composer do they come closer than Robert Schumann. In March 1839 he was composing the Humoreske, a set of wildly imaginative short piano pieces inspired by his wife Clara, who he’d married the year before. “The whole week I have been sitting at the piano, composing and writing, laughing and crying all at once,” he told her in a letter. That sounds alarming, but he also says he composed the whole thing in a week. Emotional excess didn’t interfere with his lucid composing brain. Pianists who take on Schumann’s music have to catch both sides, the wildness and the lucidity. Schumann was an admirer of J. S. Bach, and hidden deep in the swirl of his romantic piano sound is the ghost of solid Bach-like counterpoint. Should this ghost be teased out by the pianist, or stay hidden? Another challenge for pianists is the way Schumann’s music flits back and forth between two imaginary personalities. One is Florestan, who’s impetuous and stormy, the other Eusebius, a gentle dreamer. In the Davidsbündlertänze, each short piece was actually signed “F” or “E” (the title means, roughly, “Dances of the brotherhood of David”, an imaginary society dedicated to fighting the conservatives). It takes a pianist of big personality and perfect technical control to tackle these pieces. There are plenty of great recordings in the catalogue, such as Arthur Rubinstein’s on RCA and Sviatoslav Richter’s on Melodiya. Is young Italian pianist Luca Buratto, laureate of the 2015 Honens Prize, ready to join them? He’s certainly got the “chops” as they say - the treacherous octaves in the Intermezzo of the Humoreske are amazingly fleet and quick. He also has Guitars and grunge: the Amazons are a throwback to old-fashioned rock music a searching intelligence (particle physics is one of his enthusiasms), and he relishes the numerous switchbacks in mood. He has an exquisite touch, which is just right for the many pieces marked “Einfach” (simple). Sometimes Buratto’s playing is over-refined. Schumann frequently uses the direction “Mit guten Humor”, indicating a swaggering, rough quality, which Buratto doesn’t really get. The exquisite Blumenstück (which means “still-life of flowers”) is actually a bit too exquisite, as Buratto smooths over the numerous tempo changes which give the piece its character. But overall this is an impressive recording debut.
Ivan Hewett - The Telegraph - London, Great Britain, May 27, 2017
Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Humoreske and Blumenstück CD review - a serious, suave interpretation
Luca Buratto made his UK debut earlier this year at the Wigmore Hall, and this all-Schumann disc, his first for Hyperion, confirms the positive reports of that recital. […] suddenly, during the wonderfully protean Davidsbündlertänze, Buratto seems to find another gear; everything snaps into sharper focus, and the sense of adventure and curiosity that is an essential ingredient of any Schumann interpretation comes to the fore.
Andrew Clements - the Guardian - London, Great Britain, May 11, 2017
La Società del Quartetto ha ospitato in Sala Verdi per la prima volta la giovanissima FuturOrchestra diretta da Alessandro Cadario. […] Decisamente rilevante la parte solistica del concerto mozartiano K 595: il milanese Luca Buratto, affermato interprete internazionale, ha eseguito la fondamentale parte pianistica con rigore formale altamente classico. Il senso della misura, il corretto uso del pedale, la qualità timbrica dettagliata nelle esaustive dinamiche, sono tra gli elementi fondanti per uno dei migliori pianisti italiani della sua generazione che speriamo ascoltare presto in un concerto solistico.
Cesare Guzzardella - corrierebit.com - Milano, Italy, May 24, 2017
Buratto offers no concession to drawing-room romanticism. There is a rather touching hesitation in his entry to the Humoresques, along with a refusal to be charmed by Schumann’s observations of his lusty pack of David-and-Jonathan pals. This is a reasoned assessment, at times a serious analysis, of a work of music that dances on the very cliff-edge of sanity. Buratto, wise beyond his years, is definitely a talent to watch.
Norman Lebrecht - Musical Toronto - Toronto, Ontario, Canada, April 2017
Buratto’s cohesive solidity deserves admiration and respect.
Jed Distler – Gramophone - London, Great Britain, April 2017
Mozart’s tuneful Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major, K. 503… Mozart wrote the concerto in late 1786 while preparing for a trip to Paris and London (not Italy). However, the soloist, Luca Buratto hails from Milan, and is captivating the hearts of the musical world with his fluid pianistic style. His virtuosity and artistic integrity were evident in every phrase. The cadenza, arranged by Buratto himself, was breathtakingly beautiful. One sensed throughout that he was in a chamber music performance always in touch with Lee’s direction and the nuances of the orchestra.
David Richards - Toronto Concert Reviews, Toronto ON, Canada, April 24, 2017
The Schumann which the young Italian pianist Luca Buratto played to celebrate his win at the Honens Competition was the Opus 17 Fantasie, and his was very full-blooded account. But the rest of his programme was even more interesting. He began with Byrd’s keyboard arrangement of his Pavana Lachrymae - the rich ornamentation of the melody sounding like clusters of over-ripe fruit on a modern instrument (another Fazioli) - but Buratto followed that with an account of Adès’ Darkness Visible which worked unusually well. This piece is what Adès describes as “an explosion” of Dowland’s song, and it turns on the contrast between the overtones created by heavily-struck single notes and rapid repetition of pianissimo notes. And since the hands were mostly very far apart, it made a perfect introduction to Beethoven’s Appassionata, with its often empty middle register.
Here Buratto’s playing was masterly. The first movement was unhurried but powered by an exhilarating forward drive, and it eventually attained magnificence; the closing Allegro was like one single, unstoppably smooth surge. I felt short-changed by his Andante, which had none of the grave mystery Beethoven surely intended, but its dry clarity represented virtue of a different sort. Back on Adès territory, we then got a finely calibrated account of Traced Overhead. A programme note indicated that Buratto likes jigsaw puzzles, which could partly explain his Adès obsession.
Michael Church - International Piano Magazine - London, Great Britain, March/April 2017
Graceful, analytical, meticulous, Buratto is a name to watch. His playing is economical of gesture and outward expression.
Fiona Maddocks - the Guardian - London, Great Britain, January 29, 2017
Luca Buratto triumphs at Wigmore Hall
Luca Buratto, 23-year-old laureate of the 2015 Honens Piano Competition, is no ordinary virtuoso. The programme booklet for this Wigmore Hall recital told us that he’s interested in physics and postmodern literature. And lest that seem a mite pretentious, we also learned that he likes jigsaw puzzles and table-tennis, and hours before winning the prize was inspired by tennis ace Roberta Vinci’s surprise win over Serena Williams at the US Open.
So, a playful intellectual with nerves of steel was what we expected: the recital confirmed all that, and more. Buratto began with a beautifully poised performance of John Dowland’s famous lute piece the Lachrimae Pavan, as arranged for keyboard by William Byrd. He made the rich tangle of lines seem perfectly lucid, and never allowed Byrd’s added luxuriance to compromise the music’s melancholy austerity.
It was a clever move to follow this with Thomas Adès’s Darknesse Visible, which the composer described as an “explosion” of Dowland’s song In Darknesse let me dwell. The shards from this explosion glittered mysteriously under Buratto’s hands, and he gave the muffled outlines of Dowland’s original a mysterious sombre quality, like “darkness visible” in sound.
A gift for summoning different shades of colour – not just one after another but simultaneously – is clearly one of Buratto’s great gifts. It was audible in another piece by Adès, Traced Overhead, where Buratto made the music’s overlapping layers uncannily clear, with slow descending lines of adamantine hardness set against flurries of almost-inaudible feathery notes.
But there’s more to Buratto than a brilliant colourist. He can give a long formal arch a sense of massive conviction, as he showed in the slow movement of Beethoven’s Appassionata sonata. And in the finale of the same sonata, the young man who thrilled to Roberta Vinci’s victory suddenly revealed himself. Buratto launched off into the closing bars with what seemed like reckless abandon, but he never lost control. The same was true of the triumphant march in Schumann’s Fantasie, where he again tempted fate by taking the last few bars at a madly fast pace, and won game set and match.
The most striking moment came at the very end of Schumann’s piece. Most pianists make the sound die away in the final bars, but Buratto swelled the tone mightily. It shed a different light on a familiar piece, and made one think that alongside the risk-taker and brilliant colourist there lurks a poet.
Ivan Hewett - The Telegraph, London, Great Britain, January 23, 2017
Gordon Gerrard, the RSO’s Musical Director, addressed the audience, saying "I know that you had so many other options tonight. I was concerned only half the orchestra would be here". This was met with a conciliatory laugh, but the crowd soon realized their good fortune when Luca Buratto sat before his piano. Mozart’s concertos are under appreciated because they lack the grandiose of his other works. Buratto made the piece shine, enjoying the softer moments and gesturing with Italian style. During the Andante, the second movement, he pulled the crowd into a solemn, personal conversation between his piano and the flute. Buratto captured the elegant character of the composition. The audience - roughly filling 70 per cent of the seats - gave the pianist a standing ovation.
Devin Pacholik - Regina Leader-Post - Regina SK, Canada, October 30, 2016
Luca Buratto’s piano finds all the contrasts in Debussy, Schumann and Beethoven! He was brilliant in an energetic portrayal of the continuous pounding of the rain, wind and violent outbursts of thunder... The first half of the concert concluded with another work by Debussy. This time it was a tour de force, L’Isle joyeuse, an exuberant work with whole tone and modal writing that required all of Buratto’s virtuosity. Indeed, Buratto dazzled the audience... Buratto gave this monumental work all of the energy called for within the score. It was a firestorm of passion ending with such a flurry that I half expected to 'see' the explosion that was erupting from the piano. Luca Buratto is a complete musician on the rise.
David Richards - Stratford ON - Canada, August 18, 2016
Last night, Italian pianist Luca Buratto led the audience at the Thousand Islands Playhouse through a magnificent program of Bach, Beethoven and Schumann. His performance was a sensational introduction to the brilliant fresh, young artist that he is for Ontario concert-goers... Buratto artfully created a harpsichord-like effect on the piano with his crisp articulation of the highly ornamented work. It was easy to sense that he had a personal connection with the music; he himself has just left his family and friends in native Italy for an extended stay in North America. Buratto effectively conveyed a mixture of sadness and loss as well as a joyful anticipation of new challenges ahead... The audience was thrilled by Buratto’s dazzling technique, and even more so by the raw emotion that came through note after note after note. The spectacular thunderstorm going on outside the theatre was reflective of the turmoil in the music. The sound of pounding rain added pathetic fallacy to the music. Buratto played through a power failure without hesitation when the hall went black momentarily. His interpretation of the work propelled us forward with ever increasing energy to the height of frenzy in the last movement... Schumann’s bi-polar personalities that he named ‘Florestan’ and ‘Eusebius’ came through in dramatic contrast to each other. Buratto is certainly at ease with the romanticism of Schumann. All of the emotion in this masterpiece of Romantic literature was reflected in his interpretation of the work.
David Richards - Gananoque, June 21, 2016
The standard repertoire items for solo piano reveal Buratto’s unerring grasp of the genre. His inspired approach to the final movement of Schumann’s Fantasy in C Major Op.17 moves it to a new level of dark and rich solemnity. He delivers Debussy’s L’isle joyeuse with a rare sparkle and remarkable firepower for the ending. Etudes 15 and 16 for Piano by György Ligeti are breathtaking in their closing measures, restating at maniacal speed, the opening ideas originally heard at a meditative pace. This is brilliant interpretation and performance. Buratto’s recording includes songs by Viardot and Obradors, sung by Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, Mozart’s “Kegelstatt” Trio K498 for piano, viola and clarinet and other works variously combining the voice with the wind and string instruments. The true highlight of the set is, however, the Hindemith Sonata for viola and piano in F Major Op.11 No.4. Buratto and violist Hsin-Yun Huang understand this music at the deepest level, capturing all the melodic beauty in Hindemith’s writing. This is especially effective in the second and third movements where the theme and variation format offer seemingly endless opportunity for restatement. The 2015 Honens recording is a must-have.
WholeNote, May 2016
The influence on Luca was evident... coming from the revolutionary playing of Radu Lupu. Even the same chair with a back and the extreme exploration of those magical sounds between piano and pianissimo and the true legato that Wilhelm Kempff was searching for in his mature years. How to reconcile this Eusebius with his twin Floristan of course is always the question and not always easy to resolve. The magical sounds in Thomas Ades Darkness Visible were beautifully realised thanks also to a very fine Steinway concert grand in Luca's delicate hands. The beautiful hand gestures, reminiscent of Rosalyn Tureck, in Bach's Capriccio on dearly departed brother led to a finely shaped performance. If in the Debussy Estampes, as elsewhere it seemed that Luca's left foot was happiest on the soft pedal and was always seen hovering rather lost when it was not, there were many magical sounds from this really ultra-sensitive musician. It was just missing that sense if rhythmic contrast so important where the impression is already present in the notes especially in Debussy. Schumann Carnaval remarkable for the lack of sentimentality that we are all too often treated to. In fact surprisingly masculine Chopin that really for the first time seemed to fit into the structure of the piece. Leading to a superb virtuoso rendering of Paganini. Rarely can it have been given such a secure rendition. Aveu again without a hint of sentimentality led to a strangely angular March of David against the Philistines. In all a very original and in many ways poetic performance where the reconciliation between Florestan and Eusebius was not totally resolved. A single encore of sheer magic in Schumann's Davidsbundler n.14 showed us that we were lucky this morning to be in the hands of a real poet-Eusebius in fact, and like Davide Cabassi, Radu Lupu and Kempff, we were in the presence of a real magician trying to convince us that in that big black box of strings and hammers there are so many magical sounds to be found and here was someone on a voyage of discovery intent on finding them. Bon Voyage Maestro Buratto you have found the right path on your voyage of discovery and thank you for sharing it with us this morning.
Christopher Axworthy - Sala dei Giganti - Padova, Januray 17, 2016
"an artist of great of great imagination with a unique and intriguing voice"
Maclean's, 2015
"refined touch and wide dynamic range"
International Piano
"fiery imagination and finesse"
Musical America, 2015
"his playing was notable for its elegance, its refinement, and for its imagination"
Calgary Herald, 2015
"Brilliance and depth"
ConcertoNet.com, 2015
Unfortunately (for me) the young pianist Luca Buratto is not a pupil of mine! I have listened to him to play live only twice, in some competitions, but I followed many performances of him in some video recordings. He has an incredibly wide repertoire. He played masterly some very hard and big concertos. In this moment his most outstanding qualities are a flawless technique and a musical intelligence, revealed in the chamber music too, to which he devotes himself with success.
Riccardo Risaliti - Florence, April 10, 2015
In handing over the knotty Rachmaninov Piano Concerto no. 3 to young 20-year-old sensation Luca Buratto, La Verdi demonstrated a great deal of faith, and they were not disappointed. Buratto has a beautiful legato combined with an expressive (and often daring) elasticity. The music poured out of him, and at the stool he adopted a relaxed manner, contorting his shoulders with jazzy dissonances, his left leg swinging in time with the music, eyes squinting in ecstasy. His playing, though, was far from lax, and save for the odd stray note, which is surely forgivable in music of this complexity, he demonstrated incredible control. Difficult phrases were imbued with reams of personality, subtle inflections, and controlled switches of colour in anticipation of key changes.
James Imam - Bachtrack Ltd - London, October 25, 2013
Sorpresa Buratto per Rachmaninov
Il concerto russo dell’Orchestra Verdi a Milano (seconda replica domenica) conteneva una straordinaria rivelazione. La prima parte era dedicata a uno dei capolavori del Novecento, il terzo Concerto in Re minore per pianoforte e orchestra di Sergej Rachmaninov. Si tratta del più difficile Concerto di tutto il repertorio, se si eccettua il Secondo di Martucci ch’è il più terribile di tutti. E la sua difficoltà non è solo di ordine tecnico, spaventosa; è di ordine musicale. Con buona pace di Charles Rosen, che definisce «flaccide» le sue armonie, è una possente costruzione con un piano tonale, tematico, formale, quale può scaturire solo da una somma mente compositiva. Ebbene, questo caposaldo del repertorio costituiva la prima esibizione pubblica di un ragazzo milanese di vent’anni, Luca Buratto! Il quale l’ha eseguito con tecnica poderosa (le sue doppie ottave sono rimarchevoli, e non dirò degli arpeggi e dei «passaggi»): mai effettuando il cosiddetto «rallentando espressivo» nei punti difficili; e con consapevolezza musicale notevolissima. Ho domandato a Luigi Corbani ove avesse scovato una simile meraviglia: e ho saputo che il ragazzo era uno studente del liceo Berchet (adesso ha ottenuto la maturità classica, e solo Dio sa l’importanza che essa può avere nella formazione di un musicista) e che l’anno scorso c’è stata una rassegna di musicisti dei licei milanesi e Buratto s’è presentato. Sono certo che lo attenda un immenso futuro. L’ho visto fuori dal palco: s’era rimesso la sua uniforme da liceale, camicia a scacchi portata fuori dei jeans e faceva tenerezza, timido e umile. Nella seconda parte due meraviglie di Stravinski, lo Scherzo fantastique op. 3 e La sagra della primavera . Concordo con Anna Maria Morazzoni che, alla stregua di Quirino Principe, propone come più atta la traduzione del titolo Le sacre du printemps (Il rito della primavera ); e ne ricorre quest’anno il centenario. L’ha diretta a memoria (e si tratta di opera nella quale ho visto perdersi lo stesso Boulez, che viene spacciato quale suo elettivo interprete!) lo straordinario talento Jader Bignamini con apporto preziosissimo di tutta l’orchestra; ma assai più difficile era per lui il compito di «accompagnare» (in realtà compartecipare a) il Concerto di Rachmaninov: lì si vede il direttore. Per il primo tempo del quale Concerto vadano speciali elogi al timpano
Paolo Isotta - Corriere della Sera - Milano, October 23, 2013
Chopin possono suonarlo tutti, Rachmaninov solo in pochi e tra questi pochi eletti di certo possiamo annoverare il ventenne Luca Buratto che incanta letteralmente la platea dell’Auditorium con un’esecuzione mozzafiato del “Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra n. 3 in Re min, op. 30”. Per circa 40 minuti il giovane Buratto non stacca le mani dal pianoforte: un’infilata di note scivolano con una voracità e una leggerezza che non hanno eguali.
Difficile esprimere con le parole l’emozione generata da Buratto salutato dal pubblico con lunghi, dovuti, sentiti, meritati applausi. Uno dei Concerti per pianoforte tra i più intricati di Rachmaninov, dove il pianoforte non ha un attimo di respiro, quel respiro che gli spettatori trattengono per tutta l’esecuzione. La folla è in delirio, in molti si alzano per rendere omaggio a questo piccolo (di statura) artista talentuoso e straordinario.
Adele Labbate - Recensito - Roma, October 2013
Die Energie der Phonola hat der noch folgende Pianist mit der Interpretation des beliebten 1. Klavierkonzertes Es-Dur von Liszt förmlich für sich aufgenommen. Der erst 19-jährige italienische Shootingstar Luca Buratto begeisterte mit einer bravourösen Fingerfertigkeit, klanglichem Ausdruck und fesselnder Beseeltheit. Mit Leichtigkeit und Virtuosität bringt er Liszts Liebeserklärung an dieses wandlungsfähige Instrument zutage. Die wuchtig grandios wirkenden Quasi-Kadenzen und Oktavgänge, die lyrisch schwärmerischen Adagio-Gedanken im zweiten Satz und die perlenden Trillerketten in Diskant-Höhen mit Soloflöte und -Oboe sowie Cellokantilene waren emotional stark. Die triumphale Leuchtkraft am Schluss rief Begeisterungsstürme des Publikums hervor, dem Luca Buratto schnell mit zwei herrlichen Zugaben aus Tschaikowskis "Der Nussknacker" dankte. Ein phänomenales Deutschlanddebüt für Luca Buratto.
Von Ulrike Löhr - Volksstimme - Magdeburg, November 21, 2011
Der junge Solist, der dann die Bühne betritt, um das Klavierkonzert Nr. 1 in Es-Dur von Franz Liszt zu spielen, kommt aus Italien, heißt Luca Buratto, hat in Milano am dortigen Konservatorium “Guiseppe Verdi” sein Studium als Pianist mit Auszeichnung abgeschlossen. Was er zeigt entspricht der von Liszt (von Paganini inspiriert) angestrebten allseitigen Verwendung des Klavieres. Meine Notiz zu diesem Vortrag lautet „von der ungeheuren Leichtigkeit des Klavierspiels“! Buratto scheint die Tasten fast nicht zu berühren, förmlich schwebend meistert er mit Bravour alle Schwierigkeiten dieses Lisztschen Konzertes für Klavier und Orchester. Das Konzertpublikum sah das offensichtlich ebenso und ließ sich zu Begeisterungsstürmen hinreißen. Diese ebbten auch durch die beiden Zugaben aus Peter Tschaikowskis „Nussknacker“ (u.a. das Große Pas de Deux in der Klavierfassung) nicht ab. Diesen Namen wird man sich wohl merken müssen, glücklich der, der dieses fantastische Deutschlanddebüt des 19-jährigen Milanesen hören durfte.
Hans Peter Lippert - Magdeburg, November 18, 2011
[...] è salito sul palcoscenico il diciottenne pianista Luca Buratto, giovane promessa del concertismo milanese. Eccellente l'interpretazione dell'Op.54 (Schumann). Buratto ha espresso una tecnica precisa, sicura e soprattutto un livello espressivo di alto valore musicale coadiuvato dall'ottima direzione di Ceccato e da una giovanile orchestra con splendide potenzialità. Scroscianti applausi al termine dell'esibizione pianistica.
Cesare Guzzardella - Milano, December 14, 2010
Reviews
Luca Buratto al Teatro Delfino per il Festival MiTo
Il pianista milanese Luca Buratto ieri sera ha impaginato un programma di straordinario interesse, eseguendo brani di compositori quali Chopin, Adès (1971), Couperin e Ravel. Una scelta ben strutturata dove in una prima parte l'alternanza di alcune Mazurche del grande polacco - op. 7 n.1, op. 24 n.2, Tre Mazurche op.50- alle Tre Mazurche op.27 di Thomas Adès ha evidenziato, oltre ai celebri brani chopiniani, le qualità espressive del compositore inglese che partendo dai colori e dagli accenti di Chopin, riscrive, con un personale e riconoscibile linguaggio, i suoi brevi ed espressivi brani. Dopo i primi meritati applausi del pubblico presente in sala, Buratto ha proposto Les folies françoises ou Les dominos di François Couperin, dodici barocche variazioni sul tema della follia spagnola, cui ha fatto seguito in modo continuo, la celebre Suite di Maurice Ravel Le tombeau de Couperin (1914-17), brano che con una scrittura dal sapore "antico" riscopre il collega francese nato ben due secoli prima. Buratto ha ancora una volta dimostrato le sue eccellenti qualità d'interprete. La perfezione nei dettagli, la chiara visione complessiva dell'insieme sonoro, in un contesto di equilibri decisamente strutturati e misurati, ha reso alta la qualità delle sue interpretazione. Oltre all'ottimo Chopin delle Mazurche, eseguite quasi di getto, decisamente valida la restituzione delle mazurche contemporanee, datate 2009, di Adès. Il convincente Couperin ha poi trovato una straordinaria continuazione nella suite di danze di Ravel, eseguita con fluidità e chiarezza espressiva nei pur rapidi andamenti, ben sei dal Prelúde iniziale alla Toccata finale. Un eccellente concerto quello ascoltato, con due rarità nei bis concessi: prima Schumann e poi ancora Adès. Da ricordare a lungo!
Cesare Guzzardella - corrierebit.com - Milano, Italy, September 22, 2021
THE SALON OF PRINCESSE DE POLIGNAC
[...] The first half was completed by Gabriel Fauré’s rarely-heard Sonata No.2 in G minor (Op.117, from 1921) with British cellist Jamie Walton and Buratto. In contrast with early Fauré, who epitomised the Belle Epoque with lovely melodies, his late style was sparer, acerbic and not initially memorable. But his quite exquisite harmonic intrigues repay patience and repeated listening. The fast outer movements bristled with intent and purpose, bookending the slow movement Andante’s beating heart. Here is a nostalgic glance to Fauré’s well-known Elegie (also in C minor) from some 40 years before. A mature and more fully-realised expression of grief, this received a most moving performance from both cellist and pianist. [...]
The concert’s piece de resistance surely had to be Ravel’s Piano Trio in A minor, with Chamber and Arts Singapore founder and mastermind violinist Tang Tee Khoon joining Walton and Buratto. Simply put, if there were a more idiomatic and exciting performance of its four varied movements, one has yet to witness it. The moderate tempo (Modere) of its first movement soon built up into a terrific climax, and one knew this was going to be a rocking performance. The scherzo-like second movement (Pantoum), based on the rhythmic meters of the Malay pantun but not Malayan musical idioms.
Its level of excitation was contrasted by the more sedate Passacaille (Passacaglia), with a doleful quality which was particularly moving. This went without break into a rapturous finale where all stops were pulled for a grandstanding finish. This trio combination truly has passion in spades. [...]
Chang Tou Liang - PIANOMANIA - Singapore, November 12, 2022
Historic take on Beethoven's 10 violin sonatas
History was when Singaporean violinist Tang Tee Khoon and Italian pianist Luca Buratto performed all ten of Beethoven’s violin sonatas in four concerts over two evenings. This was a belated commemoration of the German composer’s 250 birthday, deferred from 2020 by the global Covid pandemic. All previous cycles presented here involving local musicians were shared by multiple violinists and pianists. [...]
At the time of composition, Beethoven’s sonatas had given both instruments more or less equal billing, by being less piano-centred than before. This worked to the advantage of the music, as stresses and tensions were shared by both performers. For his part, pianist Buratto was no less than a most sympathetic and equally virtuosic collaborator. [...]
End it did, eliciting the loudest of applause at the close of the cycle. As if the sonatas were not enough work, the duo pleasured the appreciative audience after each session with violin transcriptions of lieder, including those by Schubert (Gretchen am Spinnrade), Richard Strauss (Morgen!) and Brahms (Wie Melodien zieht es mir). It was the first concert of the year, but had one just witnessed the year’s best concert?
Chang Tou Liang - The Straits Times - Singapore, January 12, 2022
Luca Buratto a Villa Necchi Campiglio
I concerti organizzati dalla Società del Quartetto di Milano nell'ampio spazio coperto - ex tennis- di Villa Necchi Campiglio hanno trovato ieri, nel tardo pomeriggio, il pianista milanese Luca Buratto. Affermato nel panorama concertistico internazionale, Buratto ha impaginato un programma particolarmente vario con Brani di Schumann, Debussy, Janáček, Adès, Crumb e Bartók. Tredici lavori in un programma denominato Nella notte studiato dal pianista in modo intelligente, per un'esecuzione senza soluzione di continuità, in modo da sembrare come una grande suite dove i brani, pur essendo di autori diversi e distanti nel tempo tra loro di oltre 150 anni, sono resi in stile unitario, con un clima coloristico complessivo ben adeguato al clima notturno. Cinque i brani di Schumann, quattro quelli di Debussy, eseguiti in ordine sparso tra gli autori di minore notorietà come Thomas Adès (1971) e il suo Berceuse, da The Exterminating Angel o di George Crumb (1929-6/02/2022) con Dream Images da Makrokosmos, o di compositori eseguiti, ma meno dei primi, come Janáček e il suo Le nostre serate da Sul sentiero di rovi o Bartók con Musica notturna da All'aria aperta. Insomma un programma suggestivo che unifica momenti compositivi differenti e che si è concluso con lo splendido In der Nacht dai Fantasiestüke op.12 di Schumann. Applausi calorosi dopo il silenzio assoluto, in uno spazio-tennis al completo. Generoso Buratto nel concedere tre validi bis: Janáček con Buonanotte da Sul sentiero di rovi, Debussy Chiaro di luna da Suite bergamasca e l'amato Schumann con l'ultimo dei Canti dell'alba. Bravissimo!
Cesare Guzzardella - corrierebit.com - Milano, Italy, February 06, 2022
L'Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano diretta da Hannu Lintu per Bartók e Schumann
[...] Un ottimo pianista quale il milanese Luca Buratto ha sostenuto la parte solistica avendo chiarissimamente in testa la visione completa del difficile brano, caratterizzato da grande virtuosismo ma anche da momenti di pacato lirismo come nell'intenso Adagio religioso centrale. L'ottima direzione del finlandese Hannu Lintu, con resa chiara in tutte le sezioni orchestrali, ha sostenuto con efficacia l'eccellente interpretazione di Buratto, in un lavoro caratterizzato da una scrittura tonale ricca di contrasti, dove soprattutto l'elemento ritmico costruisce fraseggi articolati, marcati moto bene dal solista, con perfezione tecnica e discorsività profonda. Applausi calorosi ai protagonisti e ottimo il bis solistico con l'amato Schumann ed il primo dei Fantasiestucke op.12.
Cesare Guzzardella - corrierebit.com - Milano, Italy, May 08, 2022
Buratto will be one of the great of the XXI century. I come back often to this video (M. Ravel, Le Tombeau de Couperinand) I can't help to underline the magnitude of this young artist.
Lucio Becker - Roma, Italy, July 08, 2022
La Sinfonia Turangalîla di Olivier Messiaen diretta da Maxime Pascal
[...] Protagonisti del corposo lavoro, composto dal musicista d'Avignone tra il 1946 e il 1948, anche Cécile Lartigau alle onde Martenot e Luca Buratto al pianoforte. [...]
In quest'alternanza di situazioni, a volte roboanti, a volte riflessive, espresse anche con sovrapposizione di numerosi piani sonori, spesso apparentemente discordanti, si realizza la filosofia profondamente religiosa di Messiaen, compositore, organista e naturalista ornitologo. La complessità di questo luminoso e contrastato lavoro ha trovato l'ottima direzione di Pascal e l'eccellente restituzione degli orchestrali, oltre ovviamente alle precise esternazioni dei solisti, con i luminosi effetti di Cécile Lortigau e la perfezione tecnica, ricca di espressione, di Luca Buratto. [...]
Cesare Guzzardella - corrierebit.com - Milano, Italy, April 01, 2023
All’auditorium Cariplo di Milano, un inno alla gioia, all’amore, alla morte
[...] Del tutto all’altezza dell’impegno i solisti: il pianista Luca Buratto tiene vigorosamente testa alla massa sonora dell’orchestra, calandosi appieno nel vivo della propria parte; l’ondista Cécile Lartigau contribuisce a fornire all’esecuzione un timbro ricco, seducente e ricercato, corrispondente alla molteplicità di significati insiti nel titolo. Non c’è suono dell’immensa compagine orchestrale, arricchita anche dalla presenza di celesta, glockenspiel, vibrafono e un notevole set di percussioni, che non abbia ricevuto energico impulso dal gesto del direttore Maxime Pascal, timoniere autorevole di questo lungo viaggio. [...]
Stefano Campanini - exibart - Roma, Italy, April 29, 2023