LA PROVINCIA
An evening of music and high emotion for Lazar Berman
... A rose from an outstretched hand in the stalls laid on the grand piano on stage was a reminder on Wednesday night of the three years that have passed since the death of the pianist Lazar Berman.
At the Carducci Institute, Como, the violinist Pavel Berman, with the pianist Vsevolod Dworkin, presented a superb concert in memory of the Russian pianist as part of the current season. Nothing is closer to the artistic and personal life of the great Lazar than this son who was also a devoted pupil.
Berman and Dworkin presented all Brahms’ sonatas for violin and piano to a suitably full audience at the Salone Musa in viale Cavallotti; an hour and a half of thoughtful, profound, romantic expressiveness composed in less than a decade of Brahms’ maturity. Warmth and tenderness filled the Salone Musa from the first notes of the Sonata in G major op. 78 (the ‘Regen’); a dense but serene dialogue from the intimate opening of the Vivace ma no troppo, followed by a profound beauty of tone in the Adagio.
Pavel Berman’s playing, with the inspired accompaniment of Dworkin, produced a finely balanced interpretation with an individual rendering of romantic expressiveness (at times contrasting with the usual interpretations) growing out of the cultural backgrounds of two fine artists who understand each other perfectly.
A tranquil cantabile was the hallmark of the A major sonata op.100. This was played with a more romantic expressiveness, varying between lavish grandeur and lyricism, taken at a brisk pace to present Brahms’ interweaving themes.
The third Sonata op.108 in D minor, the one that is usually most popular with players and audiences, drew an original interpretation from Berman and Dworkin, starting with the rich and complex dialogue of the opening Allegro to the enigmatic yearnings of the Adagio. Once again the dense lyricism of Berman’s playing made sense of some of the most beautiful phrases in the Romantic repertoire, while Dworkin was intense and vibrant in response. The evening was greeted with enthusiastic applause and a Brahms Scherzo as encore.

KULTURA
A virtuoso and the virtuosi
... In contrast with many of his colleagues, Vladimir Spivakov gives way gracefully to guest conductors; with one stipulation that the visitor must be a substantial musical personality. Pavel Berman, who appeared with the Moscow Virtuosi as soloist and conductor at the Moscow International House of Music, certainly fits this description. Pavel is the son of the internationally acclaimed piano virtuoso, Lazar Berman. As one American paper put it, “the father’s musical DNA has been inherited by the son, but on another instrument”.
Pavel Berman opened the programme with Alfred Schnittke’s Homage to Paganini. As always with this composer a mood of tragedy can change in a moment to an outburst of emotion. A short quotation from the Paganini Caprices was rendered with stunning brilliance, leaving no doubt that an exceptional violinist was performing on stage.
The Homage to Paganini was very well received by the audience. Berman then exchanged his violin bow for a conductor’s baton and, with the Virtuosi, performed Haydn’s Symphony No. 49. This first of the classical Viennese composers is usually interpreted as an optimist who presented a cheerful face to the world despite the difficulties of his own personal circumstances. Berman, while acknowledging the composer’s zest for life in the faster movements with its play of light and shade and lively energy, brought out evidence of suffering and distant rumblings of drama in the unusually slow first section. He paid close attention to the smallest details of the composer’s dynamic marking, delicately communicating the same careful attentiveness to the Virtuosi who played the lullaby with great tenderness and careful phrasing, bringing out the nuances in each repeated phrase.
The Virtuosi showed how music is able to paint a picture in Janacek’s Suite for String Orchestra where the composer was evolving his own musical style from popular music sources. In the dances that make up the Suite, Berman’s conducting became more forceful and energetic. He responded beautifully to each part in its own particular character, while at the same time avoiding detaching them from the unifying theme of the piece.
In some ways Berman was probably restricting himself by avoiding works with strongly contrasting emotion or characterisation. But in the end, why not leave aside the struggles of contemporary life from time to time and simply enjoy the beauties of the world around? This was Berman’s successful objective achieved with the support of the Virtuosi.
At the end of the evening the maestro reminded us of his artistic origins as a violinist with a series of encores which brought an already appreciative audience to their feet for a standing ovation. Brahms’ Hungarian Dance, Sarasate’s Andalusian Dance, Kreisler’s “Chagrin d’amour” waltz and finally Sarasate’s dazzling Carmen Fantasy in whose frantic rhythms not a note was lost - the whole thing a brilliant display of virtuosity, passion and beauty.

SUDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG
... it was unbelievably captivating to hear the way Pavel Berman contemplates and embodies every detail and the same time never breaks of it’s entire

SUDDEUTCSHE ZEITUNG
... A grandiose stylist
..when Pavel Berman picks up his violin it is mature, serious, unbelievably concentrated artist who leads us through the music with a flawless mastery. No hint of technical difficulties, not the slightest trace of creative uncertainty. At the Herculessaal we witnessed the Munich debut of a violinist destined for a truly great career.

AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE
... no higher compliment can be paid than to say that one savoured the kind of magic that audience used to hear from Heifetz

NEW YORK POST
... When Pavel Berman, son of famous Russian pianist Lazar Berman, won the gold medal of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis three years ago, it seemed almost too good to be true. Could genes carry so much talent (and switch instruments in the process)?
The answer came at Carnegie Hall on Sunday afternoon, and it is yes.

DRESDENER NEUSTER NACHTRICHTEN
... There came a slime and trim youthful figure to the podium. Perhaps one would have considered in Apollo-like Mozart appropriate? And now - as was demonstrated - this phenomenal violinist, who mastered the intricacies technically sovereign, who was able to chastely cover, but also explode; a mature accomplishment…already…a violinist of a great stature

UNION DRESDEN
... Full of fantasy and at the same time refined, Pavel Berman was skilled at contrast-form soulful expression to rapid fireworks – but the sparkling virtuosity was never an end in itself. Berman’s concern was not for a “brilliant show” but rather to probe deeper artistic regions. With such a distinct technical sovereignty, his open-mindedness, the reverence with which he approached his work, was even more unusual..

THE STRAD
... performance full of temperament and authority, combined with his juvenile charm..