Photographs by Tamara Peel
“As a complex exploration of texture, it has a fascination of its own, as well as being a magically effective evocation of the already profoundly complex original.... Karg-Elert's rendering of such thorny passages as the convulsive offbeat punctuations of the finale's climax is spectacular, as is Bebbington's performance.” Paul Driver, The Sunday Times, October 2007
“....a virtuoso recasting that needs a Liszt to play it..... revealing and often thrilling results.... the slow movement is surprisingly effective and is played by Bebbington with rare sensitivity.”
5***** BBC Music Magazine, November 2007
“....these are natural and unaffected performances, with a constant sense of direction and line and a wonderful clarity of touch.”
International Record Review, June 2007
“Mark Bebbington sings his solo lines with a velvety 'cantabile' touch and unhurried vitality and warmth that is well-nigh ideal for these timeless scores, supported to the hilt by stylish orchestral playing under David Curtis.”
4**** Classic FM Magazine, August 2007
“Mozart famously said that these three concertos from 1782-83 'are a happy medium between what is too easy and too difficult'....Mark Bebbington offers richly satisfying playing.....remarkably fluid music making...”
4**** BBC Music Magazine, July 2007
“....even more of a revelation is Bebbington's finely weighted and beautifully manicured playing, where runs and scale passages sparkle like rows of polished beads (his trills are articulated and measured with wonderful sensitivity) and his expressive canvas is never too large.”
5***** Birmingham Post, May 2007
“....sa technique epoustouflante lui permit de s'encanailler sans vergogne, pour revetir quelques instants plus tard sur le frac d'une fausse respectabilite bourgeoise. Ainsi, joue-t-il avec brio sur le fil du rasoir...”
Classica Magazine 8/10
“Bebbington enhances his reputation in music by two gifted, jazz-loving Brits... has all the stylish aplomb, improvisatory freedom and infectious swagger one could wish for....intrepidly communicative....”
Gramophone, Editor's Choice, February 2007
“Throughout Bebbington plays with scrupulous clarity and control and with a palette that rejoices in crisp, bright colours. His energy is infectious and the recorded sound is clear as a bell...”
BBC Music Magazine, December 2006
“Une irreprochable agilite digitale .....Sans tomber dans l'exhibition, Bebbington s'acquitte de cet exploit sportif avec l'elegance et l'aisance d'un vrai gentleman.”
Classica Magazine 8/10, Michel Fleury
“...reveals the profound and poetic in Bridge... Bebbington seems to consistently probe deeper into the music's expressive core. Greater fluidity of tempo, subtler pedalling and phrasing, a wider range of colour and dynamics all characterise his approach...”
BBC Music Magazine 5***** Instrumental Choice, September 2006
“...there have been several fine recordings, but Bebbington surpasses them all in what is the most all-encompassing account this towering work (Sonata) has yet received.”
International Record Review, November 2006
“... a magnificent record. Mark Bebbington ... a pianist of exceptional quality whose understanding of and ability to communicate Bridge's music is first-rate in every regard. Deserves to be in every collection.”
Robert Matthew-Walker Musical Opinion, July/August 2006
“Bebbington's playing is full of character, and the deftness with which he signs off each piece is appealing. ... a major addition to the catalogue.”
Mike Wheeler, www.classicalsource.com July 2006
“The whole release is revelatory..... keep the hanky close by.”
American Record Guide, June 2006
“Bebbington’s CD, splendidly recorded, is now the benchmark for this repertoire. … Bebbington is more than equal to Gurney’s challenges. He has a wonderful palette of colour at his disposal and his mastery of rubato is always apparent. …his control is breathtaking: never fussy and always at the service of the music, he compels one to listen and his bell-like tone is a constant delight.
Andrew Plant, Journal of the Ivor Gurney Society, January 2006
“… the most accessible performance I have heard so far [of Howard Ferguson’s Sonata], and probably the best way into the work for anyone coming to it for the first time.”
Gerard McBurney, Tempo, April 2005
“Mark Bebbington … here turns his attention to British repertoire, with which he seems to have an instinctive sympathy. … Altogether this is a highly recommendable issue for those wishing to explore the byways of British piano music.
Calum MacDonald, International Record Review, April 2005
“… Bebbington is immensely impressive.”
Daniel Stearns, Piano magazine, March/April 2005
“...music from the early C20, sensitively played by M.B. and part of a recently released all Gurney collection - and very attractive it is, too.”
Rob Cowan, The Cowan Collection January 2005
,“… a remarkable feeling of concentration and inwardness” ****
Anthony Burton, BBC Music Magazine, December 2004
“Mark Bebbington takes Ferguson’s virtuoso demands in his stride and proves persuasively poetic in the Gurney, with a sensitive ear for colour.”
Martin Anderson International Piano November/December 2004
“It is an original and thoughtful achievement. Mark Bebbington is revealed here as a pianist of rare maturity and great skill.”
Robert Beale Manchester Evening News November 2004
“The brilliant pianist, Mark Bebbington, caresses life into Gurney scores that, with a degree of irony, are gentle and peaceful, the two Nocturnes full of tender charm.”
David Denton The Yorkshire Post October 2004
“ Bebbington's touch is velvety smooth; making light of the task of drawing the percussive sting from the piano. Lovely playing indeed.”
Rob Barnett www.musicweb.uk.net October 2004
“… interpreted by Mark Bebbington with exemplary style and sensitivity.”****
Barry Millington The Evening Standard August 2004
“Once again Mark Bebbington displays total conviction in his choice of repertoire and, in turn, inspires the listener.”
Colin Anderson www.classicalsource.com August 2004
CD REVIEWS
“… a most rewarding program, one that deserves to be heard by a much wider audience … a young British pianist making his debut recording in music that is both technically taxing and psychologically difficult to put across … he is well up to both challenges. His live performances have drawn critical acclaim throughout Britain and the Continent, and his programming, which leans heavily towards 20th-century repertoire, much of it by British composers, is earning him a growing reputation. Excellent sound and very insightful notes (written mostly by Bebbington himself) contribute to making this CD highly recommended.”
Jerry Dubins, Fanfare, September/October 2005
“Mark Bebbington se joue de ces difficultés avec brio, se servant de sa virtuosité comme moyen d’expression au service d’une musique à la fois descriptive et poignante.”
Gérard Moindrot, Pianiste January/February 2005
“… If you want just one Castelnuovo-Tedesco selection, I would definitely choose Bebbington.”
Calum MacDonald, International Piano May/June 2004
“I can't speak too highly about Bebbington's strong, big-boned playing and unerring ear for how these pieces should go. Highly recommended. 10/10”
Jed Distler, www.classicstoday.com 2004
“Mark Bebbington plays the works with just the right sense of unfathomable antiquity and grandeur. He is truly a remarkable pianist, with an immense range of colour, a subtle use of the pedal, and an ability to project the composer’s immense climaxes with clarity as well as power.”
Ivan Hewett, The Times, February 2004
'“.....such a sensitive touch and sense of tonal shading; recorded in Birmingham just over a year ago. A most nourishing musical byway.”
Rob Cowan, The Cowan Collection, BBC Radio 3, January 2004
“[Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s] music is full of natural warmth and strength, qualities which Mark Bebbington’s excellent technical command and musicianship constantly reveal… producing some ravishing tonal qualities.”
Robert Matthew-Walker, International Record Review, Dec 2003
“Compelling challenging piano music, and a performer fully up to the task.”
Ivan March Gramophone Awards Issue 2003
RECITAL AND CONCERTO REVIEWS
“Soprano Patricia Rozario and pianist Mark Bebbington, their collaboration rewarding, natural and easy, responded with an intelligence and empathy which informed all their performances...Bebbington's accompaniments were always deft and thoughtfully characterised.”
Birmingham Post 4****, July 2008
“...the beautifully controlled pianism of Mark Bebbington....equally absorbing, Rozario and Bebbington both nuancing the words and musical pacing with great sensitivity.”
Birmingham Post 4****, October 2007
“....Mark Bebbington, intellektuell-introvertierter "Novize" bei den Husumer Raritaten, nahm sich mit Noblesse der "Neapolitanischen Rhapsodie" des Italieners Castelnuovo-Tedescos an und gab der Suite Leichtigkeit und wirbelndes Feuer. Massiver sein Zugang zu Elgars komplexer Symphonie No. 1:die mit Hochstschwierigkeiten gespickte Klaviertranskription Karg-Elerts nutzte der britische Virtuose zu Strukturierung, Klangballungen und Dramatik.”
International Piano Rarities Festival, Husum, Germany
Schleswiger Nachrichten, August 2007
“.....a stunning performance.”
Birmingham Post, May 2007 5*****
Bromsgrove Festival
“....there are fewer artists poised to make a bigger international impact than the pianist Mark Bebbington.”
Classicalsource, December 2006
“...performances which were simply astounding edifices of cumulative power delivered with phenomenal drive and weight... ” *****
Christopher Morley, Birmingham Post, 12 July 2006 (Liszt's Années de Pèlerinage - Italie, Warwick Festival, 7 July 2006)
“ ... few [pianists] have sought out finer expressive shadings that make this 'Fantasia quasi Sonata' among the most resourceful as well as immediate works of Liszt's maturity. ... as cohesive and satisfying an account as one is likely to hear...”
Richard Whitehouse, www.classicalsource.com July 2006 (Recital, Wigmore Hall, London, 23 June 2006)
“Between the symphonies came the autumnal last Piano Concerto, no.27 in B-flat major, with soloist Mark Bebbington having the measure of the music's enigmatic simplicity (so difficult to convey), his perfectly-weighted pianism always acutely aware of his orchestral collaborators in an authentically chamber-music manner.”
Christopher Morley, Birmingham Post, 24 April 2006 (London Mozart Players, Douglas Boyd, Bromsgrove Festival, 22 April 2006)
“A recital from Mark Bebbington is about more than “just” awesome technique. He brings a finely judged sense of effect and timing, with a command of body-language which serves his desire for communication with the utmost integrity: a flourish at the end of spectacular passage-work, a hunched pause as the music broods, these and many other images intensify the effect of his readings.”
The Birmingham Post, 13 August 2005 (Recital, Three Choirs Festival, Worcester, 11 August 2005)
“... an Andante [Schubert's Sonata in Bb D960] whose distilling of expressive clarity out of tonal ambiguity proved both limpidly and movingly achieved. … The premiere of Tom Ingoldsby's Second Sonata proved a delight; its six minutes a succession of capricious variants on the sprightly opening gesture - given with a scrupulous attendance to phrasing and continuity.”
Richard Whitehouse, www.classicalsource.com (Recital, St John’s Smith Square, London, 1 June 2005)
“A perfectly poised and reflective account of Schubert’s B flat major Sonata … where Bebbington’s sensitivity to the harmonic current was acute, not to mention his ability at sustaining the momentum and line of this long work. Bebbington … can turn inward to explore a worthy moment or a phrase, as he did again and again in this Sonata’s daring transitional sections, and elsewhere explode with a surge of extrovert energy and brilliance onto his instrument, as in the final Beethovenian Allegro.”
Manus Carey, Musical Opinion, July-August 2005
“It would be hard to imagine better performances than Bebbington's of these. Phenomenally proficient, he proved his mettle in the recital's first half with his vital, crisp handling of Debussy Preludes. Krystian Zimerman, with Uchida the doyen of Debussy interpreters, would have patted him on the back for such spot-on-the-mark readings…”
Roderic Dunnett The Independent, 11 February 2005 (Recital, Huntingdon Hall, Worcester, 8 February 2005)
“… the World Premiere, no less, of Cecil Coles’ Piano Concerto, a two movement work written in 1905 when the composer was 17. … It is a powerful and somewhat original score in structural terms, the two movements lasting about 35 minutes, with a genuine virtuoso part which was brilliantly and sensitively played by the fearless Mark Bebbington.”
Robert Matthew-Walker Musical Opinion November/December 2004 (Cecil Coles Piano Concerto, Docklands Sinfonietta, 16 October 2004)
“The piano part is very demanding, but Mark Bebbington, a very accomplished pianist, gave a virtuoso performance and he also entered into the spirit of the music very much in the way Alan Bush would have approved.”
Robert Matthew-Walker Musical Opinion November/December 2004 (Alan Bush Variations, Nocturne and Finale on an Old Sea-Song, St John’s Smith Square, 13 September 2003)
“this series … amply confirms Bebbington as among the most perceptive British pianists of his generation”
www.classicalsource.com September 2004 (British Piano Sonata 2, St John’s Smith Square, London, 23 September 2004)
“A connoisseur’s programme … quite out of the ordinary, not merely in choice of music but in accomplishment of performance. Karg-Elert’s monumental transcription of Elgar’s First Symphony … demands a comprehensive virtuoso technique as well as a clear musical intelligence, qualities Mark Bebbington possesses in full. This was a tremendous performance … ”
Musical Opinion November/December 2004
“Taken overall, an absorbing and wide-ranging evening – drawn together by the technical command and interpretative insight invested in every piece.”
www.classicalsource.com October 2003 (British Piano Sonata 1 St John’s Smith Square, London, 29 October 2003)