News & Reviews
“…a first-rate artist of real musical command, vitality, brilliance and intensity…” – Chicago Tribune
Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Manze, Conductor
By Christine Christiansen, Jyllands-Posten
Friday, February 24, 2012
The Japanese-Canadian Karen Gomyo flew in from a holiday and made Thursday night’s Beethoven Violin Concerto the sensitive high point.
“Karen Gomyo is DR Symphony Orchestra’s new darling. Shortly before Christmas she made her debut appearance in the Danish concert hall with an intense rendition of Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No.1.
Since the Canadian violinist James Ehnes took ill prior to this week’s Thursday concert, it was Gomyo the DR phoned. She came in a sparkly back paillette gown and played the Beethoven Violin Concerto with a sound that surpassed everything.
To see Gomyo take control, modeling the beautiful melody lines and lead the orchestra in its way in an organic flow was a delight. The English conductor Andrew Manze followed her, and with lively gestures lured the orchestra into a volume level where the soloist is always audible.
Beethoven’s Violin Concerto has seldom sounded so rich, so pure, so poetic.”
Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Manze, Conductor
By Soren Schauser, Berlingske Tidende
Friday, February 24, 2012
“She is 29 years old, of Japanese and Canadian heritage, and one of the world’s new wonders of the violin: Karen Gomyo jumped in to replace in the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Danish National Orchestra on Thursday, to to an enthusiastic audience. She gave a performance that was not only full of soul, but of unique life. She is one of the world’s brightest violin stars.”
Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Karabits, Conductor
By Christine Christiansen, Jyllands-Posten
Friday, December 2, 2011
The horrors of war and the raw physical pain – a few composers have managed to make it all so real and corrosive in their music as Shostakovich. His Violin Concerto No. 1 was the expressive and captivating highlight of Thursday’s concert.
“This success was mainly due to the soloist, the Japanese-Canadian Karen Gomyo, who made a convincing debut on the Danish stage. In a long, shimmering bronze dress she commanded space in front of the orchestra where she fired the concerto’s four movements with a rare intensity and empathy.
This listener was obviously not the only one in the room who felt goosebumps during the big solo cadenza, which Gomyo filled the hall with a projection that was full of timbal contrast.”
Oregon Symphony, Carlos Kalmar, Conductor
By James McQuillen, The Oregonian
Sunday, October 30, 2011
“The opener was Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, with the Japanese-Canadian Karen Gomyo as soloist. With a no-nonsense stage presence, immaculate intonation and beautifully controlled phrasing, she made a terrifically fresh traversal of a familiar piece, with self-effacing virtuosity, beautifully sculpted phrases and penetrating, heart-stopping cadenzas.
Kalmar led the orchestra, which has become a fine Beethoven band over the last ten years, in acutely sensitive accompaniment.”
Sydney Symphony, Vasily Petrenko, Conductor
By Peter McCallum, The Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday, August 19, 2011
“This was a beautiful performance of Brahms’s Double Concerto for violin and cello, notable for the clarity and richness of sound, glowing balance and refined musicianship.
After the orchestra gives out – in the spirit of a logical hypothesis – the opening gnomic utterance that shapes so much of what is to follow, the cellist is asked to open up a more subjective frame. In the ensuing cadenza, cellist Alban Gerhardt drew the listener into a personal domain, with sinewy lines, careful shading and a highly persuasive musical emphasis.
By contrast, when the solo violin enters a few bars later, after a more considered, chastened response from the orchestra, Karen Gomyo played with golden radiance. Together they wove the figurative arpeggios with which Brahms propels the texture with choreographed poise, like a supple pas de deux.
The tempo of the first movement has to encompass confident vigour, measured cogency and reflective sweetness, and the pace here maintained a state of tension, mediated by the strength of the dual artistic personalities.
Brahms starts the second movement again with a pithy remark from the orchestra which subtly refers back to the first movement, though with transformed mood. If one has a Stradivarius violin and a comparably fine cello on the stage, there is little need to airbrush, and some of the most beautiful moments came where a tone of unbuffed natural lustre from the violin, underpinned by autumnal warmth from the cello, created pauses of arresting beauty.”
Baltimore Symphony, Carlos Kalmar, Conductor
By Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun
Saturday, May 28, 2011
“Karen Gomyo tackled the challenging concerto with remarkable technical ease and, more impressive still, a kind of radiant phrasing. Her tone was sweet, but never saccharine. She spun out melodic lines with the beauty and insight of a poet; her pianissimos in the Adagio were ravishing. The rougher side of the music did not go short-changed; she dug in mightily and grittily as needed. The violinist’s stirring work was matched by Kalmar and the BSO; the performance clicked tightly. A vociferous response from the audience drew an encore from Gomyo.”
Cleveland Orchestra, Andrew Grams, Conductor
By Zachary Lewis, The Plain Dealer
Monday, July 19, 2011
“The high point Sunday was the Cleveland debut of Canadian violinist Karen Gomyo, playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, a chestnut for the instrument. Far from routine, her performance was honest and soulful, fueled by abundant talent but not a vain display of technique. Her captivating take on the Andante could never get old.”
Dallas Symphony, Gunther Herbig, Conductor
By Scott Cantrell, The Dallas Morning News
Friday, March 3, 2011
“Karen Gomyo was the dazzling soloist in the Mozart G major Violin Concerto (K.216). Playing a Stradivarius of ravishing beauty, she gave not the usual well-behaved summary, but a highly dramatized, even operatic account. This was playing of flawless technique and great sophistication, and Herbig coaxed buoyant, vividly characterized collaboration from a chamber-orchestra reduction of the DSO.”
San Diego Symphony, Jahja Ling, Conductor
By Kenneth Herman, Arts Section
Saturday, November 21, 2009
“Ling wisely opened the program with Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, with the young Canadian violinist Karen Gomyo as soloist. A piece from 1939 that nevertheless looks back wistfully on the melodic largess of the Romantic era Mahler bravely left behind, Barber’s concerto wears its heart on its sleeve with an emotional vulnerability that parallels Mahler’s own. Gomyo’s sumptuous timbre and refined phrasing celebrated rather than indulged the composer’s neo-Romanticism in the lyrical opening movements, and her agile facility met every challenge of the concluding Presto.”
Grant Park Festival Orchestra, Kirill Karabits, conductor
By John Von Rhein, The Chicago Tribune
July 20, 2009
“New to the roster were Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits and Canadian violinist Karen Gomyo. Mark well their names because you are going to hear a lot more from these gifted young musicians in the coming years. …Gomyo is a first-rate artist of real musical command. Her probing account of the Shostakovich concerto carried tremendous vitality, brilliance and intensity.”
New York Philharmonic, David Robertson, conductor
By Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
May 26, 2009
“The orchestral music in “The Lark Ascending” rarely rises above a whisper, but the solo violin soars gracefully and benefits greatly from a rich acoustic ambience. Karen Gomyo used that to her benefit, and the music’s, in a sweet-toned, beautifully shaped performance.”
Dallas Symphony, Vasily Petrenko, conductor
By Olin Chism, The Dallas Morning News
October 10, 2008
“…sharing the stage with the exceptional young violinist, Karen Gomyo, who gave a vivid performance that was full of interesting detail as well as a sense of drama. Some moments were downright spine-tingling.”
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Xian Zhang, conductor
By Rian Evans, The Guardian
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
“These two works framed a performance of Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole in which the violin soloist was the Canadian Karen Gomyo. She succeeded in balancing the flamboyance of the score with its moments of quiet lyricism. Like Zhang, she is certainly an artist to watch”
Toronto Symphony, Kwamé Ryan, conductor
By Ken Winters, The Globe and Mail
May 26, 2008
“…but the superb young Japanese-Canadian violinist Karen Gomyo, his soloist in the Mendelssohn, summarily banished any such misbegotten notions with her deeply serious, temperamental and just plain gorgeous account of the solo part. Possibly the last great talent to come under the influence of Dorothy DeLay, she had the measure of the Mendelssohn concerto, both in its detail and in the large. She played it at its own level of lyricism and fiery invention, but always with a clear sense of the music’s rhythmic pulse and sonic perspectives.”
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz, conductor
By Lynn Walker, The Guardian
December 1, 2004
“The young Canadian violinist Karen Gomyo showed herself more than capable of taking the lead in this short but well-crafted concerto. She was unfailingly persuasive, with an unforced natural expressiveness and warmth. From perilous harmonics, gravelly double-stops and dramatic left-hand pizzicatos to her snatch of balalaika-like dance, Gomyo displayed a remarkable musicianship.”