Benjamin’s BBC Proms performance with Charles Dutoit and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra has received excellent reviews. Please find some highlights below:
Gramophone Antony Craig, 15th August 2012 “a remarkable, exciting talent” “the Royal Philharmonic’s concert was packed to the rafters and I put that down to the draw of Grosvenor” “fearless and thrilling” “A rare talent”
Guardian Gue Dammann, 15 August 2012 “the best moment in this year’s concert came when all were quite silent, listening open mouthed to a red-shirted student pianist make light of the dense tangle of notes into which Leopold Godowski saw fit to weave the melody of Saint-Saens’s Swan. Audience and orchestra alike consumed in rapt delight, and the cavernous Albert Hall seemed to shrink to the proportions of a private salon” “Grosvenor’s introverted virtuosity was an excellent fit with Saint-Saens, his account of the work full of fleeting rapture and dark charm, keeping good faith with a composer whose pacing can easily wrong-foot a less thoughtful performer”
The Independent Michael Church, 15 August 2012 “His encore, a Godowsky-style filigree embellishment of the swan’s song from ‘Carnival of the Animals’, was exquisite: for pianism’s Team GB, a gold”
Jessica Duchen’s Classical Music and Ballet Blog August 15th 2012 “Benjamin went for gold” “the pianist’s voice shone out as a sliver of truth: genuine, unsullied 100-carat musicality. The work’s ferocious technical challenges flew past as though effortless” “He took the closing tarantella at a terrific lick, and the gorgeous central scherzo barely touched the ground” “he has a modest air and no pretentions. Instead, the energy of his virtuosity goes where it needs to, straight into the piano” “Godowsky’s transcription of ‘The Swan’ from Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals – to show what the pianist can really do in terms of limpid ebb and flow, songful, natural voicing and flowering musical instinct. It was pure magic” “half-hour of world-class pianism”
Financial Times Richard Fairman, 16th August 2012 “His Saint-Saens concerto alternated between a distant dream world and outbreaks of sparkling effervescence, and his encore – Saint-Saens ‘The Swan’ in Godowsky’s transcription – glided poetically across the keys"