Read More“As already stated, the music is great fun… Both orchestras involved play beautifully. Conductor Philipp Chizhevsky keeps the essence of the music throughout, while the soloists do a marvellous job in bringing this composer’s music thrillingly to life. Roman Mints is obviously worth hearing in whatever solo role he takes. Yana Ivanilova is unsurprisingly highly sought-after, and Alexey Goribol does a great job in the first of the two works.” —Steve Arloff
Read More“Like Britten and Schnittke, Leonid Desyatnikov’s film scoring experience has honed his ability to write pithily effective nad evocative music. And like many composers of the late Soviet period (such as Schnittke), his music is full of allusions and quotations… Desyatnikov’s parodies have Stravinsky’s light touch, though with a more mordant edge in Russian Seasons. Violinist Roman Mints has already championed Desyatnikov superbly in the studio, including an earlier recording of Sketches in a chamber-scored version. … The Brno Philharmonic, conducted by Philipp Chizhevsky, plays with tremendous zest and well captues the suite’s often disorienting mix of clowning and poetic reflection, finding a coherent personality in its eclecticism.…” —Daniel Jaffé ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Read More“ Based just on this introduction to Leonid’s music I would certainly like to hear more. … This music stands well as an orchestral suite, without any imagery, for it is very picturesque on its own. … The fairly substantial Russian Sketches for solo violin, voice and strings was written for Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica. The words and some of the music are taken from Russian folk tunes. Desyatnikov’s treatments are virtuosic in places and completely interesting throughout. … The performances here are all quite good. Special kudos to both violinist Roman Mints and singer Yana Ivanilova for being able to sound highly skilled and, yet, ‘earthy’ and folk-like when called for. This is a pretty impressive introduction to the music of Leonid Desyatnikov. I certainly had never heard of him before but I intend to find out more.” —Daniel Coombs
Read More“[Sketches to Sunset]’s extraordinarily vivid, entertaining music, showcasing this composer’s ability to be “serious and wicked at the same time”. So a restrained, chilly opening suddenly melts into a short tango called “Death in Venice”, opening with the theme from Mahler’s Adagietto blasted out on solo trombone. Much of what follows is incredibly entertaining and will amuse anyone who’s ever smiled at Shostakovich’s version of Tea for Two. Desyatnikov can also plumb the depths too; movements like “Absalom’s Death” are unbearably beautiful. A further reason to love this work is the inclusion of a flexatone in the penultimate section, and listen out for the Arvo Pärt references in the closing minutes. I loved this piece. You will too, and it’s terrifically performed by Mints, pianist Alexey Goribol and Philip Chizhevsky’s responsive, well-recorded Brno Philharmonic Orchestra. … [In Russian Season] Ivanilova is superb, and Mints’s playing is spiky and seductive by turns. Start your Desyatnikov collection here.” —Graham Rickson
Read More“The music of Destyatnikov has imagination, warmth and modern tonal folk fire. … “Russian Seasons” [has] some moments that have a genetic affinity with the neo-classic-folk period of Stravinsky, especially in its modular rhythmic liveliness and thematic organicism. But then you discover an overall originality that transcends influence yet remains very much Russian. It is a work that captivates and enchants in the most worthy ways. “Sketches to Sunset” … [is a] primal sort of experience of the haze of time seems palpable in the thematic sequencing. One is left holding the air of the present as the spell the music casts comes to a close. Desyatnikov has an inimitably tabula rasa way, yet there is strong tradition paradoxically present, too. A definite joy to immerse oneself in!”
Read More“Violinist Roman Mints, excellent throughout, applies more elbow grease to the hurdy-gurdy-style imitations in ‘Easter Greeting Song’, while Yana Ivanilova’s direct, no-frills vocal is less operatically staged than Korpacheva’s. … A long line of Russian composers have juxtaposed high with low, poignancy with parody over the years, of course, from Shostakovich to Alexander Raskatov; but Desyatnikov’s evocative synthesis surely makes him one of its most gifted proponents.”
Read More“The Russian violinist Roman Mints demonstrates a huge talent in this stimulating disc of contemporary works. The youngest composer represented here is Elena Langer, born in Moscow in 1974. Her twomovement Platch is an essay in invented folklore: deriving from the ritual of mourning at a traditional Russian wedding by professional mourners (to symbolise the death of one condition and the birth of a new), it has the solo violin swooning and keening and ululating in theatrically imagined grief, with the orchestra as mourners and responsories. The emotive demands of the solo part require Mints’s technique to scale vertiginous heights: as a showpiece of hysterical lament – issuing at last in an old Yiddish lullaby – the piece succeeds admirably.” —Calum MacDonald
Read More“The Moscow-born violinist Roman Mints, who deserves to be better known in the UK, introduces new or unfamiliar solo works in this fascinating recital disc. First off is the earliest of the works, which has obsessed Mints since college days: Ysaÿe’s Sonata in A minor (1923), a fiercely virtuosic work inspired by Bach’s G minor sonata. However much the work may once have eluded him, Mints plays it with conviction and insight here. A melancholy work by Dobrinka Tabakova (b.1980), Spinning a Yarn, uses a hurdy gurdy too, and draws on the notion of storytelling. Schnittke’s idiosyncratic tribute to Paganini, a Piazzolla tango – Etude No. 2, Anxieux e rubato – and Postlude by Valentin Silvestrov make up this varied and often haunting disc.” —Fiona Maddocks
Read More“In just about every which way, this is not your ordinary offering. Roman Mints is clearly an independent spirit, as his previous offerings have shown. The Ysaÿe begins, famously, with a quote from Bach (the Preludio from the Third Partita for Solo Violin). Mints deliberately distances this in the acoustic space; the immediate (Ysaÿe’s musical) reaction is very much in the listener’s face. The result is both highly imaginative and effective. The violinist’s stated aim is to make this montage idea sound hallucinogenic (the first movement is titled “Obsession”). The performance is exceptional. Mints’s purity of tone and his excellence in stopping are truly remarkable in the second movement “Malinconia.” The quiet statement of the Dies Irae that ends this movement is truly arresting here, as are the variations of the “Danse des ombres” third movement. Here the close recording really emphasizes the edge to Mints’s attack.…This could well make it into my next Want List.”
Read More“The recording techniques that Roman Mints discusses in his interview make his interpretation of the second of Ysaÿe’s six sonatas for solo violin like no other before it. The sudden shifts of perspective between the Bach quotations and Ysaÿe’s commentaries upon them bring the psychological drama to life with an immediacy that casts entirely new light on the music. Mints plays it very well, and his powerful and dramatic reading (in a sonorous acoustic) would command attention without the insight brought by his novel approach; he takes risks and is rewarded with a high charge of electricity. I was surprised to find how well the program segued into Piazzolla’s Tango-Étude No. 2—it’s a step, not a leap. Piazzolla begins hesitantly, as if finding his way forward after the demonic enthusiasms of the Ysaÿe, but gradually expands into an elegant and sober essay, concerned more with the expression of feeling than the terpsichorean or virtuosic elements suggested by the title. Indeed, at 10 minutes in length it’s both a substantial contribution to the modern solo violin repertoire and one of the best works of Piazzolla’s that I’ve heard. … Mints proves himself a master storyteller as well as a superb violinist, and his engineering team have given him a recorded sound he can be proud of. The Quartz booklet is elegant, and generous with the annotations. An absolute winner of a CD, then, one that brings physical excitement and musical satisfaction in equal measure.”
Read More“It’s not often we hardened critics hear a new piece that can honestly be described as life-enhancing, but Marjan Mozetich’s Affairs of the Heart is that rare item that comes around perhaps once in a decade. Not since discovering the likes of the Barber, Korngold, Walton and Castelnuovo-Tedesco (I profeti) concertos in my mid-teens have I been so swept away by a work for violin and orchestra…Roman Mints, usually associated with contemporary music at the cutting edge of post-Modernism, plays with such deep feeling and glowing purity that one cannot help feel that he may in fact be a closet Romantic. After hearing this I would love to see what he might make of Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending. The New Prague Sinfonia under Mikel Toms accompanies with glowing sensitivity, and the Prague 2005 recording is beguilingly velvet-toned. Elena Langer’s Platch (literally “crying”) is a moving lament, dedicated to Mints and mesmerizingly played here…Another first-rate performance rounds out a highly recommended issue, which even the most conservative of readers should urgently seek out.”
“In its use of solo violin and electronics, Game Over is a virtuoso album.”
Read More“Mints is to be commended for such an enterprising disc, recorded with pristine clarity and aided by informative notes. I look forward to hearing more from this source.”
“…his playing is the star of the show. His conviction and sensitivity make a case for violinist as moody film hero, beneath a streetlamp and tuggling on a cigarette.”
Read More“Roman Mints’ new album is an exciting experiment. It seems that he is attempting to find a polymorphic music drawing down from classical traditions, avant-garde musique concrète, ambient electronica, and the soundtracks to movies and video games. The result is a collection of dark soundscapes that are listenable for a broad audience while still innovative and experimental. There are moments on this album that are so moody that the lights in the room seem to darken and the air to fill with a misty smoke. The effect is eerie and takes the most emotive sounds of the violin reinventing the sonic world that a classical violinist normally inhabits. On the other hand, Mints never strays so far that he loses the thread amid a chaos of sound effects and electronica.…This is a really good album. The music is moody, but not overly so. It is experimental while staying approachable…It should appeal to a broad variety of listeners. The generation raised on video games, movies and television will find this a brand of instrumental music that seems relevant to today’s world. It is, quite possibly, a harbinger of the future of classical music.” —Patrick Gary
“Recordings to live with…the astonishing, febrile Russian violinist Roman Mints…I’ve played the recordings far more times than mere critical listening requires.”
“Remarkable young Russian talent…The music here is immediately communicative…performed with conviction and feeling.”
“In this performance, the chills are delivered with a special relish for the music’s deconstructive enterprise.”
“Mints shows interpretative virtuosity in revealing diverse stylistic words.”
Read More“Full marks to the 23-year-old violinist Roman Mints for devoting his debut disc to contemporary music.”
“He plays the spots off these difficult scores, making them not just approachable but utterly absorbing…astonishing performance…”
Read More“And from Muscovite violinist Roman Mints comes “Transformations,” a penumbral recital of late 20th-century Eastern European works.”
Read MoreTo end, Schnittke’s sour and grotesque distortion of Silent night makes a bizarre and thought provoking conclusion to a fascinating recital.” —Peter Grahame Woolf
Read More“The very first day produced a charismatic violinist of enormous potential, bidding fair to become a future star and household name. …Moscow born and trained Roman Mints appeared as a somewhat satanic figure in black, his red hair tied in a ponytail. He exuded confidence as he launched into Sofia Gubaidulina’s Der Seiltanzer (tightrope walker) in which the violinist escapes from the domination of the piano into flights of fantasy and virtuosity. The piano writing is no less original, beginning on the strings themselves, developing increasingly menacing bass sounds played with a glass tumbler, these growing to fortissimo by using the serrated bottom of the tumbler and metal thimbles, before the pianist finally settles at the keyboard. The violinist ascends to tremolo double harmonics, all achieved with sure ease by Mints, and abetted by his excellent pianist Katya Apekisheva. He brought to mind Paganini, and were he not restricted by PLG to contemporary music, an ideal foil to precede this piece would have been the Devil’s Trill sonata of Tartini! …Mints and Apekisheva finished their contribution by despatching Lutoslawski’s late Subito with shared verve and virtuosity; performances of this calibre make difficult contemporary music speak to doubters.” —Peter Grahame Woolf
“The most charismatic playing on Monday came from two Russians, Roman Mints (violin) and Katya Apekisheva (piano). Remember the names.”
Read More“Earlier in the year Brian went to Moscow to conduct at the Homecoming Festival. Roman Mints, festival director and violinist with the ensemble performed alongside 12 other young Russian players. They performed a special piece by Brian entitled The Bird, The Boot, The Clock. Highlights were a beautifully improvised vocal solo extravaganza by Roman. Man that guy can sing!” —Brian Irvine
“… violinist Roman Mints and pianist Katya Apekisheva – continued with an extraordinary work by Sofia Gubaidulina, Der Seiltanzer (The Tightrope Walker). An exposed solo violin opening led on to eerie scrapings from the inside of the piano, and this tense, fraught piece built gradually and hypnotically to a climax.”
“…what really matters is his ability to work with each of the selections on the composer’s own terms. There is no questioning the technical skill he brings to each of the pieces he performs. More important, however, is his acute awareness of where the music actually resides beneath the surface level of all the marks on the score pages.”—Examiner.com