Boston Globe by Jeremy Eichler, July 06, 2009

[…] Tetzlaff offered a reading of the Brahms concerto that was at once immensely virtuosic and deeply personal. From his very first entrance, this was viscerally explosive violin playing, but always with a sense of pupose and richness of inner life. [..] But I think what ultimately moves people is the emotional openness and deep sincerity of Tetzlaff’s playing. […] Tetzlaff offered a reading of the Brahms Concerto that was at once immensely virtuasic and deeply personal. From his very first entrance, this was viscerally explosive violin playing, but always with a sense of purpose and a richness of inner life. […] But I think what ultimately moves people is the emotional openness and deep sincerity of Tetzlaff’s playing. […]

Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, 22.06.2009

[…] Begonnen hatte man mit Tschaikowskys Violinkonzert. Diesmal stimmte alles, wobei sich die Anteile gelichmäßig auf den Dirigenten, das Orchester und den Solisten verteilten. Der war ein fabulöser Christian Tetzlaff, der die glücklichste Mitte fand zwischen intellektueller Formbewältigung und jenem musikantischen, auch improvisatorischen Esprit, den dieses Werk unbedingt braucht.

Die Intensität des Tons, die völlig selbstverständlich, ja bescheiden absolvierte Virtuosität, die sorgfältige Wahl der Farben für die einzelnen Themen – all das war so suggestiv, so unmittelbar vereinnahmend, dass das Publikum im ausverkauften Haus bereits nach dem ersten Satz spontan applaudierte. Dudamel hielt die glänzend disponierten Gürzenicher zurück, tat aber im Hintergrund viel Gutes. Tetzlaffs Zugabe – die Gavotte aus Bachs E-Dur-Suite – setzte einen weiteren Leuchtpunkt in diesem Schlusskonzert der Gürzenich-Saison. […]

DiePresse.com, 13.06.2009

[…] Unterlegt mit Samt und Brokat. Komplex ist auch Szymanowskis “Erstes Violinkonzert”, seinerzeit selbstverständliches Repertoirestück von großen Geigern wie etwa David Oistrach, mittlerweile eine Rarität – aber eine faszinierende. Das konnte Christian Tetzlaff jedenfalls mit großer Überzeugungskraft vermitteln: Konzentriert, versunken und dennoch beherzt zupackend, brachte er die Musik in raschem Figurenwerk ebenso zum Funkeln wie mit seinem schlackenlos reinen Klang, zumal in höchster Höhe. Boulez und die Philharmoniker legten allen Samt und Goldbrokat darunter, den die Partitur verlangt, wussten große Apotheose und schmerzliches Aufbäumen expressiv miteinander zu verblenden: das ausgiebig bejubelte Herzstück eines eindrucksvollen Abends […]

Berliner Morgenpost, 27.02.2009

[…] unter ihnen das Violinkonzert von Alban Berg, dem Christian Tetzlaff eine kaum zu überbietende, mitreißende Wiedergabe zuteil werden ließ. […] Tetzlaff spielte es geradezu mit einer Ausdrucksraserei.

Christiane Peitz, Tagesspiegel, 24.02.2009

[…] Traumverloren auch der Geiger Christian Tetzlaff. Sein Spiel ist das eigentliche Ereignis des Abends in der Philharmonie, sein ins Klanggeflecht des Orchesters eingebetteter Ton, seine einsamen Wanderungen weit weg vom Lärm des Kollektivs, sein Vermögen, vollkommene Hingabe und restlose Kontrolle miteinander zu vereinen. […]

Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times:

Putting Solo Careers Aside to Work a Stage Together

[…] Their urgent and insightful account of Brahms’s Violin sonata in D minor, which closed the first half of the program, was espedially telling. Here were two accomplished artists with distinctive temperaments forging an organic interpretation that still managed to exude impetuosity. […]

Jeremy Eichler, The Boston Globe:

When music journeys beyond technique

[…] Two complete musicians guided an audience to the vital heart of music by Janacek, Brahms, Mozart, and Schubert. They played with an astonishing degree of sensitivity, nuance, and imagination. It was a simple – and as complex – as that.
[…] Unifying the night was Tetzlaff’s singular voice. He is a musical purist and yet he plays unmistakably with something the violinist Carl Flesch described as “inner participation.” No matter what piece is at hand, his performances have a rich sense of interior life. How rare, and how powerful, to hear a player stand out not for the brilliance of his technique but for the depth of his sincerity.

Peter Dobrin, Philadelphia Inquirer:

Christian Tetzlaff masters all sounds

[…] Great violin playing can follow all kinds of paths, from the technical razor of Joshua Bell tothe sorely missed depth and humanity of Pamela Frank’s now-rare public appearances.
Christian Tetzlaff renders such philosophical divergences a false choice. He’s got it all.

He also silenced any critic who might have winced Thursday night at yet another Philadelphia Orchestra performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto. The rightness of the interpretation and his teasing out of the concept of creation in a warhorse made this sound like his first outing with the work.

At the core of Tetzlaff’s magnificence is his sound. It is intensely sweet, yet it has dimension beyond mere prettiness. He changes his tone in pursuit of expressiveness, adjusting the focus from saturation to airier climes. He takes chances, too; hard-to-nail or extreme high notes, for instance, are never masked with vibrato.

In the cadenzas (one of which involved Angela Zator Nelson, associate principal timpanist) and in the encore of “Gavotte en Rondeau” from Bach’s Partita for Violin Solo No. 3 in E (BWV 1006-3), the most impressive thing about Tetzlaff is the fact that despite the perfect technique, he never comes across as cool or uninvolved. He does not rest at the level of a master; he continues to probe.[…]

Daniel Webster, Philly.com:

Violinist Tetzlaff and Bach at Kimmel

[…] His playing reminded listeners that Bach’s manuscripts are in calligraphy that flows – no perfect verticals or chiseled note shapes. His playing could have reminded violinists that imagination and, yes, affection carry more weight than centuries of analysis and scholarly rectitude.
[…] It summarized the sense of exploration that characterized all four performances, and it had the effect of removing the distance between composer, performer and listener. […]
Geraldine Freedman, Daily Gazette:

Electrifying performance by violinist Tetzlaff at Union College

[…] Throughout the evening, Tetzlaff’s tone was crystalline, his attacks feathery light, his bowings superbly controlled. His flawless and effortless technique was clean and true, his dynamic range was shaded on many levels. His pitch even on the double stops with the added pedal tone was exact. Sensitive to the music’s structure, his musicality had great integrity and purity and was infused with exuberance, delicacy, drama and a focused intensity. His Bach was lit from within. […]
Joseph Dalton, Timesunion.com:

Violinist excels on many levels

[…] Tetzlaff maintained a gorgeous sound. His instrument filled the room with warm and substantial tone, without ever being ripe or cloying. Every note was nuanced and well placed, yet never was there an obvious effort at creating vibrato either. It’s likely that Tetzlaff indulges in a more aching tone for those big romantic concertos, but he showed an approach to Bach that was personal but still clean and restrained without falling into the shrill frailty popularized by the early music movement.
[…] It’s a grand soliloquy for the instrument and Tetzlaff made it, by turns, solemn, serene, declamatory and prayerful. A restless cycling through of harmonies felt downright modern in its insistent sweep.

Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times:

Brahms’s Earthy Pasion Upstages Somber Messiaen

[…] Of all the artists James Levine has had as concerto soloists for the Met Orchestra concerts, few have energized him and the players as much as the brilliant German violinist Christian Tetzlaff. Their performances of the Beethoven and the Berg violin concertos in recent years have been unforgettable.
Mr. Tetzlaff, Mr. Levine and the Met Orchestra have done it again, this time with an insightful and exciting performance of Brahms’s Violin Concerto to conclude a concert on Sunday afternoon at Carnegie Hall.[…]
In the first movement he tore into the vehement outburst when the violin enters, playing with searing intensity yet utter control. He shaped arching lines with warmth and pliancy, balanced by clear-eyed directness.
In the slow movement he brought such sustained richness to the ruminative melodic lines that the music seemed at once ghostly and angelic. And the finale, taken at a brisk but never reckless tempo, was rustic and earthy, though always threatening to turn demonic.[…]

dpa Meldung