Thank you to Thea Derk for the extensive interview published in de Klarinet (May/June issue) and on Klassiek van nu (12.05.2023):“we want to build a strong foundation and communicate especially to younger generations that female composers did not appear out of nothing. …”
About our concert in Efringen-Kirchen: “Musicians give a thrilling performance. (…)Their playing is precise and clear, has the most beautiful timbres, also the necessary melancholy in the Romanze and furious temperament in the wild final movement – and all with a sharpened technique. This was intelligent entertainment, from which the two musicians and the audience were both captivated. …”
Jürgen Scharf, Die Oberbadische, 04.04.2023
About our CD “Invocation”:“…Invocation is an absolute asset in every classical CD collection. (…) Mel Bonis’s Pièces pittoresques et poétiques, can compete with the early work of Alexander Scriabin. (…) Elisabeth Lutyens’ five little pieces are small precious gemstones that you can look at over and over again and appear different from every angle. Even at a concert you could play the series twice, there is so much to discover.”
Bram Faber, de Klarinet – cd besprekingen, march/april 2023
About our CD “Invocation”:“Clarinettist Kymia Kermani enchants in her interpretations with a tendentially soft tone. Her careful view of the contrasts of the compositional models also brings dance and expressive moments to life in differentiated articulations.
Pianist Alba Gentili-Tedeschi proves to be a (…) sovereign piano partner who knows how to portray the foreground and enigmatic figures of the piano parts in a clever, agile and impressive way.”
Willi Vogl, Rohrblatt, March 2023
About our CD “Invocation”:“…Picturesque and poetic (…) The sophisticated program invites to a conscious listening and makes you want to learn more about the role of women composers in music history. Alba Gentili’s knowledgeable booklet text offers a place to start.”
Antje Rößler, Klassisch Heute, 06.11.2022
About our CD “Invocation”, & an audio sample:“… This album is a fine, and thus very successful, sampling of what ‘female composing’ (a terrible term) has to offer in an era that falls roughly between the mid-nineteenth century and the first decade of this century. (…) Let yourself be surprised!”
Aart van der Wal, Opus Klassiek, october 2022
About our concert in Grenzach and the CD “Invocation”: “… This is not a CD that can be left running in the background, but one that calls for conscious listening. The pieces, which are only between one and three minutes long, amaze in their entirety by the enormous versatility of the interpretations. The impressions of rarely heard music range from soft interplay to a small power struggle. Among other things, the short sequence “Rückblick” (“Looking Back”) as a remembrance of the Kristallnacht in 1938 arouses curiosity. The music with only two instruments captures the contradictions of that time, shows hope, turbulence and defeat, stimulates reflection, but also creates optimism again. Composer Ursula Mamlok thus took up a theme that is probably difficult to present musically, but found a convincing image for all those who are also familiar with the historic contexts. …”
Rolf Reißmann, Badische Zeitung, 13.09.2022
About our trio concert in Grenzach-Whylen (cello: Peter Krause): “…The pianist also stands out in Beethoven with her supple touch, good articulation, agile playing and lightning-bright runs. The clarinetist Kymia Kermani’s high notes sparkle, demonstrating a versatile embouchure, and she is brillantly agile in the faster passages. In the finale, it goes off like a “Mannheim rocket,” with accented, impetuous playing in these humorous variations on an opera aria.
The three chamber musicians use these musical means in the other works, such as the early late romantic clarinet trio op.3 by Alexander von Zemlinsky, a highly interesting, very dense trio between Brahmsian tone and Schoenbergian chamber symphony. …”
Jürgen Scharf, Verlagshaus Jaumann, 12.09.2022
About our CD “Invocation”: “… In a subtle, at the same time powerful and very feminine way interpretation by Kymia Kermani and Alba Gentili-Tedeschi, one gets to know artistic ways of expression via the classical impressionistic entrance, which assimilate the achievements of musical avant-garde, sometimes also jazz elements in a very differentiated way. (…) a very detailed program brochure [was] researched with QR codes that link directly to their video clips, in which Kymia Kermani and Alba Gentili-Tedeschi visualize the music very vividly. …”
Michaela Schabel, Schabel Kultur-Blog, 02.09.2022
About our CD “Invocation” and our inspirer Clémence de Grandval: “… The “Air slave”, with which the duo Kermani-Gentili opens its album “Invocation”, has a rousing esprit and sparkling salon atmosphere. Together with Grandval’s title piece “Invocation”, the two musicians Kymia Kermani (clarinet) and Alba Gentili-Tedeschi (piano) show what gems can be found in the huge sound archive with works by female composers. (…) The Dutch and Italian musicians have put together a diversified program – and have thus given a voice to many female composers who are still overshadowed by their male colleagues. …”
Guido Fischer, RONDO, 27.08.2022
About our concert in Holm: “… Complex articulations, contrasts or dynamic climaxes were so wonderfully interpreted by the two professional musicians with great ease and deep trust in each other, that the “Fantasia” opened up to the public with all its colourful images. …”
Kirsten Heer, 30-9-2019, Wedel-Schulauer-Tageblatt
“Ode an die Rhapsodie” reviewed on Musicalifeiten: A collection of beautiful twentieth century repertoire with four CD premières that partly opens up new paths and occasionally offers room
for improvisation. With an ideal way of giving and taking, important for a well-matched duo and a synchronouly intuition, the two provide a set of very profound and very beautiful sounding sounds. Hopefully it will not end with this one publication. A source of inspiration for
other clarinettists.
“Ode an die Rhapsodie” on the Rohrblatt, 1/2019: “… Claude Debussy’s Première Rhapsody obviously should not be missed on this CD, with Kymia Kermani and Alba Gentili-Tedeschi presenting characters ranging from soft-scented elegance to distinctive contours. Finally in George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, these excellent classically trained musicians showcase their qualities who devote themselves to the swinging metier with differentiated articulations and equal joy. …” Willi Vogl
“Ode an die Rhapsodie” CD of the week on Kulturradio Berlin Brandenburg
“Ode an die Rhapsodie” on Deutschlandfunk Kultur
“Surprising new clarinet repertoire played by Kymia Kermani with great intensity and expression. ”
Guido van Oorschot, Volkskrant
