"an artist as alive to structure as to song"

"[He] flooded the hall with a warm, rounded tone...along with dynamic shifts, melodic emphasis and flexible tempo (especially in a spectacular cadenza), Vogt's twists and turns served to enhance the give and take of the chamber music aspects of this concerto."

The only sparks on Thursday night were happily confined to the stage - mostly to the keyboard - as the German pianist Lars Vogt made an exciting Philharmonic debut with Brahm's First Piano Concerto...Mr.Vogt was receptive to both [quotients of intimacy and grandeur] and he often discovered them co-existing side by side. His playing was broad and muscular in the outer movements but he tempered their monumentality with a lithe sesitivity and refinment of tone."

"The German pianist...produced a memorable, stylish and deeply touching performance of this landmark work. With immaculate technique and an infallible musical thrust, Vogt plumbed its contents while maintaining its outward simplicity. His own first-movement cadenza proved stunning in its sweep and appropriateness...A thrilling performance."

"Vogt produced a wealth of color and shading from the keyboard, releasing abundant character and momentum in the first movement, telling drama and exquisite tenderness in the second, wit and sparkle in the cheeky finale."

"The Hadyn sonata is a crisp little work which he plays with admirable neatness yet also with a natural warmth that manifests itself in tonal shading, discreet pedaling and that proper kind of rubato that one doesn't notice until one listens for it...the finale bubbles with life and wit. ...He is no less sensitive in the other three pieces, warm without sentimentality and displaying strength as well as sensitivity. ...I have rarely been so impressed by a début recital disc."

"Poetry also marked Vogt's approach to Grieg's concerto, though its stormy moments brimmed with virtuoso firepower. The CSO was an attentive partner, matching Vogt's wind-swept, rapt momentum."

"In Brahms' Op.78, I was already marveling at the expanded range of sound and articulation that Tetzlaff and Vogt now command. Vogt projected long lines of musical logic with sounds that achieved solidity without losing details. Then the pair hit the first movement's development section, with an ignition of sorts that's hard to explain and is heard occasionally - something bigger takes over... The four movements [of Webern's Four Pieces], which are less than a minute each, became complete worlds unto themselves. Vogt's sense of expression was supremely precise."

"Passage work...was light, airy and, in the last movement, awesomely fleet. The buildup to climaxes was sure-footed and exciting. It was delightful to hear - and see in his physical movement - such joyous music-making. And he delivered everything with a sparkling tone that was a pleasure in itself."

"[The] 33-year-old German pianist gave a beautifully poised and polished account of Beethoven's Concerto No.1...Meticulous in touch, he went for subtle contrasts in tempo, dynamics and phrasing. The cadenza was pearly and subdued until the final outburst...Everything seems to come naturally to him, and he can enjoy Beethoven's youthful tensions between classical and romantic leanings, between bursts of energy and hints of yet-unexplored depths, without making a big deal out of it."

"The intimate sensibility Vogt brought to the Brahms works was revelatory...Vogt's performance was joyous without sacrificing a drop of the [Schubert] work's dark sentiment. All four movements had an irresistible sweep and unassuming virtuosity, yet the pianist left plenty of time and space for the episodes of whispered utterance...his musicianship is thoughtful, personal and compelling. "

"Few pianists seem to believe in their music as religiously as Lars Vogt. While he is playing you are invited to share an experience that is as much spiritual as intellectual - with a quasi-Wagnerian emotional payoff at the end. ...Vogt is a deeply serious musician in whom temperament, intellect and technique are held in fine balance, in the best German tradition. There is no playing to the gallery, no expressive touch untested or unexplored. Vogt's Mozart - K330 and K332 - sounded like Hausmusik: intimate, artless, spontaneously inventive, in a way that would have been better served in an even smaller hall. Both sonatas benefited from being played without pause - and the white heat of concentration was even stronger in Beethoven's last sonata, Op 111."

"The soloist, Lars Vogt, performed like a man possessed by the music, inspired piano playing which recreated both the heroic and the intimate in this music. He found a delicate introspection in the adagio and stomped out the finale at an exhilarating impulsive tempo as a thrilling cathartic conclusion to the concert."

"Two Mozart piano sonatas in a single recital can seem less good than one, but Lars Vogt yesterday proved otherwise. ...he shed light on these works in ways that do not always occur."

"It was a magical performance...Vogt savored the music's more introspective moments, letting phrases stretch effortlessly and naturally, surmounting the technical hurdles with consummate accuracy and ease."