Wendy Warner

• Cellist

Reviews

Wendy Warner press reviews

"Rachel Barton and Wendy Warner interpret Ravel's Sonata with flair and imagination, not least its lively second movement 'scherzo,' which builds to an exciting climax. The third movement's opening canonic theme and subsequent material are played with full-toned passion and the lively finale is full of panache, its Hungarian folk elements driving it to an invigorating conclusion."
— The Strad
"Warner's pianissimo was gorgeous, and she had plenty of vigor at the other end as well. Warner's finale was a virtuoso's reading, and, overall, hers was a remarkably mature performance of this most adult of concerti."
— Boston Globe
"The young soloist Wendy Warner convincingly made the cello part her own, making light of the various technical demands of this concerto, regarded as one of the more challenging in the repertoire. Despite the cello's markedly centrestage role, there was never any danger of a domineering soloist here: Warner concerned herself with the subtleties of the piece, resisting the temptation to sentimentalise, and all with an impressive spontaneity."
— Glasgow (Scotland) Herald
“Rachel Barton Pine really may be the most charismatic, the most virtuosic, and the most compelling American violinist of her generation.”
— All Music Guide
“Pine is an extraordinary violinist. She played [the concerto] with astonishing ease, bringing a burnished tone and pristine articulation and intonation to the most furious passages. Pine played expressively, freely and, in all cases, appropriately. Pine's rhythmic and metric flex and dynamic and coloristic shadings contributed the emotional investment that late-Romantic music in general and this piece in particular demand.”
— Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"Barton and Warner [play] this demanding music with virtuosity, virility, and the ability to play an accelerando that really goes over the top. Their Ravel balances lyricism with technical brilliance in a performance that rivals Jaime Laredo and Yo-Yo Ma."
— American Record Guide
"Cellist Wendy Warner calmly ripped through Rimsky-Korsakov's `Flight of the Bumblebee' as if she were tapping her fingers on a coffee cup."
— Durango (CO) Herald
"Warner's finely sculpted playing made the most of the movement. Throughout, her thoughtful music-making had an admirable counterpart in the BSO's response to Yuri Falik's fluent conducting."
— Baltimore Sun
"Warner's phrasing was deliberate and definitive, her tone soaring, fragile or gritty as the music demanded. She took the slow movement at full measure, allowing its double-stops to embrace. At moments, she was able to hold the orchestra alongside her in unspoiled quiet."
— Harrisburg Patriot-News
"The Triple Concerto is perhaps a little less widely known than some of Beethoven's other orchestral works, but it possesses all of the composer's hallmarks in terms of style and structure. It is meant to set off fireworks, and it did."
— Omaha World Herald
"Miss Warner displayed marvelous gifts. She got a warm, full-bodied, gorgeous sound from the cello. She was both poet and firebrand. She played tenderly, stormily, soulfully. She showed a sense of the architecture of a long and expressively complex piece. She found the emotional heart of the music and sang from it."
— Jackson Hole Guide