• “[…] The mood changes when the soloist, Daniel Hoffmann, takes his place on the stage. He accompanies his performance with eyes wide shut, and his mastery of the cello is so intense that it threatens to take violent hold of this merely 23-year-old musical personality. Veins and sinews stand out against his arm-muscles, and his previously well-ordered tresses dance wildly across his forehead during his rendition of Sir Edward Elgar’s cello concerto, with its moods ranging from dark foreboding to the bittersweet pangs of melancholy. Almost glissando-like, he moves from one tone to the next before – in the allegro molto of the second movement – his great virtuosity thrusts the instrument’s registers into a tonal whirlwind, taking the orchestra with him. Following the airy lightness of the adagio, Daniel Hoffmann concludes his rendition of the Elgar cello concerto with the urgent impulse of closure towards the end of the fourth movement. And his distinctive energetic empathy characterizes his performance of the Sarabande from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Third Solo Suite…” (Frankenpost Hof, April 10th, 2012)
  • “…He chose to play the lyrical andante cantabile, opus 11, by Peter Tchaikovsky. His expressive performance, featuring a flexible tone, betrayed a very high degree of maturity…Following long, sustained applause, the soloist played as an encore the sarabande from the 3rd solo suite by Johann Sebastian Bach. Here, too, his performance was marked by an expression of deep introspection.” (Coburger Tageblatt, July 30th, 2011)
  • “Daniel Hoffmann, the soloist, had already been the recipient of various awards during the federal German competition for young people, “Jugend musiziert”. His career as cellist has been rising meteorically ever since he first took up the instrument at the tender age of six. Dimitry Shostakovich’s cello concerto in e-flat major starts out with a vibrantly performed allegretto movement that continues in restive manner with massive and particularly pure tones by the wind instruments, and ends with ostinato themes by the string section…the moderato movement bursts with energy in its exposition of themes that owe much to the Russian soul; it is here that the cello weeps in attaining the highest violin tones…The third movement consists of nothing more than a virtuoso cadenza replete with technical finesses, which lead into the final movement, allegro con moto, which the composer put in the style of a fantasy…It is a finale in which Shostakovich combines once again the full orchestral range of the cello with the powerful musical expressiveness of the orchestra itself. It was not until the young soloist, Daniel Hoffmann, continued to fascinate the audience by performing two encores that they allowed this remarkable concert to come to an end..”. (Neue Presse Coburg, April 6th, 2010)
  • “The program culminated, though,…in Dimitry Shostakovich’s concerto for cello and orchestra in e-flat major, opus 107, whose four movements were turned into a remarkable event by the soloist. His technical brilliance, his nuanced expressiveness in even the highest tones, his masterly finessing of the cello from deep double bass tones to the highest flageolet tones of the violin – all that brought the audience to their feet in wild approval. In the third movement, which consists merely of the solo cadenza, 22-year-old Daniel Hoffmann brought his entire youthful artistry to bear, carrying the work through to the celebratory finale with the orchestra…For his encore, this exceptional musician chose the “Courante” from the Solo Suite No. 1 by Johann Sebastian Bach.” (Neue Presse Coburg, April 5th, 2010)
  • “The highlight of the concert was Dimitry Shostakovich’s e-flat major cello concerto….Daniel Hoffmann was brilliant in his mastery of the difficult and technically very ambitious work. In 1959, Shostakovich dedicated the concerto to his friend, Mstislav Rostropovich..In other words, Daniel Hoffmann took up the challenge of following in the footsteps of a great virtuoso. And he is as convincing in the warm tones of the most sensitive passages as he is in his almost forceful approach to the aggressive-heroic sections of the concerto…The audience’s rousing applause for the young soloist managed to drown out the foot-stamping enthusiasm of the members of the orchestra.” (Frankenpost Hof, April 4th, 2010)

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