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CD Review : Marie Cantagrill - New Album « J.S BACH Sonata n°1 & Partita n°1 for solo violin

"After her last CD, « Partitas 2 and 3 », unanimously praised, and while continuing a successful concert tour in France and in the U.K, the virtuoso recorded this second part of her « Bach Complete Solo violin Pieces » Set, at the Combelongue Abbey, in Ariège (South West of France), in a beautiful acoustics, highlighting the beauty of the sound of her Bernardus Calcanius violin from 1748, a magnificent instrument which can only allow her to even express more the whole set of qualities that she possesses, and that we previously already underlined repeatedly : her round, warm, always crystal clear, never forced, homogeneous on all its extent sound, her smooth bowing skills, her way of being exactly and absolutely in tune, her impeccable phrasings and rhythmics, and also especially her tremendous musicality - making the very most of a very complete dynamics range, with always very subtle and perfectly felt rubatos , as well as subtle musical breaths.

The whole thing combined with charm, femininity, sensuality and mastered solidity. All this is true in all the « melodic pieces », the "prestos" (n°4 from the Sonata, n°4 from the Partita) of the album, played in a « devilish » tempo – the latter ones showing all of Marie's dazzling virtuosity. As it is also true in the Tempo di Borea, with its dynamic staccato.

Let's pay tribute and be thankful to her for bringing Bach back up to his true level of musician and poet, and for transmitting us the touch of the rarest artistic feelings.

"CD Reviews :The Strad's experts evaluate the latest string recordings :"Bach Partitas no.2 and no.3" - Marie Cantagrill

Even the most enlightened players do not always entirely succeed in throwing off the vestiges of the 19th‑century virtuoso tradition in these endlessly challenging pieces. Enter Marie Cantagrill, former winner of the Vieuxtemps Competition, who plays with a beguiling freshness and easy spontaneity that are the complete opposite of the 'furrowed-brow' school. Beautifully recorded in an Angers church, Cantagrill conjures up organ-like sonorities at relaxed tempos that allow one to experience the fundamental harmonic patterning of these supreme scores with fresh ears.

In the epic Chaconne from the Second Partita, she manages to avoid completely any sense of the monumental, segueing between each variation with a naturalness that makes the change to the major mode a moment of touching simplicity.

In the bracing Preludio to the E major Partita, Cantagrill takes flight with a vocal ecstasy to send the spirits soaring, and in the famous Gavotte en rondeau she captures the spirit of the dance with an alluring cantabile sensitivity that is utterly captivating.

The final Giga, often driven home as a forceful summation of the six sonatas and partitas, skips along with infectious buoyancy.

[...]Two concertos and a beautiful Christmas Present for the Appaméens..They indeed had the chance to attend at a very high level concert on Wednesday evening at the Notre-Dame du Camp Church.

In the Chancel of the Church, her bow in her hand, the virtuoso Marie Cantagrill "gave the tempo" to this evening with freshness, ease and spontaneity. One must emphazise on noticing the technique of this superior violinist, who managed to make the crowd stand up, around three hundred people, at the end of an hour and a half of music. Magic.[...] Main course of the evening, with a delectable mixture of softness and freshness...She managed without any difficulty, to bewitch the audience, that she totally won over as soon as she started playing her very first notes on her violin. A superb concert, proposed by the Cordialis Association, that achieved success in its choice of offering the audience such a high standard concert, while ending the musical year with wonderful music notes!"

"During her Recital, Marie Cantagrill offered the audience a unique moment of wonderment and enchantment altogether. On Saturday evening, the St-Jean Church welcomed a magnificent concert of the violinist Marie Cantagrill. Having released a new Album devoted to Johann-Sebastian Bach, the artist bewitched the audience with her superior interpretation of two masterpieces of the Master. With a most impressive touch, and an art of phrasing that tells much about the bond that unites the artist and her violin, Marie Cantagrill showed she's one of those artists who have this little « extra » and unique skill.
She's not only performing the piece as respectfully as possible, but she puts a part of herself, of her soul in it, offering a unique moment to her audience that can only admire such a great technique. The artist offered the best of herself to the audience that literally fell under the spell of this young, generous and talented woman."

"On Sunday, the concert hall was just large enough to welcome the numerous audience that came to attend at the concert of the virtuoso violinist Marie Cantagrill, with the "Ensemble Orchestral Capriccio"...

The violin magician performed the two Concertos for violin and orchestra by Johann-Sebastian Bach (in a minor and in E Major).

An absolute virtuoso, she respects the style in which those pieces were written, while still adding poetry and a true emotion to them.

Poetry and emotion which she shared with the audience, carrying along the musicians in an impressive dynamic, that left the audience bewitched."

"A wonderful recital took place this Sunday, at the church of St-Aventin, on the occasion of the "Pastorale du Tourisme".

In front of a numerous audience, Marie Cantagrill offered a very high level evening...The concert soloist played two Partitas, in the purest style, respecting Bach's spirit, and also performed the Ciaconna with an extraordinary dexterity, and a bewitching mastery of her bow".

At a precise moment of her young life, Bach just imposed himself to Marie Cantagrill. Bach, his rigour, his powerful strengh...Marie Cantagrill took possession of the Partitas...because she felt she had to play them, to make them become hers. And the result of all that is progidious.

Blond, sylphlike and still, her arm holding the bow being the sole thing that is moving by fits and starts, or by smooth sliding movements, as her long spindle-shaped fingers run over the strings, with her slim black figure, and yet so radiant, she offered her audience a Recital that left everyone petrified and spellbound.

As the sounds were rising and spreading under the vault of the beautiful Abbey Church of Vertheuil, before pouring forth as a torrent of life, no one moved in the assistance, spellbound, in all the senses, by the music and an interpreter who simply transfigured the moment. Invited to come and play by the "Amis de l'Abbaye", on the eve of this national feast that's celebrating Music in all its states, if I dare say, Marie Cantagrill, sovereign, supreme, was the incarnation of one of the most noble Art, dispensed a beautiful moment of eternity

"These famous Partitas - that are such classical pieces - belong to the most important and difficult masterpieces any violinist can play. And when, as a violinist, as myself, one finds oneself remembering them or re-reading the scores, and when one imagines a faithful, ideal version of those pieces, one wouldn't necessarily have thought the virtuoso Marie Cantagrill - who, before her formidable Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, had honored Wieniawski, Sarasate, Paganini and other Ravel in her previous albums - would be the one to offer us such a version.

Marie Cantagrill, with her flawless technique, gives to those sublime pages - that are so often performed as dehumanized stylistic exercises by other violinists - true life, and radiating energy.[...] In Bach - even if she perfectly masters, and respects ..."note to note" his scores, with such a precise left hand making you think of the work of a grand clockmaker, - however, never leaving out some very moderate and justified rubatos, - she adorns those pieces - thanks to her subtle bowing, from time to time voluptuous, and caressing, or also rather sharply precise and twirling - with poetic and expressive accents that can only cause emotion and arouse deep resonance in any music lover's soul. An emotion reaching its climax in the somptuous and appealing Ciaccona.

All that with an outstanding and truely artistic sense of good taste regarding this music. This CD, that has been remarkably recorded at the Saint-Serge Church in Angers by "Art et Musique", is a total success."

"After a first "Romantic and virtuoso Album", and the very beautiful "Récital Slave", Marie Cantagrill brilliantly pursues her solo career. From concert to concert, in France and elsewhere, she still has taken the time to record a brand new album that fires with enthousiasm an already conquered audience. High standard virtuoso, Marie Cantagrill knows how to make her violin sing and vibrate just as much as she knows how to make our soul thrill. Discover this radiant artist as well as her albums on her website [...]"

"On Sunday, Marie Cantagrill performed at the Abbey Church... She interpreted J.S Bach solo masterpieces, the Partita n°2 in d-minor and the Partita n°3 in E-Major. It was a grand and intense moment for the spellbound audience, simply elated, body and soul by the performance of this international artist. She literally managed to make her violin - a Calcanius Bernadus from 1848 - sing with an extraordinary intensity..."

"[...]Marie Cantagrill, the young and virtuoso violinist, interpreted two of J.S Bach Partitas. Under the dexterity of her fingers, the music started to live, the artist and the instrument became one, the violin became an orchestra, the notes flew off, light and full at the same time, under the vault of the church, and the audience was left bewitched!...After having brought joy and happiness with her music in Chassagnes, Marie Cantagrill took the road again to pursue her journey..."

"[...]a concert...that was warmly acclaimed and saluted by the audience. Marie Cantagrill is a nimble artist, when she makes her bow dance on her violin, creating a bright and limpid sound, as she manages at the same time, to make us daydream listening to the depth of her performance.

Marie Cantagril simply managed, with her interpretation of these Bach Partitas to take her audience on a voyage, far away, in Bach's world...

"For our great pleasure, here's the violinist Marie Cantagrill's new album, dedicated to the Bach Partitas. Dances Suites - Bach composed these pieces as real hymns to life, in a worldly and an also spiritual level. Marie cantagrill definitely knows how to make a perfect restitution of his soul and of its incarnation in the quick and lively movements as well as in the slow movements, all along the melodic developpment. Her elegant and sensitive art of phrasing perfectly expresses the quintessence of Bach's music, in all its purity. "

AN EXCEPTIONAL PERFORMER PLAYS BACH.

All along her concert, last Tuesday, Marie Cantagrill played with closed eyes, all in interiority. It's with all her soul, her heart and a hypersensitivity, that this musician expressed herself through her violin. A bow and four strings were enough for her to let us hear, through the BACH "Partitas", a multitude of sounds that let us think that several instruments were present. Her playing, very technical and totally mastered, immediately brought emotion to the audience. A magical moment.

The "Angériens", listening religiously, breathed and merged with the virtuoso and her instrument.This Recital was a moment a magic of a rare beauty.[...] From the moment Marie started to play, an intense emotion radiated. The audience offered her an ovation that was fully deserved".

«The singing of the stones continues within the Millenium Celebrations of the Abbey of Bassac", announced friar Henri, while welcoming some 150 music lovers, this Sunday late afternoon, all come to listen to the young violinist Marie Cantagrill.

The artist performed, with a tremendous talent the Partitas n°2 & 3 by Jean-Sebastian BACH, composed between 1717 and 1723. Played on an Antoniazzi violin, these pieces will be on Marie Cantagrill's new album that will be released in the fall.
"She knows how to vibrate the strings of her violin following the rhythm of her heart, of her simplicity..." was heard in the audience.

The partitas [...] were built like Dance Suites from the Baroque era, alternating slow and fast movements, that became later on instrumental music pieces. Songs and traditional music from Germany, America, Spain, Italy, England inspired Bach in composing those pieces and they simply delighted the audience of Bassac who gave this high standard virtuoso, Marie Cantagrill, a long ovation".

Her eyes closed, Marie Cantagrill knows how to make her violin sing in the most ardent way, to say the least.

The violonist Marie Cantagrill gave a Recital on Tuesday July 28th, at the Royal Abbey - Center of European Culture in Saint-Jean d'Angély, where she performed BACH Partitas n°2 & 3.

It was the 3rd concert Marie Cantagrill gave in just a few days time in Charentes, after having played on Saturday July 25th in Pérignac, at the Festival "Un été roman en Sud Charente", and on Sunday 26th, at the Bassac Abbey, for the Millenium Celebrations of the Abbey.

After Saint-Jean d'Angély, Marie Cantagrill will be on the road again to go to her next concert that's taking place on July 31st, in Essoyes (Aube).

On Tuesday 28th, the artist performed the Partitas n°2 & 3 by BACH, including, in the Partita n°2, an arduous and very intense piece that galvanized and held the audience spellbound : Ciaconna.

In the Giga or the Minuet, as well as in the Sarabanda or the Gavot, Marie Cantagrill showed, all along the Recital that she has an acute sense of perfect tone and that she masters Baroque Music - a music that requires sensitivity and virtuosity - handling her bow as a magic wand. This young artist - high standard virtuoso - has a genius for making her violin sing with intensity and make our heart and soul pound in the most ardent way ever.

Marie Cantagrill, a prodigy artist who creates an outpouring emotion around her and of whom you'll hear again!

"I knew that Marie Cantagrill was a violin virtuoso, but the concert yesterday at the Royal Abbey in St Jean d'Angély was awe-inspiring and full of emotion. (Programm : Jean-Sebastian BACH - Partita n°2 in d minor & Partita n°3 in e minor). Right from the start of the Partita n°2 we were carried along by the artist's virtuoso skills, knowing this partita requires great mastery of violin[...]".

It's under the ASMEO's wing and in benefit to Caritas that the young violonist Marie Cantagrill gave a BACH Recital on Friday, at the choir of the Saint-Matthieu's Church. Bach Partitas for solo violin are luminous pieces, good-for bringing-out all the many-sided talents of the performers : they require an art of singing, an acute sense of perfect tone and a mastery of the Baroque spirit, that allows the movements to sound in all their lyrical, dancing or descriptive expressivity.

All these qualities, Marie Cantagrill has them, undoubtedly - she has shown us that all along the Recital.[...]

The Partita n°2 starts with an Allemanda of an extreme melodic clarity. Marie chose there to play in a controlled tempo, that could surprise, but that actually allowed to bring out the best of the melodic line using wide phrasing, however not a bit too "heavy".

The vivacity of the Corrente that followed was even enhanced after that, with its tonic stresses on the dotted and bounding rhythm of this page. Marie Cantagrill's sensitivity particularly unfolded in the subtle and full of nuances, Sarabanda, singing, like a Cantata Aria. One could fully feel a strong emotion, but without pathos.

After a scintillating Giga, came the Ciaconna, from which Marie Cantagrill managed, right away, to assert the grandiose nature.

Skillfully emphasizing the dialogue between the voices with a singing phrasing, she perfectly managed to express the heroic transport as well as the dreamy poetry : the successive variations created a fresco with unceasingly changing atmospheres, going from a tender lyricism to an epic kindling.

The third Partita holds interpretation difficulties because of its dancing character. [...] The Minuets were performed with elegance and an elegiac subtlety; the Bourrée distinguished itself by a search for fluiditity in the musical line, whilst in the incisive Prelude and final Giga all the dazzling virtuosity of the artist finally broke."

Since she was five years old, the violin has been an integral part of Marie Cantagrill's life.

Apart from having had an exceptional musical course, sensitivity and dexterity, it's her radiant soul that shines through each one of her interpretations. After her two previous albums ("Romantic and virtuoso", and "Récital Slave"), this great artist offers us now moments of exception in the Tchaikovsky "Violin Concerto" and in the Rimsky-Korsakov "Fantasy on Russian Themes".This new opus has been recorded in July with the Budapest Concerto Orchestra, conducted by Tàmàs Gàl.

"The young french violinist, Marie Cantagrill, plays here the Tchaikovsky Concerto and the Rimsky-Korsakov Fantasy on Russian Themes with the Budapest Concert Orchestra conducted by Tàmàs Gàl .

To confront oneself with a Masterpiece of the Repertoire like the Tchaikovsky Concerto, that has been recorded by all the greatest violinists of the last 50 years, requires a lot of courage.

Well, divine surprise : Marie Cantagrill proves that she has not only a warm and luminous sound "à la Perlman", but she shows also an original interpretation that is , in no ways, inferior to Vengerov's for example ; in such a way that she doesn't seem to come from the "French School" but rather from the Russian one."

"[...]Marie Cantagrill goes at it (Tchaikovsky Concerto) like one possessed. Although recorded in a studio, Cantagrill's performance has about it the charged air of a live performance [...] she's certainly openhearted [...] this is a generous performance with a warm account of the of Rimsky-Korsakov's Fantasy to follow [...]"

"The young and talented violinist Marie Cantagrill has notably worked with Zoria Chickmoursaeva, from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. Then she pursued her studies in Belgium, at the Royal Conservatory of Liège, as well as at the Royal Conservatory of Bruxelles, where she then worked with Igor Oisktrakh.

She offers us here two pieces by Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, two composers from the second half of the 19th century, who we don't need to introduce anymore.
Recorded in Hungary with the Budapest Symphonic Orchestra conducted by Tàmàs Gal, this CD shows us beautiful facets of Marie Cantagrill's talent. She particularly excels in the Rimsky-Korsakov's piece, in managing to show the sensible and subtle alternance between moments of exuberance and moments of sensuality.

"Tonight, more than wishing to present you some composers, I'd like to present you a prodigious artist with such a virtuosity that she's already an outstanding artist among the new generation of young performers.[...]

She's called Marie Cantagrill [...] Her instrument of predilection is the violin, and she knows how to make it sing with such a virtuosity and a poetic way of playing that one could swear she was born playing it [...] A new violin queen who knows how to handle her bow just as if she was using a magic wand[...]A magician of our hearts[...] with the gift to make us travel, and get a thrill when hearing her[...]for the length of a concert or of an album[...] I'd like to try to define Marie Cantagrill [...] and for that, I wrote down two short phrases that I didn't invent, since they are from Jean Racine, but well..two sentences that will tell everything about her, in my opinion: " From the gloomiest sorrow, she brushes the shadows away, and makes my darkest days become serene days"[...]"

"For her third album, the violinist Marie Cantagrill confronts herself with the famous Tchaikovsky Concerto in D Major for violin and orchestra in which one can find the most formidable technical difficulties. Once the brief orchestral opening is over, Marie Cantagrill develops a pure and deep singing melody to which she gives a beautiful and surprising outburst.

Beyond her dexterity and beyond her virtuoso skills, it's the artist's soul that enchants the music here; it's a dense lively feeling that she brings to the "Canzonetta" without ever letting a certain part of dreams fade; it's a radiant joy, energy and vivacity that spreads out in the Finale.
All these qualities remain also in the Rimsky-Korsakov Fantasy, while the Budapest Concert Orchestra, conducted by Tamas Gal, perfectly supports and even frees the bewitching and enchanting violin playing of Marie Cantagrill."

Marie Cantagrill is a young soloist, very much appreciated by the audience as well as by the critics. Her magic touch, her warm sound and her passionate interpretations of Tchaikovsky, Brahms or Ravel have made her become a rising great performer of the classical music world.[...] Her two first albums are violin and piano Recitals and have been unanimously saluted. Her third album, recently released, was recorded in Budapest with the Budapest Concert Orchestra. She performs the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, and a piece by Rimsky-Korsakov."[...]She'll be taking the road again for her next concert tour in the first semester of 2009 : Colmar, Clermont, Belgium, etc...Let's hope she'll be able to come and play in our region too soon!

"After a first "Romantic and Virtuoso" album, and a very beautiful "Récital Slave" Album in 2006, that have both left us all, critics and audiences, so enthousiastic, the violinist Marie Cantagrill is now releasing her third CD, in which we can still enjoy her virtuoso skills as well as her sensitive musicality. It is, this time, an album with the "Tchaikovsky violin Concerto", well-known for his highly intense various movements, and with R-Korsakov "Fantasy on Russian Themes"; this new opus having been recorded last July at the Hungarian Radio Studios, with the Budapest Concert Orchestra conducted by Tamas Gal.[...] With a great virtuosity but also a deep soul and musicality, Marie Cantagrill speaks to us through her violin, and even achieves, at times, to reach some higher and spiritual level..[...] Whatever she performs -may it be virtuoso, highly and very intensely technical pieces or more romantic, tender and musical pieces - Marie always shows an immeasurable talent. She brings her violin to life, she's an integral part of it, and she just manages to thrill the audience that just follows in unison with her [...]"

[…]Sunday afternoon, in a more melancholy and passionate atmosphere, a second concert was offered to an even larger audience come to hear Marie Cantagrill play[...]. It was the occasion for the audience of the "Musicales" to discover all the sensitivity and virtuoso skills of this young artist...During an hour, between meditation and dream, the music-lovers let themselves be taken on a journey to the universe of this brilliant soloist.[...] With ease, the artist performed four pieces [...] : the César Franck Sonata in A major, the Meditation opus 42 by Tchaikovsky, Nigun Baal Shem by Bloch and, to close up the concert, Sarasate Gipsy Airs [...]

"For once, the Cultura Stores, that regularly organize pop-rock concerts, were proposing to their visitors to listen to Classical Music with the violinist Marie Cantagrill. Come to present her second album, the musician seduced the audience who remained there for a long time just to appreciate this musical moment...In presence of a very numerous audience, the violinist was very much applauded...Marie Cantagrill really enchanted her audience with her talent[...] It was indeed a great privileged that was offered to the Cultura Stores visitors who acknowledged right away the quality of the performance that they had been offered to listen to [...]

"Marie Cantagrill is an inspirational violinist who plays with no-holds-barred intensity that galvanises the listener's attention.When the notes start flying as in Wieniawski's whistle-stop Scherzo Tarantella or Rimsky's Flight of the Bumblebee, she provides a real "heads-down-and-see-you-at-the-end" experience that captures the music's uncontainable exuberance to perfection. And whenever she has the chance to dig deep and produce a voluptuous tone, as in Tchaïkowski's heart-rending op.42 Meditation, the effect is all-engulfing as with Itzkhak Perlman (EMI) and Isaac Stern (CBS, now Sony). Cantagrill memorably captures the swaggering bravado of Brahms's Hungarian Dances nos.1&5; and rarely has the soulful plaintiveness of Rachmaninoff's ravishing Vocalise been so powerfully conveyed as here... "

["THE STRAD" MAGAZINE- U.K - August 2006 - Julian Haylock]

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"“A first “Recital” had already drawn attention towards Marie Cantagrill, an ardent and moving violinist whose sound is luminous. She’s now back with a program of pieces by Slavic composers as Tchaïkovski, Suk, Smetana, Rachmaninov, Rimski-Korsakov and…as Brahms (with Three Hungarian Dances). You’ll admire her elegant phrasing style and the sensual sound she makes in the Tchaikovki Meditation, as well as her twirling virtuoso skills in the Sherzo-Tarentelle by Wieniawski and her deep rhythmical sense in the three pieces by Brahms. A beautiful “recital”, well compiled and interpreted. Véronique Bracco with her sophisticated, refined playing must be associated to this success.[…]"

[CLASSICA REPERTOIRE - March 2006 - Xavier Rey]

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"This CD reinforces the good opinion I expressed about the first CD (Berlioz – Paganini – Ravel – Sarasate) : a sharp and precise bowing that’s twirling above all the strings at times and a voluptuously caressing bowing at some other times, for example in the 4th Hungarian Dance, where she uses just what it needs of rubato and fantasy. Marie’s got a deep rhythmical sense and finds no difficulty what so ever in commuting her bow to a real “prima ballerina” dancing Slavic traditional dances. Within the strange, modulating Meditation, she manages to find various expressive playing ways, portamentos and tempos, with evocative sensed hesitations followed by more élans.[…]A lot of feminity in that interpretation, as well as in the Suk Appassionato. Then, in the very fast and twirling Scherzo-Tarentelle, she shows a brilliant virtuosity , as well as in her light and impetuous “bumble-bee”.[…]

[CONFEDERATION MUSICALE DE FRANCE
February 2006 - Jean Malraye]

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[…]this young virtuoso violinist...offers us, in her 2nd CD, to discover the Slavic spirit in a most stunning and moving way, through a repertoire of pieces by Brahms, Tchaïkowski, Suk[…]"

[Boulogne-Information Magazine - Feb 2006]

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"[…] AN ALBUM IN "VIOLIN MAJOR" [A "Slavic Recital" transcended by Marie Cantagrill] [...]She's got the talent to overstep all the difficulties there are and, thus, deliver us only the substantive "marrow" of the works she performs, and manages to move us deeply in the heartstrings of our sensitivity...Never before had her ardour and temper been more obvious to us. And for those who are haunted by the musical landscapes of Rachmaninov, by the winged escapades of Brahms, the Meditations of Tchaïkowski or also by the handy Rimski-Korsakov, this new opus will be a rapture for your senses and for your spirit...Those mixed moods echo most wonderfully in Marie's inner emotions[…]"

[La TRIBUNE Nov. 2005 - L.O]

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[Slavic Recital- Marie Cantagrill, violin - Véronique Bracco, piano] "Right from the first bars of her 2nd CD, Marie Cantagrill carries us along in her musical universe where enthusiasm blends in with an absorbing feeling of longing, well-supported by the fine cooperation of the pianist, Véronique Bracco. The listener is totally absorbed in a strange enchantment, mixing the gipsy tones of Brahms and the tenderness of the other pieces, as well as the virtuoso arabesques and the swirling, stunning of precision and finesse humming of the "bumble-bee" by Rimski-Korsakov! The interpreter expresses thus her brilliant qualities and her true violinist spirit. A confirmation for a great talented artist!"

[CODAEX Magazine-edited with "LE MONDE DE LA MUSIQUE " - March 2006]

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"Breathtaking..."

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" Marie Cantagrill , a stunning violinist "

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[...] Whatever she performs, Marie Cantagrill excels with a strong certain technique, well-served by the simplicity of her playing, and a very high standard finesse in her fingering"

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" What a sound!...What a temper!..."

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[…]With a wide and generous sound, Marie Cantagrill shines through right from the first bars of the "Gipsy Airs" that she performs with ease and warm ardour.[…]

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" […]Marie Cantagrill...Here's a name you must remember, as you surely have understood just by listening to these "Gipsy Airs " by Sarasate ... You've heard, in the center part of that work, all these violin glissandi she's performing with such an extraordinary sound evenness, as if she could make her violin sing, talk, tell stories...in brief, this is most certainly a young lady we'll talk a lot about in the future...Marie Cantagrill[…] "

[RTL-French Radio - Alain Duault - "CLASSIC CLASSIQUE" show]

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"[...]there was a real tangible emotion in the "Thaïs Meditation" that Marie performed most impeccably […] "

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" Marie CANTAGRILL at the "Blancs-Manteaux" in PARIS " [...] One can see that following great Russian violin Masters' classes, as Igor Oistrakh's, assured her an impeccable mastered technique as well as unquestionable expressive skills.You just had to listen to her in the Tchaïkowski Concerto, accompanied by the Voronej Orchestra conducted by Hugues Reiner... There were brilliant moments in the combined themes of the 1st movement of the concerto, as well as in the perilous cadenza; moments that incited an incredible spontanious amount of applause from the public right after the 1st part... In the nostalgic Canzonetta, Marie Cantagrill confirmed her singing skills in violin performing, and was definitely up to the woozy spirited dynamics that characterize the dancing "Final"." - Pierre Vidal -

["LA LETTRE DU MUSICIEN " 2003 - Paris]

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[…] A wide violin sound, a virtuoso fingering, and a generous and staggering easiness in her violin skills made that evening become a true moment of musical joy".[…]"

["VAR MATIN" Toulon - 2004]

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"the concert hall was totally full."[DAUPHINE LIBERE - 2001]

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"And I saved for the best part, the sublime and talented Marie Cantagrill...Her solo in the "Gipsy Airs" by Sarasate has charmed, thrilled, and literally carried the numerous public along..."

["LA TRIBUNE" - Concert with Orchestra]

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Marie Cantagrill's concert : "Religiously divine" ...The concert that was proposed by the municipality and introduced by the "Berthe Plantade Association"...will remain for all music lovers as one of the greatest musical moments of the year, if not the very best one. That Association's aim is to promote classical music, notably through supporting young soloists...Marie Cantagrill is one of those prodigies, as her résumé proves it. Accompanied at the piano by another virtuoso, Véronique Bracco, Marie interpreted last Sunday, in an almost religious silence, a Dvorak Sonatina..., a Tchaïkowski Meditation...The Slavic spirit was really pervasive in her interpretation of this repertoire, with all its melancholy, and sometimes desperation, but also with a resolutely turned towards happiness quest, as the numerous public that had come could witness. "

["VAR MATIN" - BANDOL -June 2005]

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" What Marie managed to make of her violin performing act was simply stunning: all by heart, she played the most perilous technical difficulties that actually reach vertiginous highs, with an absolute perfection and precision; followed by daredevil glissandi, and all that... the most naturally.

One could have thought that that devil-violinist was just Paganini's reincarnation!...[…]"

["der ZÜRCHER OBERLÄNDER" - Zürich - Switzerland - 2000]