Selected Reviews
"Works by American composer John Carbon are performed with tenderness and flair by pianist Steven Graff…My favourites? ‘Heather bells’, sensitively played, as all the pieces are…"
John Evans, Pianist Magazine, England
"Graff surmounts the lightning virtuoso passagework with impressive facility…A masterful and thrilling performance."
Ken Meltzer, Fanfare
"Graff’s renderings of the two works are so consistently satisfying it would be hard to imagine anyone bettering them…"
Ron Schepper, Textura
"…Graff, the New York Chamber Symphony, and the Warsaw Philharmonic are first-rate collaborators."
Patrick Hanudel, American Record Guide (CD of music of John Carbon)
"Guest Steven Graff brought an agile, rapidfire, imaginative edge to the piano, notably his own improvised cadenzas, which were as bitingly entertaining as they were anachronistic, taking the piece two hundred years into the future. Yet these made a perfect fit with the music."
Lucid Culture, review of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20
"Graff's playing has two strong points contributing to the success of this recital: He is a superb technician, most notable for his supple rhythmic control and tonal shading, and he completely inhabits the spirit of the composer. What more can a new-music aficionado ask for? For that matter, what more can any music lover ask for?"
Peter Burwasser, Fanfare Magazine
"In this recital of wall-to-wall premiere recordings, Graff plays Carbon with a comfortable authority, easily equal to the virtuosity of the Sonata, but with the experience and expressiveness necessary to communicate the timbral and textural nuances of the Spanish Lessons."
Len Mullenger, MusicWeb International
"Graff plays...with passion and no little flair. He has a fluid, natural sense of rhythm..."
Peter Burwasser, Fanfare Magazine
"...a world class pianist."
Irv Kupcinet, Chicago Sun Times
"The program opens with a bracing account of Robert Muczynski's
Toccata, Op. 15."
Stephen Estep, American Record Guide
"With his classical purity and earnestness, Steven Graff suggested a young Wilhelm Backhaus. There is no higher accolade."
David Higgins, The Desert Sun, Palm Springs, CA
"Exciting...great technical skill and broad musical understanding."
Bjorn Tore,
Ostlands-Posten,
Larvik, Norway
"Technically above reproach...fascinating pedal effects, genuine sensitivity."
Gerald Elliott, Grand Rapids Press, Grand Rapids , MI
"Steven Graff is undoubtedly one of the finest musical talents our village has produced."
Diane Freeman, Life Northshore, Northbrook , IL
"Steven Graff of New York City is molding future musicians at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music."
Kay Rohrer, Sunday News, Lancaster , PA
"Mr. Graff unquestionably has the virtuosity to cope with the difficulties asked of him by the music...(he) is a strong advocate of this literature and his playing served it up with excitement and authority."
Harris Goldsmith, New York Concert Review
"...the refreshing sensuality of this impressionistic piece was a delight to the ear and the lush broad strokes of Graff's graceful phrasing was an equal pleasure to the eye."
Mary Petro, Greenwich Time, Connecticut
