Claves 50-9707-10, Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas on Period Instruments.  Collaborative recording by Tom Beghin, Malcolm Bilson, David Breitman, Ursula Dütschler, Zvi Meniker, Bart van Oort, and Andrew Willis
 

“The ‘tempo of feeling’ also looms large in Andrew Willis’s ascent of the most challenging peak in the range, the “Hammerklavier” Sonata.  Some may object to Mr. Willis’s freedom of tempo in the first movement;  I can’t recall hearing the movement played so flexibly by any other pianist.  But to my ears, Mr. Willis displays an exceptional sense of timing and of how to balance detail with long-range development; he also summons real humanity and depth.  This is a “Hammerklavier” of rare stature.”

Bernard D. Sherman, The New York Times, June 14, 1998
 

“Perhaps the most consistently satisfying pianist here is Willis.  His phrasing is sophisticated and organic, ebbing and flowing within a disciplined framework, informed by both short- and long-term rhythmic and harmonic awareness.  …Willis…makes this formidable work his own, notably in the touching, eloquently spun “Adagio sostenuto.”

Jed Distler, Piano and Keyboard, November/December 1998
 

“The infamous Hammerklavier is, at 40-plus minutes, Beethoven’s longest, most complicated instrumental work…, and it has been the downfall of countless pianists.  …I am happy to report that the present instrument, an 1835 large Viennese grand of Gottlieb Hafner, is very much up to the task.  And so, too, is the pianist Andrew Willis.  There are many long stretches of dense, imitative counterpoint in this work …that test the keyboard powers of any pianist to the absolute limits, and Mr. Willis come through consistently on top.  I was never quite able to shake the impression of a constant “struggle,” but the concept of a conflict or confrontation is probably indigenous to this music, and it may be impossible to play it any other way.  Andrew Willis is to be congratulated for his extraordinary accomplishment.”

Christopher Broderson, Continuo, April 1998
 
 

Concert Performance of Beethoven Concerto No. 2 and Choral Fantasy with The Philadelphia Classical Symphony, October 4, 1998
 

“Willis is a stylish player whose evolving authority with the [fortepiano] has been documented in his concerts here over the last decade.  He finds force and subtlety within the instrument’s particular voice, and articulates musical lines and their variations in highly expressive ways.

In [Beethoven’s] Choral Fantasy, …Willis played the spectacular introduction and variations with shadings to imply a wide range of emotion and seriousness.  His playing probed different sonorities in dialogue with the orchestral instruments, and seemed to ride with the chorus in the finale rather than dominating it.

Earlier, …in the Concerto No. 2, …Willis’ fluency argued for the value of the earlier piano in playing early Beethoven.  The clarity of linear writing contrasts dramatically with the weight of chordal playing, qualities Willis developed well.”

Daniel Webster, The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 5, 1998
 

“In his comments preceding the performance, [conductor] Karl Middleman described the Choral Fantasy as almost a piano concerto, with the vocalists, orchestra players and piano soloist conversing in dramatic exchanges.  This approach was firmly validated by the bold, florid playing of Andrew Willis, who had the privilege of performing on a vintage Broadwood fortepiano…, which was built around the time that this music was written.  If , in the public view, music emanating from a fortepiano is necessarily more dainty and subdued than a performance on a modern, steel-framed concert grand, Willis handily put such notions to rest.  The vehemence and excitement with which this artist dispatched the music conjured images of the composer himself, who played with such strength as to snap strings.

The ongoing development of the artistry of Andrew Willis …was even more vividly demonstrated in the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2, where, with due respect to the solid direction of conductor Middleman, the intensely focused vision of Willis seemed to shape the performance.  …Willis portrayed this most slender of the five piano concerti of Beethoven with a remarkable blend of athleticism and poetry.”

Peter Burwasser, Philadelphia City Paper, October 9-15, 1998
 

Concert Performance of Mozart Concerto in D, K. 537, “Coronation,” with The Mozart Orchestra of Philadelphia, January 17, 1999

 “Willis found color and melodic elegance in the [Mozart Concerto No. 26], exploiting the shorter, brighter sound of the [fortepiano] while fitting it to the orchestra’s long phrases and transparent textures.”

Daniel Webster, The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 19, 1999
 

Concert Performance of Mozart Concerto in E flat, K. 449, with The Apollo Ensemble, Greensboro, NC, March 11, 2000

“Willis…joined [The Apollo Ensemble] for Mozart’s Concerto No. 14.  The keyboard joined in from the outset, doubling what the orchestra was playing.  The result is a bit of thickening of the lines with a percussive quality supplied by the solo instrument.  Willis played like a dream.

Those who feel that classical music is square and predictable could learn much by listening to Willis.  There is a remarkable breath in his shaping of phrases, and one is struck by just how free the rhythmic flow of the phrase can be in the hands of such an artist.”

Tim Lindeman, News & Record, March 13, 2000

Chamber Music Performance, Eastern Music Festival, Greensboro, NC, July 25, 2000

“Willis returned to the stage alone to perform Mozart’s Rondo in A Minor, a work the composer wrote relatively late in life. For anyone who thinks that “early” music (or Mozart, for that matter) sounds boring, I recommend hearing Willis.  His playing is spontaneous and free, closely approaching the feeling of improvisation.

…The trio played [Mozart’s Trio in E Major] with great elan.  Again, Willis revealed his superb musicianship, facility and ability to meaningfully communicate an archaic style to a contemporary audience.”

Tim Lindeman, News & Record, July 27, 2000
 
 
 
Performance of Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 106, Palermo, Sicily, October 21, 2001


“The visionary quality of the huge Sonata in B flat major “Hammerklavier” is a real challenge for those who dare attempt its formidably intricate contrapuntality and the inconsiderate demands it places on the performer.  Andrew Willis dedicated himself to it with highly remarkable commitment.  The interpretive impression of the American pianist was of a fevered vision of the whole which in pointing out rhythmic and dynamic contrasts brought the densely-packed treasures of the Sonata into detailed focus.”  (translated from Italian)

Giornale di Sicilia, October 23, 2001

Recital, National Music Museum, Vermillion, South Dakota, May 19, 2003


“The most memorable, significant and inspired of the major performances was the closing one by Andrew Willis, who was also feautred at Westfield’s ‘Beyond Notation’ Conference last year.  The façade of performance slipped away as he exploited in full the grand piano by Anton Martin Thÿm, Vienna, ca. 1815-1820.  Willis seemed perfectly at home with the ‘stops’ of this extraordinary instrument, and…incorporated them seamlessly into the expression of each phrase of music, achieving thereby extraordinary effects from the most intimate one could imagine to the most thunderous of accents.”

Susan Ferré, Westfield, Vol. XVI, No. 3-4, 2003

Recital, San Diego Harpsichord Society, San Diego, California, January 4, 2004


“Played with the nuanced phrasing and sensitivity to tone color of a fine musician like Willis (an authority on the early piano), the “Stein” proved itself an eloquent exponent of the musical ideas and techniques that give the early Classical period its distinction.

“The instrument’s finesse—and Willis’s—were perhaps most strikingly demonstrated in the performance of the Adagio in B minor, K. 540, where the pianist brought out all the strangeness and profundity of this astonishing piece, at the same time adding his own artful (and quintessentially Mozartian) ornamentation in the repeats.

“A real musician plays what is inherent in the music, and that is precisely what Willis—an artist of spirited intensity—did.”

Jonathan Saville, San Diego Reader, January 22, 2004

Recital on 1848 Pleyel, Music for a Great Space, Greensboro NC, October 15, 2004

[Willis is] a scholar who can play – a musician whose work is informed but not constrained by his scholarship. This was perhaps more apparent during this Chopin and Fauré program than on any previous occasion. His playing was consistently superb, his technical prowess and musicianship and interpretive skills were of the highest imaginable order, and his program brought revelation after revelation, at every turn.

It was quite an evening…the response of the audience was prolonged and heartfelt.

John Lambert, Classical Voice North Carolina, October 2004