The Ann Arbor Observer (Dec. 2005)
Joel Hastings’ all-Liszt recital was absolutely stunning from the first note to the last. Hastings is a superhuman virtuoso with a massive sound and monumental technique. Hastings has extraordinary charisma that commands complete attention. But best of all, Hastings is a real musician, and his musicality makes an audience pay attention not to him but to the music he's playing....But, under Hastings's hands, it all worked. His performance of Liszt's more-or-less straight transcription of Wagner's Liebestod was especially transcendent.
Through his control of balances and dynamics, through his command of tone color and pedaling, and especially through his imaginative, emotional, and even spiritual feel for the soul of the music, Hastings's performance achieved a kind of beatific rapture. If he can make glorious music with a fraudulent poetaster like Liszt, imagine how he will fare with the true poet of the piano.
The Windsor Star (Oct. 17, 2005)
... Clearly, however, the star of Saturday's concert was Hastings, who delivered a rapturous performance of the Gershwin Concerto during the opening half. He dashed unerringly through the accented arpeggios and attended to the romantic passages warmly. It was a balanced, intuitive performance.
article by Mark Stryker,
Detroit Free Press (Aug. 20, 2005)
[Hastings] couples gale force power with spontaneity and intelligence . . .
Oakville Today (Nov.,2004)
The evening finale was Sergei Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano concerto in C-minor. . . . Hastings immediately demonstrated marvelous craftsmanship with great strength and dexterity. In the seductive adagio . . . the soloist took pauses of a deliciously dramatic duration, reflecting the composer’s direction of sostenuto or prolonged. Very effective! . . . Hastings’ intricate right-hand solo was a delight to both hear and observe . . . The final coda was rousing enough to earn both the guest and the orchestra a well-deserved standing ovation.
by Laurence MacDonald
...Pianist Joel Hastings appeared onstage at the MacArthur Recital Hall on Sunday as part of the St. Paul’s concert series in a program of works by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt.
Hastings pulled out all the pianistic stops right away with a sparkling rendition of the Concert Paraphrase on Verdi’s “Rigoletto.” For the next 90 minutes, Hastings offered works that were both lyrically tuneful and technically challenging.
Most impressive were the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12, in which actual Magyar themes are included, and the formidable Sonata in B Minor, a 30-minute work in one continuous movement. The audience seemed enthralled with the entire program.
Kamloops News (Aug. 2002)
Guest pianist Joel Hastings performed the much-loved Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Sergei Rachmaninoff. The melodic moments were expressed poetically with stunning singing tone and the energy of his performance was felt throughout the hall. We were left feeling this was a labour of love and, combined with a mastery of the keyboard which was more that adequate to the task, explains the wide audience appeal which this very fine pianist commands.
Article by Dennis Ferrara,
On The Town Magazine (2002)
Hastings opened his recital with an extremely sensitive reading of Variations Serieuses [by Felix Mendelssohn]. . . . Hastings certainly understands the art of nuance and phrasing. . . . Each variation had a subtleness of tonal variety as an artist has with a painter's palette of various pastels. The pianist was the tonal artist in this composition. One was immediately cognizant of Hastings' beautiful tone. The ability to produce such warm and “singing” tone from the instrument is indeed an art unto itself. . . . Hastings' interpretation of [Prokofiev's Ten Pieces, Op. 12] was noteworthy. The pianist brought out the charm as well as the tonal characteristics of each piece.... [With Rachmaninoff's “Lilacs,” “Lullaby,” Oriental Sketch, and Etude Tableau, Op. 39, No. 1] Hastings' sensitive reading of these extremely lyrical pieces was memorable. This sterling pianist understands the art of subtlety in bringing out melodies and making the piano “sing” in a cantabile style of performance. There was never an ugly or an aggressive tone; rather, through Hastings' extremely sensitive interpretation, the audience had the rare opportunity of hearing this warm and beautiful music for its own sake. . . . totally unforgettable piano recital by Joel Hastings.
It appears that someone forgot to tell Joel Hastings that he was the warm-up act. After all, the Huntsville Festival’s Saturday night show as called Ode To Joy, a reference to the second piece on the program, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. It’s not unusual for a classical music program to include one highlight piece and a few other performance to round out the evening. The implication is that Hastings’ performance of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 11, was a “rounding out.”
...Hastings was born in Canada, but his musical soul seems to have come from the Russian steppes. Sensitive playing of five Rachmaninoff pieces and a set of 10 short works by Sergei Prokofiev made up a large part of Hastings’ recital at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. the Steinway piano, brought in especially for him, rang with warm resonance at his every touch.
Truly lyrical playing was heard in the “Lullaby”(a Tchaikovsky song that Rachmaninoff transcribed) and “Lilacs.”
Extremely sensitive playing was again heard in the Sonata No. 9 by Alexander Scriabin. Its meandering harmonies and fragmented melodies may have been hard to follow, but there was no doubt about the pianist’s capability to produce mesmerizing sounds.
Among the non-Russian pieces on Hastings’ program, the “Variations serieuses” by Felix Mendelssohn received an insightful interpretation.
Capping the afternoon was a sensational performance of Franz Liszt’s “Totentanz.” Hastings unleashed a rendidion he arranged, with a little help from the 19th century pianist Has vol Bulow from the composer’s own version for piano and orchestra, based on a Gregorian chant melody, the “Dies Irae.”
Whatever the source of the music, Hastings’ playing was the most impressive single pianistic even of this local concert season. Torrents of sound poured out of the piano, with Hastings tossing off one hair-raising difficulty after another. His glissando runs were effortless in their execution, as were the many loud octave passages. In short, this was a tour de force that all in attendance will long remember.
...Windsor-born pianist Joel Hastings performed a pair of keyboard showpieces at the opening pops series concerts, Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon at Cleary International Centre’s Chrysler Theatre.
He began with a magnificent reading of Franz Liszt’s “Totentanz” to close the first half of the program, then rounded out the concert with George Gershwin’s popular Rhapsody in Blue.
The double dose of Hastings was a bonus in a program full of musical good cheer and celebration....
But that didn’t deter Hastings and the orchestra. The soloist delivered a dignified performance, but full of the Lisztian dash.
...Guest artist Joel Hastings enthralled the audience as he tackled the difficult Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Opus 11, by Chopin. He moved from the drama of the first movement—performed with appropriate arm action—to the more romantic, water trickling sounds of the second with ease of playing, although he personally seemed rather tense.
The young artist, originally from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and now a resident of Ann Arbor, Mich., has an intensity that matches the ornamentation of Chopin’s compositions.
“I’d have to say he was phenomenal,” she said.
The audience agreed, giving Hastings a standing ovation.
...Canadian guest artist Joel Hastings thrilled the audience with his mastery of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor. He exuded confidence and control as his hands, crossing at times, glide over the keys to melodies with florid filigrees.
It was simply beautiful and beautifully simple. At the conclusion, the capacity house, wich had sat rapt, erupted in a standing ovation.
“It was dreamy,” said Moffat. “I didn’t want it to end.”
An impressive all-Chopin piano recital by Canada native Joel Hastings launched the 14th season of concerts in the “Music at St. Paul’s” series Sunday in downtown Flint. The program marked the 150th anniversary of the renowned Polish composer’s death.
Despite the cavernous acoustics of the Gothic-style St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Hastings astutely managed to project the lyrical melodies of Chopin. the opening work, the Barcarolle, Op. 60, suffered a bit from the echo, which blurred the fast-moving passages, but when the delicate second theme arrived, Hastings produced ringing tones on the Steinway that soared above the arpeggiated left-hand accompaniment.
In the Grand Valse Brillante and the Scherzo, Op. 54, Hastings revealed an uncanny ability to project clearly Chopin’s songlike melodies by slightly underplaying the dynamic levels. Although this tendency may have been perceived by some audience members as a lackluster approach to Chopin, there was much sensitivity to Hastings’ playing, and the results were rewarding throughout the two-hour program.
The most challenging portion of Hastings’ recital came with a bravura performance of Chopin’s Sonata No. 3, Op. 58. The long first movement, with its soaring second theme, was especially nice to hear. The brisk Scherzo movement also was superbly rendered. The slow third movement again revealed Hastings’ ingenious ability to project softly, but it was marred somewhat by his tendency to turn Chopin’s dotted rhythms into triplet figures.
There was little doubt of Hastings’ skill in the other works on the program, which included a slow-paced Nocturne in B Major and several pieces from the set of Twelve Etudes, Op. 10. The most familiar of these were the slow-paced E Major Etude (No. 3 of the set) and the “Revolutionary” Etude (No. 12). In the latter, Hastings again kept the running notes of the left hand at a slightly softer level than one might have expected to hear. But his sensitivity to Chopin’s musical lines was clearly in evidence.
The “Black Key Etude” (Op. 10, No. 5), which served as an encore, brought the program to a satisfying conclusion. G. Donald Kaye, St. Paul’s music director, deserves great credit for creating and maintaining this rewarding series of concerts.
Although he didn’t make it past the first round of the 1997 Cliburn Competition, Canadian-born, Michigan-based Joel Hastings emerged as one of the more interesting personalities at the competition last summer. Saturday, he returns for a solo recital sponsored by the Fort Worth Opera Guild.
Van Cliburn finalist performs - The State of the Arts cultural Series and FARA, along with the Canadian Embassy, presented a riveting concert by Canadian pianist Joel Hastings April 30 in the Dean Acheson Auditorium.
From the moment Mr. Hastings touched the keys of the piano, he displayed an exuberant technical prowess and physical intimacy with the piano.
His well-constructed program consisted of works ranging in years from 1685 to 1981. These versatile selections gave the audience an overview of the diversity of his piano repertoire. beginning with the Praeludium und Fuge in Es-Dur, BWV 852 by Johann Sebastian Bach, Mr. Hastings confirmed the uniqueness of his playing and a rare mastery of the keyboard. Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata, Op. 2, No. 3, completed the program’s first half.
A finalist in the 10th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Mr. Hastings previously has won an impressive array of piano competitions. Of several hundred applicants world-wide, he is one of only 35 musicians selected to perform in the “Olympic” piano competition in Fort Worth, Texas, May 23 - June 8.
...After Canadian Joel Hastings pulled his audience to their feet with a wild performance of Liszt’s “Totentanz,” a local radio host shoved a mike at him and asked, “Joel would you say that was a slam-dunk?”
...The control missing in Mr. Bogdanov’s playing was one of the main features of Joel Hastings’ performances. The kinetic fingers of this young Canadian reminded me strongly of his late countryman, Glenn Gould. Mr. Hastings even sits nearly as low at the piano as Mr. Gould did.
He gave a dazzling, sweeping performance of Liszt’s Totentanz and a vivid, alive one of Mendelssohn’s Serious Variations. But most amazing of all was his performance of a new Sonata by Australia’s Carl Vine, a piece of superhuman difficulty that is an impressive addition to the repertory and which Mr. Hastings tossed out with supreme confidence and glittering wizardry.
...My only real complaint is that they don’t let all 35 pianists play more. after all, I keep hearing that this is a “festival.” What if Liszt’s Totentanz (“Death Dance”) never again grips me the way it did when Joel Hastings performed it?
What he played: Hastings threw two curves—a Saint-Saens transcription of J. S. Bach and Canadian composer Carl Vine’s Sonata of 1990—then added some showy Mendelssohn and Liszt to create the day’s most ear-catching repertoire list.
High notes: Mendelssohn’s Variations Serieuses aren’t played as often as they should be, probably because so few pianists can find the right tempos to make the piece move forward with the hypnotic drive that Hastings invested in it last night. Vine’s Sonata provided a perfect excursion into modernism in an otherwise all-romantic program, as well as another display of Hastings’ apparently bottomless reserve of pianistic energy.
Low notes: We’ll admit that Saint-Saens’ transcription of the Overture to J. S. Bach’s Cantata No. 29 is fussy, but is’ a tremendous curtain-raiser.
To sum up: It’s hard to tell whether the audience or Hastings had more fun with this program.
Bowing low over the keyboard, Joel Hastings pulled the audience out of their seats with a blistering performance of Liszt’s Totentanz (“Death Dance”). “That last one, you need a fire extinguisher on the keyboard,” said Jing Ling Tam, associate conductor for the Fort Worth Opera. Before that, the 27-year-old Canadian pianist connected with a piece few in the audience had heard: Carl Vine’s Sonata of 1990.
Windsor’s Joel Hastings wasn’t going to let Franz Liszt get in the way of his triumphant homecoming Saturday.
The former Sandwich Secondary student who chummed around with members of the rock bands, Tea Party and One, grappled with an imposing chunk of granite in Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-Flat Major.
It was quite an honor for the 25-year-old University of Michigan graduate student, kicking off the Windsor Symphony’s Hiram Walker Classics series. And when he was done, he got a well-deserved standing ovation.
Liszt’s E-Flat Major concerto requires dexterity and sensitivity on the part of the performer. It isn’t an easy work to like or play.But Hastings chipped away its edges and made sense of its angular qualitites. He entered into the spirit of the piece, giving it a romantic, not hard-headed, reading.
Technically, Hastings is a nearly flawless player, with arpeggios that can raise the hair on your neck and cadenzas that have shape and consistence. The second movement, particularly, found him drawing the most out of the melancholy nature of some of the slower passages, like those of which he and clarinetist, James Ormson, conversed.
But Hastings rode through this section with aplomb, tinkling away with rhythmic precision in the right hand.
He found the defining centre of the work. He exercised restraint when necessary, but wasn’t afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve at times. What more can you ask of a performer?
The Holland Sentinal (1995)
For an artist of any age, the program and performance were stunning. At the age of 23 he doesn't show promise; he shows instead that he has “arrived” as a formidable artist and musician. The program opened with the eighth prelude and fugue by Bach from The Well-Tempered Clavier. The three sections of the prelude expressed a sense of the profound quality found in this “church-like” piece. The fugue followed in an appropriately brisk and happy tempo. . . . The second piece, the fourth Scherzo by Chopin, a piece I have always found elusive, was played with great elan with the appropriate breathtaking passagework.
First-prize winner Hastings . . . is a very exciting and confident performer and he brought a highly distinctive interpretation to the (Bach) Fantasia.