Reviews
"Yannis Tsitselikis is a cellist and musician of the highest order. He is a very effective performer with a pleasant personality. He is going to be an important contributive member of the musical community."
Janos Starker
Antonin Dvorak - Concerto for cello and orchestra in b minor op.104
With the State Orchestra of Athens, under the direction of Christian Mandeal. The Athens Concert Hall, 7 October 2004
“… soloist Yannis Tsitselikis, a musician belonging also to the State Orchestra of Athens. He seemed sure of himself, he had worked in detail and with a great sensitivity every separate unit of the work. He particularly stood out for the extremely musical moulding of the phrases, by means of condensing and spacing out intensities and time durations.”
Nikos Α. Dontas
Kathimerini, 21 November 2004
“…. and we really witnessed in this concert today, that Yannis Tsitselikis, is not only an absolute master of his technique, as it is understood in our days (i.e. an imposing but also sensitive sound, an absolute tone precision, a bowing that never becomes rough, even in the most difficult skilful passages) but also has the maturity of expression and a nobility and directness of expression which is overwhelming and seducing. And this is precisely what the cello player succeeded: to overwhelm its public, to seduce it, to conquer it.”
Liana Roussianou-Piperaki
Estia, 19 October 2004, p. 7
.“… a musician with abundant self confidence and rich resources of passion, elements that one cannot do without if one wants to approach the romantic repertory in a satisfactory, dramatic way, the cello player from Thessaloniki offered us an interpretation which was almost incessantly possessed by a feverish energy. Technically very competent, with a precise view point about the work, he followed the occasionally extremely fast direction of Mandeal, without losing the precision of the tone and of the articulation but succeeding in claiming successfully the necessary space in order to develop a generous shaping of the melody, based on extreme contrasts in terms of fluidity, charging and dynamics. The interpretation of Tsitselikis won the unreserved enthusiasm of the public.”
Yannis Svolos
Εleftherotypia, 13 October 2004
Cello Recital - piano: Domna Evnouchidou, cello: Yannis Tsitselikis
EvnouchidouThe Athens Concert Hall, 15 December 2003
“… his structural balance, coherence, suppleness, his extreme tone precision and warmth that resounds in all the dynamic stages, and the bow that never, even for a moment, was reduced to shrillness, all these elements, developed the sensitivity and essence of the word of music.”
Liana Roussianou-Piperaki
Estia, 9 January 2004
Dimitri Shostakovitch. Concerto for cello and orchestra no.1 op.107
107With the State Orchestra of Athens under the direction of Byron Fidetzis. The Athens Concert Hall, 30 May 2003
.“… absolute master of his instrument, perfectly trained with a flawless tone and a powerful sound, the cello artist from Thessaloniki, created a precise interpretation with uninterrupted high levels of energy. His personal approach to the music, clear and complete, revealed an interpreter who is essentially attracted by the hidden, dark intensity and the melancholic lyricism of the Soviet composer, while caring less for its deceitful lightness, poisonous humour and the grotesque element.”
Yannis Svolos
Εleftherotypia, 4 June 2003
Cello Recital - piano: Athina Capodistria, cello: Yannis Tsitselikis
CapodistriaProgress Gallery, Βelgrade, 1999. (Summer Belgrade Festival)
“The cellist Tsitselikis belongs to those few musicians, who, with their performance abilities and other skills, enlarge the aureole of the beauty of music, making other people live relaxed through pleasure. This is an absolutely rare gift. Everybody knows how long the vibrations of some musical composition’s last accord remain in the air. However the mystery of how long the last tones of the phenomenal artists’ performances hold their resounding in our hearts and in our emotions, remains incomprehensible. That is exactly why we impatiently expect Mr. Tsitselikis and Mrs. Capodistria to appear again on the stages of our city.”
M. Ognjanovic
Politika (Belgrade), 1999
Cello Recital - piano: Evgenia Tseglakova, cello: Yannis Tsitselikis
The Athens Concert Hall, 4 November 1995
“… The young, technically excellent cello player, possesses those elements that transform a conscientious performer into an inspired interpreter-poet, namely: the beautiful, palpitating sound, the extremely fine but also dramatically strong expression, the inner intensity, the “thust” of the soul and of the mind.”
Lili Drakou
Εleftheros Typos, 14 November 1995
“… now he is back, playing with authority, the clarity of the musical thought the stability of the tone and at the same time with the passion and the “devine madness” of a genius.”
Aleka Symeonidou
Nea Estia, 1 November, 1995
Joseph Haydn - Concerto for cello and orchestra in C major, no.1
With the Chamber Orchestra The Moscow Virtuosi, under the direction of Vladimir Spivakov.
Herodes Atticus Odeon, Athens, 5 September 1995. (Athens Festival)
“… with this performance the young solo player in the Haydn concerto charmed the public both by his total dexterity expressed by a steady bowing, producing a sound saturated with emotion and with the “sureness” emanating from this performance… And on the other hand due to the sensitive, essential expression and on the other to an architecture simple following faithfully the tone of the composer.”
Liana Roussianou-Piperaki
Estia, 16 September 1995
Cello Recital - piano: Yannis Papadopoulos, cello: Yannis Tsitselikis
Tower of Plakendia, Pendeli, 24 June 1989. (Krystalleia Festival ’89)
“Yannis Tsitselikis captures the audience with the maturity of his musical thought directly expressed in his performance. And he seems to have an infallible sense of the line in the building of the musical work as he sculpts and meaningfully connects the musical phrases among themselves, with rich colouring of the major tones of expression but also with inspiring shadows for the minor lyrical ones. The passage from one note to the next, the perfect articulation of the sounds in the musical word is almost like the deep waving of the human speech.”
Aleka Symeonidou
Kathimerini, 26 August 1989
Cello Recital - piano: Yannis Papadopoulos, cello: Yannis Tsitselikis
British Counsil, Athens, 29 May 1987
.“Young Yannis Tsitselikis convinced us not only of his precociousness in terms of his expression and of his extreme sensitivity but also of his excellent education, which has led to the unbelievable for his age, development of his natural virtuosity. And the result is a mature, extremely sweet tone, a firm bowing, an spherical phrasing and a solid architecture.”
Liana Roussianou-Piperaki
Estia, 14 June 1987
