Media response 2017–2023

Meilensteine für Solovioline

Find full review here

Outstanding

Find full review here

„Betörend (...) wie bei Midori (...) Und besonders die Kadenz im ersten Satz ließ aufhorchen: Kaunzner leitete sie ein mit jener Version von Joseph Joachim, Brahms´ Freund und Wegbegleiter, ging mit zeitgenössischen Klängenüber in eigene kompositorische Variationen, kostete das Vibrato in den luziden Tönen bis in die Tiefen voll aus, bevor sie über einen gerade noch erkennbaren ungarischen Tanz Brahms und Beethoven miteinander verband und spielerisch überleitete in die Orchesterbegleitung.

"Canzona" ist der erste Satz überschrieben. Sanglich und selig klingt er, insbesondere vom charakteristischen Klang der historischen Violine getragen. das Klavier liefert leichtgefasste Kommentare. Der Violinklang ist von eigentümlicher Süße, gemahnt bisweilen an französisches Kolorit. Er kann verträumt dahingleiten und ebenso mit Leidenschaft davonstürmen. Mit Sordino wird dieser Klang noch gewissermaßen miniaturisiert und reizvoll abgetönt. (nach einem Konzert mit Sonaten Nikolaj Medtner in der UdK Berlin, 2016)

Kaunzner’s own Korean Drip Cather has some poetic melodies and creative harp writing Jacques Ibert’s Spanish-tinged “Entr’acte” is fun and over-caffeinated, as his music often is. Song of Sackcloth, by Ja Young Choi, is a beautiful lament (…) the musicians are unbeatable; I’d listen to anything they played. © 2015 (about Duo 47/4)

Stunning (...) excellent (...) an album of the year

Find full review here

A violinist with a questing mind

Find full review here

unique (...) one must listen to!

Viktoria Kaunzner: Ja(zz)smine Rice Violin Mysteries

Solo Musica SM 220 Von dem leicht prätentiösen Titel und der entsprechenden Cover-Art sollte man sich nicht irritieren lassen: Hier liegt eine originelle, hervorragend musizierte Violin-CD vor. Viktoria Kaunzner, die seit einigen Jahren in Südkorea lehrt, macht ihr Wandeln zwischen den Kulturen zum Thema und spürt diesem in begleiteten und unbegleiteten Werken Daniel Schnyders („The Four Winds"), Krzysztof Meyers („Misterioso") oder Violeta Dinescus („Måtram") nach. Von den eigenen Stücken überzeugen die Haiku-Miniaturen Wintersonnenwende" eher als das titelgebende „Jasmine Rice". Und als wäre das und das unkonventionelle Booklet noch nicht genug, liefert die Geigerin noch eine äußerst anregende, den historischen und den zeitgenössischen Blick gleichermaßen bewahrende Interpretation der Bach'schen Solo-Chaconne ab. Respekt!

Her violin artistry is brilliant […], her musical capability is enormous.

The young violinist — for many their favourite — was applauded rapturously with stamping of feet by members of the orchestra after playing Mozart’s 5th violin concerto.

The limits of normality were then exceeded by a piece entitled “A chaque épée de lumière” by Violeta Dinescu. […] Viktoria Kaunzner created associations to a story reminiscent of Albert Camus’ novel “L’Étranger” (“The stranger”). Quarter-tone sounds of Arabian music with glissandi combining harmonics, martellati, rushing pizzicati, rapidly circulating melodies, grinding clusters produced by heavy bowing, finely chiselled figures floating off into pianissimo. Finally the sonata for violin and piano op.100 by Brahms. […] Soft and beguiling tone in the violin’s upper register. Then in the andante a simple folksong tune with a dance-like middle section. In the final allegretto a heavenly inner cumulation was evidence of the typical Brahmsian bliss. Most original the recently completed composition by Viktoria Kaunzner herself, and also a piece by Fritz Kreisler as encore. Long continuing applause and occasional bravo calls — a wonderful musical evening.

Viktoria Kaunzner’s […] more than usual vitality of playing was very convincing. She played Beethoven’s E flat sonata op. 12/3 briskly business-like and with powerful bowing […] In her rendering of J.S.Bach’s famous chaconne […] there was no slackening of tension. […] Kaunzner in her performance of “The Four Winds” by the Swiss composer Daniel Schnyder resident in New York […] sometimes reached the upper limit in expression […]. In the Valse Scherzo op. 34, penned by Tchaikovsky, dashed off with verve in one go, the watchword was pining at all costs. It sounded amazingly like those paragons Heifetz and Kreisler.

A rising star in the virtuoso firmament of young violinists […] enthused the spellbound and committed audience.

Viktoria Kaunzner […] is an extraordinary phenomenon in the young generation of musicians: in her natural and modest manner far removed from airs and graces or dramatic gestures she wins over her public from the first note. Her playing is full of sensibility and expressive power, her tone wonderfully velvet.

Classical avant-garde was also represented. Xenakis’ stochastic system, Philip Glass’ minimalism, the electronic studies by Kagel or John Cage’s aleatoric music were all in their time considered daring experiments, which shook the foundations of music. Today the best musicians vie with one another in interpreting these works. […] The duo Viktoria Kaunzner / Ulrich Murtfeld with their presentation of Mauricio Kagel’s Klangwölfen belongs also to these.

To begin with: the sonata for violin solo no. 2 in A minor […] by J. S. Bach — a sublime mental exercise in music. Viktoria Kaunzner’s performance of this work was highly concentrated and second to none.

Gently and softly they created a tension-filled power in which the young violinist used the dark timbre of her instrument to the full — with a broad and wonderfully resonant sound that reached into the lower register and carried well.

Viktoria Kaunzner and Sorin Creciun are especially in their element when playing their own compositions. Kaunzner’s “Jasmine Rice” for violin and piano has the effect of an extended musical meditation, in which elements of greatly differing styles intermingle. […] In this respect the young performers display an affinity with musicians of earlier ages when a division between performers and composers was unknown. Even their encores are not without certain flamboyance.

Sensibility, depth of feeling and serious musicianship, make Viktoria Kaunzner an artist with a great future.

With […] suspense-charged reflection and a flair for dashed-off, playful witticism […] the audience experience […] the violinist’s poetical improvisations. Where is the high point of the evening? It is certainly not a particular piece, but rather the intensity of the duo, that appears to be so well-adjusted to one another in elevated regions of sound and complex rhythmical structures. […] The eponymous “Wild Bird” fluttered in breathtaking harmonic runs, double stops, bow-bouncing, sumptuous sound textures and piercingly sharp accents. The music whipped around the audience bursting with energy. […] A wealth of applause for a duo that manifestly has pleasure in deciphering contemporary musical codes.

after a concert of Duo 47 / 4 with Anna Viechtl, harp

In the second half of the concert the student ensemble 20/21 of the Cologne Musikhochschule under David Smeyers with the excellent solo violinist Viktoria Kaunzner gave a mature rendering of Earl Brown’s late work “Centering”.

equally matched duo players

In Maurice Ravel’s sonata the violinist strolled back and forth between nobly mellow tones embedded in a wonderfully soft vibrato, and technically demanding playing.

She attacked the Paganini caprice with youthful abandon and a willingness to take risks. With her passion, technical brilliance and faultless accuracy this work took on a most poetical form.

Highly concentrated, yet with ease, she gave splendid expression to the pressing and dominant passages of the melodious theme.

[…] Instinctive sureness […] and a breathtaking alternation of moods […] led to an inspiring rendering.

about Beethoven's violin concerto