"Liszt's technical challenges are met and surpassed in an impressive debut. It is a pleasant task to welcome a new name on the block with a debut recording as impressive as any I have heard in the past few years," Jeremy Nicholas wrote of Farkas's album An Evening With Liszt in Gramophone.
"From the word go you know you are in a safe pair of hands - not that Farkas is inclined to play it safe when it comes to tempi and the music's more perilous passages - with a warm, velvety sound throughout his wide dynamic range, and an innate grasp of Liszt's idiom," Nicholas said.
"Farkas thinks in big paragraphs. He has also found a way of binding its 'four movements' into a single and compelling narrative. A name to watch."
Writing for Music Web International, the critic Michael Cookson said "Farkas earns his colours" with the recording.
"Where Franz Liszt's piano music is concerned it is always good to have an exciting new kid on the block and Gábor Farkas fits the bill with this new release.... Farkas earns his colours in the mighty Sonata with a performance of considerable stature. I was struck by how, right from the first theme, he develops the material with forceful and dramatic power," Cookson said.
Photo: Fidelio
