"Worldstar Franz Halasz visited Tapiolasali: From some people you just know, right after the first note has barely vanished, that here is a Star. American born german guitarist F.H. visited as a soloist with Tapiola Sinfonietta and undoubtedly nobody will forget him. One would have listened endlessly to F.H´s encores. Not just the acoustic virtuosopiece where the artist created a whole rich sounding orchestra from his guitar... " HELSINGIN SANOMAT „Simply electrifying! Rarely does one hear profundity coupled with such technical prowess,producing what one searches for in a recording: entertainment,enlightenment,& sheer beauty coupled with boundless sagacity. This interpretation of the increasingly present José Sonata is head and shoulders above the rest (yes, I’ve heard the Iznaola, Bream recordings & the others) ... Highest Recomendation.“ SOUNDBOARD -USA "His musicality and seamlessly fluid technique mark him as the most remarkable guitarist I have heard in many years" John Duarte-Gramophone Magazine "Guitarists like him are not only pointing the way to the future; they are leading the way!" CLASSICAL GUITAR-London "Kristallklar bis in die hintersten Winkel formt Gitarrist Franz Halasz in 'Royal Winter Music' die Trapezakte halsbrecherischer Grifftechnik. 'Drei Tentos' für Gitarre öffnen eine reiche Palette dynamischer Potenzen, die bis in zarteste Pianissimo-Äußerungen reichen." STEREO 07 / 06 - Germany "Halasz is indeed remarkable, mainly for the phenomenal clarity and precision of his musical vision...Halasz played with tremendous passion, commitment and musical insight ... One suspects that this is an artist for whom much of the guitar's familiar ways, ist repertoire, ist insularity, hold no interest. Excellent!" GUITAR REVIEW-New York „What a marvellous record ! ...Halasz gorgeous performance steals the wind from under Bream’s sails... It is the Spanish Guitar Disc to beat this year. Cheers, cheers. and more cheers!“ AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE "'Pick of the month'.Halász plays with consummate skill, alive to the essential fluctuating rubato and a whizz with Takemitsu's demanding chord shifts" BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE „Outstanding playing, then , in a recorded sound of luminous clarity and warmth - indeed, it’s one of the most natural and vivid accoustics I have encountered on a disc for a while. Alltogether a most succesful release. We shall be hearing more of Franz Halasz.“ FANFARE -USA Petrassi is followed by the even more extreme music of Luciano Berio, his Sequenza XI, written for Eliot Fisk. Halász negotiates the notorious technical difficulties of all three works with ease, yet he also invests his performances with much lyricism, managing to find beauty, particularly in Berio, where others have found only aggression." Boston Classical Guitar Society "Il giovane Franz Halász, negli ultimi anni affermatosi come uno dei chitarristi píu brillanti della sua generazione, in questo suo ommagio a Bach, conferma il suo talento tecnico accanto ad un limpido senso dello stile e ad una grande intelligenza musicale. Halász retituisce le tre Sonate con unampiezza di respiro e una varietà di fraseggio ammirevoli...Le sue esecuzione constituiscono una delle migliori possibilitá di ascolto fra le pubblicazioni dedicate alle trascrizioni chitarristiche di Bach." CD CLASSICA-Italy „Mit stolz erhobenem Haupt betritt da ein junger Musiker die Arena, mit Kraft und glänzender Technik, und mit der Gabe, seinem Instrument auch Schmeicheln und Lachen, Hohn und Verachtung, Tränen der Trauer und der Freude klanglich abzuverlangen.“ GITARRE & LAUTE-Germany „Halasz gives an impassioned performance of an intensity I have not heard before. Franz Halasz’s superlative powers of persuasion make this CD a contender for the guitar recording of the year , so far as I concerned. I declare him to be the guitarist most likely to convert listeners to an appreciation of contemporary guitar music.“ Colin Cooper-CLASSICAL GUITAR-London "Franz Halasz's recital showed a command of his instrument that together with his finely developed musical sense indicates a major guitar talent. Dynamics of blazing intensity brought Petrassi's Nunc to life as never before. For once ,one felt that the guitar really is a concert instrument commensurate with all the others!" "Franz Halasz, a young virtuoso with the stage presence of a veteran, presented one of the most brilliant accounts of the Ginastera Sonata I have ever witnessed." CLASSICAL GUITAR-London "Alles war er tat war vollkommen musikalisch und virtuos und ich habe niemals eine Aufführung des Scherzo aus der Sonata von Ginastera gehört, die flüssiger und ‚nahtloser' als seine gewesen wäre, die mich immer näher an den Rand meines Stuhls gebracht habe." GITARRE & LAUTE - Germany "Was Franz Halasz, gebürtiger Amerikaner, da aus seinem Instrument an Klangfarbenpracht hervorzaubert, sucht Vergleichbares vergebens. Man hatte bei Halasz Interpretation das Gefühl, in eine räumliche Tiefe einzutauchen, so plastisch gestaltete der Gitarrist hier Vorder- und Hintergrund." Dortmunder Rundschau-Germany "Zwei Kompositionen von Mauro Giuliani entfalteten die Begabung des Künstlers in geradezu brillianter Weise, ... die beinahe orchestrale Dimensionen vermittelte. Daneben verfügte Halasz über eine bestechende Leichtigkeit perlender Läufe." Ruhr-Nachrichten-Germany Nürtingen. Eine ausgefallene Besetzung, ein außergewöhnliches Konzert: Das Duo Halász faszinierte das Nürtinger Festivalpublikum am Donnerstagabend mit der seltenen Kombination von Gitarre und Cembalo."...Schon der Klangkontrast war frappierend: hier der runde, mittels Vibrato bewegte und bewegliche Solo-Ton von Franz Halász, der eine zierliche Gitarre nach einem Vorbild "klassischer" Zeit spielte, dort der typisch spitze, in rauschenden Akkorden obertonreich glänzende Cembalo- Klang. Ihn brachte Débora Halász auch solistisch, mit Bachs jugendlich- experimenteller Toccata in D (BWV 912) in einer effektvollen Interpretation zur Geltung. Auch die Gitarre hatte ihren Solo-Auftritt, nämlich mit Manuel de Fallas Trauermusik auf Claude Debussy und der "Danza del Molinero" aus "Der Dreispitz". Hier spielte Franz Halász detail- und stimmungsreich, farbig, strukturiert, mit virtuoser Technik, kantablem Ton und überzeugender Gestaltungskraft." Südwest Presse

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