Reviews
Recital with Cédric Tiberghien
Cheltenham Festival, 04 July 2010
"Schumann's Violin Sonata in D Minor, Op 121 has the hallmarks of instability, with ruminative, lyrical lines and passionate outbursts. Its ebb and flow eludes many, but not violinist Alina Ibragimova and pianist Cédric Tiberghien. Their Pittville Pump Room recital combined insight and virtuosity. The breathtaking intimacy they brought to the opening of Brahms's G Major Sonata, Op 78 was a potent reminder of the role played by Schumann's wife Clara in these composers' lives."
Rian Evans, The Guardian, 06 July 2010
Beethoven violin sonatas 6, 3 & 9, with Cédric Tiberghien
Wigmore Hall, 25 May 2010
"Their exciting Beethoven violin sonata cycle at the Wigmore Hall has come to an end, though it will live on in recordings. The house was packed, the concentration intense. Ibragimova holds nothing back as she works her bow and sculpts her phrasings. Tiberghien is almost as febrile, rippling out his piano cascades, capsizing into a sudden pianissimo, or pulling back from a muscular chord as if he'd just struck a mousetrap. The duo's boldest showcase was the Kreutzer Sonata, with its firecracker outer movements and lovely soft centre. Ibragimova's bow worked overtime. Loose threads kept dangling. Her pizzicato was wicked. These are ferociously gifted young musicians."
Geoff Brown, The Times, 27 May 2010
Beethoven Violin Sonatas-1 Wigmore Live CD WHLive0036
"Still only in her mid-20s but with a formidable reputation, Ibragimova brings characteristic intensity and sparkle to the music, playing the dynamic contrasts for all they are worth while investing the rhythms with a quasi-gypsy lilt. The partnershhip with Tiberghien sounds fresh and spontaneous - outstandingly so in the opening movement of the eigth sonata. But even in the gentle Adagio canabile of the seventh they establish a special rapport with the music."
Andrew Clark, Financial Times, 17 July 2010
"These performances are brimful of life; there's a sense of joy and freedom, with fast passage work that's exceptionally clear and even, and expressiveness that ranges from extreme delicacy to passionatee intensity. The liveliness has another aspect, too: Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien have clearly thought about each phrasse, every expression mark, with such detailed individuality as to banish routine interpretation. As a result, the character of each sonata emerges with vivid clarity."
Duncan Druce, Gramophone, August 2010 (Editor's Choice)
"This is very special. Alina Ibragimova...is a mature, intelligent, impassioned musician, technically and emotionally focused to a degree that would be exceptional in any violinist of her age...she has the kind of tone and expression that pins you to the back of your seat. For all the thought that has gone into her interpretations, nothing sounds contrived or over-cultivated. Cédric Tiberghien is the ideal partner...his alert responsiveness to the finer nuances of Ibragimova's playing is one of the features which makes these performances so magnificently alive...excellently balanced and beautifully clear recordings."
Stephen Johnson, BBC Music Magazine, July 2010
"...it is clear from their playing here that they are consumate artists: virtuosic, utterly integrated in their playing and mature in their grasp of Beethoven's particular brand of classicism, where a broad emotional range is reined in by strict structural coherence. One of the primary features of all three of these performances is their freedom from anything that even hints at mannerism...Perhaps most important, it is clear that each performer is responding to the other, producing an integration of style typifying total agreement between them."
Mortimer H Frank, International Record Review, June 2010
"Spontaneous, impulsive, young and fresh, the violinist Ibragimova and the pianist Tiberghien make an electrifying partnership. This disc finds them live in concert in October last year, dispatching four of Beethoven's ten violin sonatas with inspiration and delight...and the pair's creativity in ducking and weaving, shaping phrases, surging with lyricism, brings multiple pleasures."
Geoff Brown, The Times, 08 May 2010
The partnership here of Ibragimova and Tiberghien is a rare meeting of minds. Both understand that each has an equal part to play in this music. Both make sounds that are unfailingly beautiful and, equally important, clean and clear. Both recognise that Beethoven was a disruptive revolutionary even in his twenties. These sure-footed yet spontaneous-sounding readings...emphasise the contrasts, assymetries and points of poetic repose.
Stephen Pettitt, The Sunday Times, April 25, 2010
Times South Bank Show Breakthrough Award nominations
"In the past 12 months Alina Ibragimova has gone from dazzling prodigy to consummate virtuoso...But in 2009 she brought out a recording of Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas — the Himalayas of the violin repertoire — that astonished with its technical assurance, expressive daring, faultless intonation and scholarly understanding. “Bewitching playing,” said Geoff Brown in The Times, and that verdict was widely echoed. She’s very much a postmodern virtuoso — refusing to specialise, and as knowledgeable about 18th-century performance practice as she is adventurous about tackling 21st-century compositions. A few weeks ago the Irish Times declared that she had achieved “cult status”. One wouldn’t wish that on any 24-year-old. But the rise of this impassioned, intelligent and inquisitive young Russian is a joyous breath of fresh air blowing through our concert halls." Richard Morrison, The Times, 04 January 2010
Beethoven Violin Sonatas Nos. 1, 4, 7 & 8, recital with Cédric Tiberghien, 27 October 2009
Wigmore Hall London
"...playing with volatile extremes of speed, volume and tonal colour which proved revelatory and mercurial...the phenomenal Ibragimova springs from a new tradition, one informed by fresh knowledge and scholarship... she makes a lithe, muscular sound, with fast, light bowing, limited vibrato and dexterous agility." Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, November 2009
JS Bach: Sonatas & Partitas for solo violin BWV1001-6 Hyperion CDA67691/2
"Ms. Ibragimova's combination of intelligence and intuition, vulnerability and steel on display in this new set will surely prove revelatory. Ibragimova combines the advantages of a modern instrument - or, rather, an updated 1738 Guarneri - with an imagination enriched but not entrapped by period-practice dogma. Using practically no vibrato, she gives each gesture and line its own sound and shape through her commanding bowing technique. Throughout this set Ibragimova makes familiar works sound both spontaneously conceived and inevitable. Her playing proclaims authority... Her dance movements are persuasive... In slow movements, Ms. Ibragimova's understated poise asserts an intensity all her own. And more than just a mighty feat (though it is certainly that), the famous D minor Chaconne here becomes an absorbing saga unto itself." Steve Smith, New York Times, 13 December 2009
"You can expect cult status to attach to Russian violinist Alina Ibragimova’s rivettingly pure account of Bach’s solo violin music." Michael Dervan, The Irish Times, 11 December 2009
"Another staggeringly well-played, freshly conceived account of core repertoire from the brilliant Russian Alina Ibragimova." Hugh Canning, Sunday Times Top 100 CDs of 2009, 06 December 2009
"Ibragimova reveals herself to be an exquisite interpreter of solo Bach. Her Bach comes as something of a revelation. The finesse we've previously admired in her playing is here combined with thoughtful stylistic awareness. She plays with very little vibrato, often none at all, so that variations in tone and colour all come from the bow, allowing her to present the musical shapes in a clear yet unemphatic manner. She eschews the usual violinistic attempts, through big tone and heavy emphasis, to underline the grandeur of Bach's designs...all her stylishness and technical refinement is at the service of an ingrained understanding of the music." Duncan Druce, Editor's Choice, Gramophone, November 2009
"...she comes of age with this superb set of Bach's solo sonatas and partitas... A quiet, reflective sensibility in the sarabandes of the First and Second Partitas is matched by the contemplative profundity of the slow openings of the three sonatas, and finds lively contrast in the way that Ibragimova tackles, with such incisiveness and aplomb, the music of more vigorous temperament. The element of the dance that underpins the movements of the partitas is ever-present here, whether in elegant, graceful phrasing or, for example, in the buoyancy of the B minor Partita. This is a violinist of interpretative maturity and thrilling spark." Geoffrey Norris, Daily Telegraph, 06 November 2009
"Young, excellent and serious, this 24-year-old violinist plays with a maturity far beyond her years. In this two-CD set of Bach's solo sonatas and partitas she's right inside the music, whether Bach calls for roaring fire or the tenderest melancholy. The D minor Chaconne soars without peril, though her artistry is at its finest in smaller miracles, with harmonics and a melodic line effortlessly juggled. Darting inflections, swift dynamic contrasts and poetry at high speed - this is bewitching playing." Geoff Brown, The Times, 17 October 2009
"This is an absolutely compelling set of performances, the kind that have you on the edge of your seat wondering at the freshness of it all and what she might do next. Every phrase in these familiar works seems newly minted, every bar totally alive...its sheer energy and self-belief are genuinely thrilling." Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 02 October 2009
"...her exploration of their surfaces and depths is charged with historical as well as superbly musical passion...her approach seems wonderfully to combine delicacy and toughness...her sound is seductive, her virtuosity bracing and every movement a victory. Her reading of the D minor Partita is the high point of the set, and the deeply pondered, marvellously felicitous account of the concluding great chaconne a true enshrining of the violin's soul." Paul Driver, Sunday Times, 04 October 2009
JS Bach Partitas No.3 for solo violin in E major
BBC Chamber Proms, New Generation Artists weekend, 29 August 2009
"Alina Ibragimova's performance of Bach's E major solo violin Partita was extraordinary in its elfin lightnesss" Ivan Hewitt, Daily Telegraph, 31 August 2009
JS Bach Sonatas & Partitas for solo violin
City of London Festival 28 June 2009
One player, one instrument, one composer: Bach's unaccompanied violin music has always been the ultimate test for any player, young or old. Alina Ibragimova, only 23, is already its equal. Where can a performer go from there? Back to Bach, of course; Ibragimova shows no sign of complacency, and her playing here - three hours of it, all from memory - had a searching quality, suggesting that no two performances will be quite the same. In this City of London festival double bill, she gave us every note of all six works, and then some: at the end, instead of collapsing in a heap, she returned to the andante of the second Sonata as an encore. Her sense of direction never flagged. Her playing in the slower movements was inward and focused. The fastest ones she took at breakneck speed, yet the notes all fell magnetically into place. It was a communion with perhaps the greatest of composers." Erica Jeal, The Guardian, 29 June 2009
Szymanowski Violin Concerto No.1, Hodinott Hall Cardiff, 03 June 2009
BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Walter Weller
"Alina Ibragimova was the fluent soloist, her sweet tone singing out in the high ecstatic lines" Rian Evans, The Guardian, 05 June 2009
Szymanowski works for violin & piano, Hyperion CDA67703
"The young Russian violinist Alina Ibragimova impressed this year with Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas but also with this fire-and-ice Szymanowski disc full of virtuosity, nuance, and wonderful coloristic imagination." Jeremy Eichler's top albums of 2009, Boston Globe
"Ibragimova and Tiberghien evince a rapport so fluently natural that one simply takes it as given, marveling only afterwards. Ibragimova's stunningly potent technique - the stuff of legend even in the close scrutiny (especially in the close scrutiny!) of the digital age - is soon forgotton...the more extravagantly impossible the violinistic hurdles, the more ecstatically glorious her tone becomes. Indeed hurdles do not exist for her, and the usual descriptive and critical terms are useless, if only because they suggest comparison with other artists suddenly dwarfed by the incomparable...Ibragimova does not play or perform - she simply possesses. The world of the violin has suffered a tsunami - Ibragimova is in a class by herself. Recommendation is superfluous." Adrian Corleonis, Fanfare, September 2009
"Alina Ibragimova teams with French pianist Cedric Tiberghien to prove that Szymanowski's violin music is the most impressive of his chamber music. An exceptional disc." Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News, 10 May 2009
"This is a performance that shows Ibragimova's art at her remarkable best: at one moment poised, the next playing with abandon. She is one of the most expressive violinists around. Ibragimova's authority is evident throughout." - John Allison, BBC Music Magazine, June 2009
"Alina Ibragimova wields her intoxicating violin with Cédric Tiberghien's dappled piano in the febrile splendour of the Polish master Szymanowski. Just when you're ready to faint after the early Violin Sonata, his Three Paganini Caprices arrive, dazzling us with Ibragimova's light touch and the duo's wonderful ability to move as one. More characteristic is Mythes - music of mysterious portent and idiosyncratic beauty." - Geoff Brown, The Times, 11 May 2009
Ligeti Violin Concerto, Barbican Centre London, 13 March 2009. BBC Symphony / Edward Gardner.
"The real star was the winning young soloist Alina Ibragimova, formerly a BBC New Generation Arttist. Indefatigably passionate and curious, she's never been one to duck a challenge or 20th-century thorns, and she stood her ground in Ligeti's sonic whirlwind with admirable focus and awesome technical dexterity. Together with Gardner and the BBC Players, Ibragimova took us to a brave new world so surprising and enchanted that I never wanted the experience to end." - Geoff Brown, The Times, 18 March 2009
Bach complete Sonatas & Partitas for solo violin, Yehudi Menuhin Hall UK, 28 & 29 January 2009.
"I don't think I have ever heard a more promising musician on any instrument - or, indeed, such an intensely musical (and moving) performance of Bach's unaccompanied violin works. ...She plays with an outstanding sense of period style...She has an extraordinarily compelling stage manner - quiet, focussed and seemingly at one with her instrument, she quietly walks on stage, stands and plays, looking at her violin with intense concentration and involvement with the music. Alina Ibragimova has a exquisite musical talent and an inspiring musical mind." - Andrew Benson-Wilson, Early Music Review, May 2009
Roslavets Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2, Hyperion Records CDA67637. BBC Scottish Symphony / Ilan Volkov
"Ibragimova has the bravura technique and coloristic range necessary to tackle the First Violin Concerto, which she clearly enjoys. Moreover, she possesses an elegance of tone that prevents the work's more showy pages from appearing trashy." Barry Brenesal, Fanfare, May 2009
"This is an exceptional recording that substantially enriches the violin repertoire with a highly promising young violinist who can be expected to reach even greater heights." Norbert Hornig, Fono Forum, May 2009
"Her formidable bowing and fiery temperament, the effortless superiority of the young Alina Ibragimova puts her in another class from most of the current crop of photogenic female fiddlers...played with convincing and consummate musicianship." Manuel Brug, Die Welt, March 2009
"Alina Ibragimova shapes this abundance on her Guarneri violin and makes it so full-bodied, so intense in tone, with such a gloriously uttered legato and such fabulous mastery in every register, that one wonders why she has not been booked long before now for all the great festivals." Eleonore Büning, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, February 2009
"The violinist Alina Ibragimova gives an impassioned performance with the ripe-sounding BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Volkov." - Stephen Pettit, The Sunday Times, November 2008
"The gifted violinist Ibragimova unties another musical knot with this knockout CD of concertos by the Soviet Modernist pioneer Nikolay Roslavets...Ibragimova's energy and lyric beauty makes her the music's ideal advocate" - Geoff Brown, The Times, November 2008
"Both concertos are beautifully played by Alina Ibragimova, whose slightly wiry, deceptively fragile sound seems ideal for this music's ambiguities, with Volkov and his orchestra providing the perfect foil." - Andrew Clements, The Guardian, November 2008
Stephen Kovacevich Residency, Wigmore Hall, 17 October 2008
"In a world bursting with brilliant young female violinists, Ibragimova is something special. She has a preternaturally pure and light tone, and way of moulding a phrase across its entire length, which made this sonata seem even more beautiful than ever." - Ivan Hewett, Daily Telegraph, 20 October 2008
Australian Chamber Orchestra tour August-September 2008 (directed from the violin)
"...reserve and quietness interspersed with flashes of intensity. Astonishing." - Peter McCallum, Sydney Morning Herald, August 2008
"Ibragimova is a superbly accomplished soloist. With a flawless bowing technique and drawing on a remarkable range of tone, she shone fresh light on familiar notes but always within the line and contour of baroque style; it made for constantly satisfying listening." - Neville Cohn, West Australian, September 2008
"Alina Ibragimova, guest director and lead violin for the ACO's 'Vivacious' tour, showed there is always more to find for those prepared to seek. Her stormy cadenzas flashed by like lightning...the whole piece came up fresh, almost as though on first hearing." - Elizabeth Silsbury, Adelaide Advertiser, September 2008
BBC Chamber Prom, Cadogan Hall London 04 August 2008. Recital with Huw Watkins
"The performance provided proof of why Ibragimova is fast becoming one of today's most sought-after young virtuosos." - Nick Shave, The Strad, November 2008
MDR Musiksommer Festival, 28 May 2008. Ravel: Tzigane; Saint-Saëns: Symphony Espagnole. MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig / Jun Märkl
"The biggest surprise was not the Carmen-Scenes, which were to have been the center of attention, but a 22 year old violinist, who replaced Janine Jansen in the last minute: Alina Ibragimova. A fairylike figure in a lilac, flowing gown, who controlled her instrument from the very delicate to the ecstatically flaming. A couple of times her playing drifted so soulfully into the sky over Weimar, that the birds from the courtyard façade answered - and then such a sound! Thunderous Bravos." - Norbert Wehrstedt, Leipziger Volkszeitung, May 2008
Konzerthaus Dortmund. Saint-Saëns: Violin Concerto No.3. Dortmund Philharmonic / Jac van Steen
"Alina Ibragimova conjured up enchanted moments of great ethereal beauty...a distinctive maturity and impeccable technique." - Julia Gass Ruhr Nachrichten March 2008
Brangwyn Hall, Swansea , 07 March 2008. Saint-Saëns: Violin Concerto No.3, BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Tadaaki Otaka
"Ibragimova brought an easy grace to the constant flow of melody and injected a brilliant vitality. However, her glorious Guarneri instrument and her expert voicing of its timbres was heard to greatest advantage in her wonderfully poised encore, the bourrée from Bach's B minor Partita." - Rian Evans, The Guardian, March 2008
Salzburg Mozarteum, Mozartwoche 01 February 2008. Mozart Concertone with Gidon Kremer & the Kremerata Baltica
"Gidon Kremer and Alina Ibragimova played with much taste and playful humour and were musically one heart and soul with the orchestra." - Gottfried Franz Kasparek, Drehpunktkultur, February 2008
The Best Music Of 2007 - our music critics describe their most memorable moments of the past year and recommend their favourite recordings
"I'd first heard Ibragimova in 2000, when she was a pupil at the Yehudi Menuhin School. Even as a tender teenager she played with an eloquence and technical flourish many professionals would envy. Not every child star breaks through as an adult. But Ibragimova is shooting ahead, a fully-rounded performer, impassioned and unafraid - even of the unfashionable music of Karl Amadeus Hartmann, featured on her debut on CD. Classical music needs her fire and daring." - Geoff Brown, The Times, 14 December 2007
Huntington Estate Chamber Music Festival. 28 November-02 December 2007
"...Alina Ibragimova, a Russian violinist on the edge of international fame...introduced herself to sensational effect, seeming to relax into certainty in solos, duos and trios, maintaining supernatural bow control even at pianissimo levels and - a nice touch, this - playing as first violin in an ensemble of colleagues from the Goldner and Flinders quartets in Brahms's gloriously songful G major string sextet." - Roger Covell, The Sydney Morning Herald, December 2007
Britten Sinfonia, West Road Concert Hall Cambridge 21 October 2007. JS Bach: Violin Concerto in A minor BWV1041. KA Hartmann: Concerto Funebre. Schönberg: Verklärte Nacht
"How refreshing to find a full house for a concert with the dread names of Schoenberg and Karl Hartmann on the programme. Hartmann's Concerto Funebre...makes big demands on the players. They were brilliantly met here, not just by the soloist, the 22-year-old Russian, Alina Ibragimova - but also by the Sinfonia, demonstrating telepathic rapport to negotiate fiendish tempo and mood changes..." - Richard Morrison, The Times, October 2007
Karl Amadeus Hartmann: complete works for violin Hyperion Records CDA67547
"As soloist and director, Ibragimova wrings a performance of remarkable commitment and the Britten Sinfonia has never sounded better. Impressive too are her performances of Hartmann's 1927 Suites and Sonatas for unaccompanied violin." - Anna Picard, Independent On Sunday, November 2007
"Alina Ibragimova offers a programme of engaging and thoughtful works that she's approached with an equally engaging, interpretive and masterfully commanding musical personality...Strongly recommended." - Robert Maxham,Fanfare, November/December 2007
"Her intelligent musicianship instantly moves her near the top of the list of impressive young violinists... Ibragimova shows maturity beyond her years." - Marc Geelhoed, Time Out Chicago, September 2007
"...an auspicious and admirably adventurous recording debut for one of the most exciting of today's young violinists, Alina Ibragimova. With the Britten Sinfonia strings providing incisive support, she steers a committed yet level-headed course through this emotive work, bringing plenty of tonal variety and expressive subtlety to play on Hartmann's deeply felt music. These characteristics also colour her brilliant playing of the solo works, with their echoes of everything from Bach to Bartók." - Matthew Rye, Sunday Telegraph, September 2007
"...Ibragimova's performance...is wonderfully assured, and the way in which the playing of the Britten Sinfonia dovetails with hers is always compelling. Ibragimova pairs the concerto with the solo violin suites and sonatas [and] conveys their crispness and clarity to perfection" - Andrew Clements, The Guardian, September 2007
"...a remarkably mature performance here from Ibragimova and the Britten Sinfonia. The young Russian violinist makes an equally effective case for four of Hartmann's early solo suites and sonatas." - Andrew Clark, Financial Times, September 2007
"Ibragimova brings to each piece a formidable technical and musical command, her sound always vividly coloured, her response the right mix of spontaneous passion and practised control." - Stephen Pettit, Sunday Times, September 2007
"Ibragimova's fiercely clear-eyed account - alive to the music's expressive demands as well as its dynamic markings...faces stiff competition but need not fear comparison with any of the dozen or so rival accounts. Her technique is formidable to say the least... Recommended." - Guy Rickards, Gramophone, September 2007
"Alina Ibragimova's account...ranks with the best. The way in which the Britten Sinfonia support and enfold their young soloist's beautifully nuanced and textured playing is a model of close-knit ensemble playing." - Andrew Clements, BBC Music Magazine, September 2007
Peter Quantrill, The Strad, September 2007
" With her supreme technical command and good taste, Ibragimova has nothing to fear... whatever she plays, it'll be worth hearing." - Geoff Brown, The Times, August 2007
Wigmore Hall, 24 September 2007. Recital with Cédric Tiberghien
"Ibragimova showed herself to be a player of charm and vitality, adept at subtly shaping phrases and with a gift for sotto voce playing." - Tim Homfray, The Strad, December 2007
Festival de Valloires 06 August 2007
"Her style has an understated charm that was particularly evident in the delicately played motifs of the Adagio third movement [of the Bartok Sonata for Solo Violin]. She can also deliver tremendous power, which was especially evident in the folk-like flair of the Presto finale." - Maggie Williams, The Strad, November 2007
Cheltenham International Music Festival, 14 July 2007. Recital with Cédric Tiberghien
"What they gave us was something very precious: a performance bursting with new life, fresh thoughts and the passion of discovery. Thiberghien gave Elgar's piano part a delicious French polish; Ibragimova amplified Elgar's passions with authentic Russian fire. Nothing was hesitant or parochial; this was Elgar the big international composer, not the small national monument." - Geoff Brown, The Times, ‘The Best Music of 2007' 14 December 2007
"That authentic murmur of delight rose from the audience's lips as Elgar's Violin Sonata came to rest... For Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien...Elgar had been new territory. I'd guessed as much: their playing was joyfully fresh and dynamic, free from misconceptions...the 22-year-old violinist made straight for the music's soaring passions, topped off with Russian fire. The performance conjured that murmur, too, because of the pair's wonderful rapport... With Ibragimova, every tone colour is at her fingertips, yet she's never the mechanical doll. She's already gone beyond superb technique; she feels and lives the music, even a hardy chestnut like Ravel's Tzigane. Both of these players have the potential to conquer the world." - Geoff Brown, The Times, 17 July 2007
Norrköping Symphony Orchestra tour March 2007. Britten Violin Concerto op.15
The Britten Violin Concerto is exiting, beautiful, dramatic, and somewhat dark, with unusual tones and playful rhythms. Above all this floated Ibragimova's violin, which sang in the light parts and moaned and roared in the dark ones. The power was so total, both in the gentle and dramatic parts, that it was no longer Britten, but Alina Ibragimova: she made the music her own. Despite her young age she is definitely the most talented violinist I have heard for a long time. I am convinced she will have a brilliant future.
- Ida Fredriksson, Norrländska Socialdemokraten (Luleå), 14 March 2007
The small, slender, young, Russian violinist's friendly smiles and bows gave a shy impression to start with. But don't be deceived - what incredible fire and energy this girl puts into her playing. She has enormous physical power and plays with her whole body. The solo in the three long movements is very intricate and demanding, but Ibragimova is such an incredibly talented violinist that she managed it splendidly. I don't believe I have heard anything so good and I have heard a lot of classical music through the years.
- Micke Forsberg, Norrbottens-Kuriren (Luleå), 14 March 2007
- Alina Ibragimova has a tone that goes straight to the heart. The Britten Violin Concerto is a difficult piece but Ibragimova managed it well. However it was in the encore where she let the emotion blossom. To hear Bach played with such feeling put a tear in the corner of the eye of this sour critic, which is something not many can achieve. Ibragimova is world-class and we will hear much from her over many years to come.
- Carl Rehnberg, Västerbottens Folkblad (Umeå), 15 March 2007
- Alina Ibragimova is a musician who has made every bit of the Britten Violin Concerto her own. She plays the most complicated passages as if she has made them up, just for fun. She is at her start of a world-class career and presents Twentieth Century music with complete understanding and freedom.
- Anna Lundström, Länstidningen Östersund, 17 March 2007
- Alina Ibragimova had us spell-bound with her fabulous playing.
- Tidningen Ångermaland (Örnsköldsvik), 17 March 2007
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BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Stefan Solyom
Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No.1
City Halls Glasgow, 21 February 2007
"...the sensational performance of Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto by the outstanding young violinist Alina Ibragimova.What was most convincing about the astonishing performance by Ibragimova of the Shostakovich was not the sizzling virtuosity and mind-blowing acrobatics of her playing (they can all do that) but the profound maturity and impassioned conviction brought to the sombre, haunting interpretation of the work by this very special young musician."
- Michael Tumelty Glasgow Herald 22 February 2007
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BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä
Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Symphony Hall Birmingham 17 November 2006
"...a remarkable account of Sibelius's Violin Concerto. Out of the orchestra's shimmering stillness she spun a line of exquisite intensity, growing quickly into passion; she is a player capable of thoughtful artistry and exciting abandonment. With Vänskä guaranteeing the Sibelian sonorties, this performance absolutely caught the work's elusive mix of energy and expansion"
- John Allison Sunday Telegraph November 2008
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