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responses:
“Michal Stahel immersed himself into great music and he was listening to it. He was a creative listener of himself and his pianist. The cello was for him “only” an instrument for expressing the dialogue with the composer. Michal has an exceptional gift: his playing is spontaneous, without pathos. Modest, passionate playing - uninterrupted concentration and continual self-control, self awareness and the striking up of a dialogue with his pianist. He skirts the dynamic aggressivity, aware of the fact that it is a composition for two equal instruments. I followed with similar interest the pianist (Slovak pianist Marian Lapsansky), for whom an encounter with Michal Stahel must be a creative musical experience. The role of the piano in this piece was often correctly senesd by the cellist and he literally supported his accompanist in this direction. It was a pleasant experience... He showed himself in everything to be a fully rounded young artist.”
Hudobny zivot, July-August 1999
“Stahelīs musicality, enthusiasm and deep musical emotional involvment is combined with intellectual maturity... The title Best Graduate of the Year, which is awarded every year by the Committee of the Bratislava Conservatory, belongs justifiably to Michal Stahel.”
Hudobny zivot, July-August 1999
“Only at a few performances does the listener stop perceiving such surface matters as are sixteenths, triplets, forte or harmonics. In the case of Michal Stahel this was the case completely. The audience witnessed his almost almost perfect understanding of the composition. Today, when everyone is trying to play as quickly and as strongly as possible, this young man enchanted and raised us from our seats with his exceptional temperament. He was able to create a novel from a single note. It is very exceptional for such a young performer to leave such a vivd impression.”
Czech Music, 1999-2000
“The tone forming of the cellist Michal Stahel is mastery in fact and in view of his young age, totally prodigious: he is able to vary a tone to the utmost so that all along changing impressions are evoked through nuances of the finest grade. He achieves a very human, expressive form that way that every tone develops its own subtile and refined timbre. He lured wonderful warm, dark velvet tones out of his cello with absolute mastery. With all his intuitive mussicalness, Stahel performs in a most intelligent way, the form and the expression in his interpretation are always congruent. Endless many valeurs in expression, the whole cosmos of possibilities in performance and timbre...”
Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung (german regional newspaper), “Cosmos of Timbre Possibilities”, November 1999
“As a matter of fact, the music performance of Stahel really cannot be described with other words as the following ones: He keeps on being silent in an excessive delight in playing itself and in playing instrument, he playss being silent in a ringing and such a nice way that one would like to sink in dreams. Have we ever wished to find another perceived existence as such one where we could listen to such music in which we would experience the utmost pleasure, i.e. to be what we really are? To experience such pleasure that it would not allow us to sink in sorrow. How Stahel lives over the notes, works up and relishes emotionally these compositions, the music as a coordinate of our culture, this incorporates the visions as very intensive strokes on the ear-drums of every common classic listener, the notes develop in a phantastic way and open at the same time also a fully unknown, abstract world of tones to that listener who knows those compositions. As if there was such a world in existence, this musician plays in state of exaltation as if not being from this world... Stahel turns the notes into dreaming music, the music of the out-of-world existence. An unforgettable evening!”
Heidelberger Rundschau (German regional newspaper), “Excessive delight of playing, Spell-Bound”, December 1999
“Michal Stahel once again confirmed and enhanced his identity as an emotive, reflective, harmonious musician. Stahelīs recognition is all the more pleasing in that it reflects a knowledge about a modest young artist, who is purposefully and directly marching on towards his lofty goal...”
Hudobny zivot, May 2000
“Stahelīs resume is with respect to his young age already varied. But even more interesting and greater richness is offering the opportunity to hear him playing live. He sings, meditates and excites with elegance worthy of an artist of the European level. Technique seems not give him any problems and so he can play with colours, nuances, delicate rubatos and dedicate all of his virtuosity and the mature individuality of his performance to deliver to the interpretation of the composers intent.”
Hudobny zivot, February 2001
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