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"[Kvitko's] Mousorgsky is strong and heavy, with slow tempos and powerful crashes of sound. ‘Bydlo’ is very slow – almost too slow, but these are lumbering oxen – and makes Graf sound like children playing (wrong movement!). ‘The Old Castle’ is dark and shrouded in mystery. The last note of “Catacombs” really makes you sit up straight. Much of what he does is startling and dramatic, and all of it sounds natural and very Russian. There is nothing delicate about it and it is impossible to enjoy Mr Graf’s delicacy after hearing Mr Kvitko. Moussorgsky is simply more vivid played by Kvitko. ‘Baba Yaga’ is so much wilder – and here the tempo is faster than Graf’s. All his playing is pictorial – more descriptive. You can visualize the pictures from what he is playing. Graf is just playing notes; it’s just music to him - and he is actually very musical and never distorts anything. ‘The Great Gate of Kiev’ is a majestic structure when Mr. Kvitko plays it for us – a culmination of all we have “seen”, causing us to gasp. I think I have to add Mr Kvitko’s Pictures to my collection; it belongs among the best ever made, and the sound is simply thrilling. American Record Guide Nov/Dec 2008 "Sergei Kvitko has been quite vocal over the reality that these are not the performances of a practicing concert pianist. Some liberties are taken, he warns us in advance. Please don’t listen to this CD with the score sprawled across your lap, he intimates. I would suggest that this pre-emptive defensiveness is not at all necessary. Kvitko may not be performing publicly these days, but he is no amateur. This is masterful, intuitive playing, albeit not without some interesting quirks. His program is united by a pianism that embraces the instrument as an ensemble of strings, as opposed to a row of hammers. You almost never hear the front of the attack; everything has a plangent profile and a cantabile momentum. Perhaps the most arresting artistry occurs in the quiet, slower moments in the Schumann, where Kvitko finds profound poetry. He is never in a rush, and so his “Golliwogg’s Cakewalk” is almost a slow dance, and the cattle cart in Mussorgsky’s “Bydlo” lumbers as lugubriously as I have ever heard it. This is an interpretive choice, not a safe one. When the material calls for alacrity and tension, such as in the mad rush to the “Great Gates of Kiev,” Kvitko delivers. There is, elsewhere, an iconoclastic sense for rubato rhythm and phrasing, but never in a self-serving way. Kvitko loves the music more than he loves himself."
Fanfare Magazine Nov/Dec 2008 Sergei Kvitko's aptly titled new CD "Of Lands and People Far Away" is a thoroughly enjoyable disc with imaginative musical ideas and impressive pianism. His daringly original performance of Schumann Scenes from Childhood reinforces the idea that is music meant to be played to a child, not by a child. The Mussorgsky Pictures is given the full-blown Russian treatment exploring great contrasts of mood and tempo, but never with less than brilliant and accurate technique. The Debussy Children's Corner captures perfectly the mood of each piece. Particularly enjoyable is the Snow is Dancing and a refreshingly sophisticated version of the often hackneyed Golliwog's Cakewalk. Ralph Votapek, Professor-emeritus, Michigan State University, East Lansing
It's a beautiful recording; thoughtful and powerful playing, infused with poetry and wisdom! Arthur Greene, Professor of Piano, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Sergei Kvitko has released numerous extraordinary recordings filling the roles of recording engineer and producer, and his first foray as featured pianist is no less phenomenal. In the miniatures of Schumann’s Kinderszenen and Debussy’s Children Corner, Kvitko strikes a perfect balance between the repose of the intimate pieces and the exuberance and wit of the more brilliant numbers. Kvitko is a true poet, making time stand still in heart-stopping versions of “Traumerei,” “The Poet Speaks” and “The Little Shepherd.” Equally impressive is the wit and brilliance he brings to “Hasche-Mann,” “Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum” and “Golliwogg’s Cakewalk.” But the tour-de-force of the recording is the traversal of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, in which Kvitko places his extraordinary technique and control of the piano in service of a truly epic interpretation in the great Russian tradition. As we have come to expect from Blue Griffin's recordings, the recorded sound is absolutely stunning. Peter Miyamoto, Assistant Professor of Piano, University of Missouri, Columbia Sergei Kvitko's rendering of the Kinderszenen is masterful. The interpretation is refreshingly simple, demonstrating a deep understanding of the composer's ideals that is beautiful and unfettered by complicated gimmickry. The Debussy not only sounds wonderful in this recording, but it maintains the appropriate child-like enthusiasm and optimism from beginning to end. The Mussorgsky arrives after a search of several decades for just the right bent. I hope the pianist agrees that the result of his journey proves well worth the years of soul searching as this music, obviously very close to Kvitko’s heart and soul, takes on a truly unique and thoughtful tone in this recording.
Nicholas Roth, Assistant Professor of Piano, Drake University, Des Moines
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