January 2004 .... Bowes takes Bremer Philharmonic spellbound audience by surprise
See review in German and English
New
York Times 3 Oct 2000
* Click photo above for link to review *
"Mr. Bowes was passionate and fiery on his own terms, which were thoroughly musical. He has an excellent range of color, from bleached tones to a full earthiness, and he throws off double stops and harmonics with aplomb. So, though, do all virtuosos. Things that more distinguish Mr Bowes are his rhythmic suppleness and his command of subtle microtonal tuning as a way of pointing accents or inflecting the line... Bartók's music also brought out his sense of rhythm, his way of bending back from the regular beat, with all the pent-up energy of a sapling bending in the wind."
Birmingham
Post November 2003
"Brahms' Violin Concerto brought a tremendous soloist to the fore: Thomas Bowes, a player of unflashy platform deportment, easy-appearing technique (even in the finale's gruesome multiple stopping), his 350-year-old instrument projected a strong yet sweet tone, remarkably even throughout the registers."
Oxford
Times June 13 2003
* Click logo above for link to review *
Brahms Double Concerto, Oxford
Philomusica.
"......These two [cello, Raphael Wallfisch] alerted audience response
like true stars........ the approach was unerringly sustained, both soloists
almost in telepathic touch...."
Bristol Evening Post 21
October 2002
"The often aggressive sounds of Britten's Violin Concerto had guest soloist Thomas Bowes bobbing and weaving musically and at times physically like a boxer trapped in a corner. His command of the rapidly changing testing passages never wavered, opening up the work clearly for our inspection."
“Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto is a fiendishly difficult piece
to perform yet it has its tender moments. Saturday's soloist, Thomas
Bowes, covered all the emotions of this masterpiece. Even the snapping
of one of his strings, which necessitated an immediate replacement,
did not deter this superb artist. The first movement cadenza was particularly
effective and the canzonetta had an extra sense of poignancy. The final
rattled along at an appreciable speed with, however, no loss of parity
from either soloist or orchestra.”
Bristol Evening Post 27 April
2002
The
Times 4 Dec 2001
“……..Bowes clearly has a feeling for the music, as you
might expect when the soloist is married to the composer. That lyricism
was discernible throughout. Even in the first movement, when the plangent
solo line gets no change at all from the harsh world of the orchestra,
the tone retains its dignitty – mournful but never desperate….”
The
Scotsman 3 Dec 2001
……the incredible violinist Thomas Bowes….."
The
Herald 3 Dec 2001
Gerard McBurney on Alberga Violin Concerto performance
"I was very impressed indeed and struck by the sense of drama, the passion of the music and the playing, the way the amazing long orchestral introduction set up the entry of the fiddle most daringly, the moments of tenderness and the way the music gets torn apart in the final section."
Strings
January 2001
" The playing was superb: brilliant, authoritative, free, passionate, totally committed, and powerfully projected. Bowes' tone is intense, variable and pure; his identification with every style was complete, and indeed, in the Bartók and Ravel he exaggerated the Gypsy idiom, playing with unbridled abandon, incessant slides and extreme rhythmic liberties."
The
Washington Post 23 Feb 1998
"Perfectly crafted musicianship....Like a ventriloquist splitting into multiple personalities, Bowes cajoled an astounding variety of voices from his instrument: lush and full-throated declamations gave way to icy pinpoints of sound."
"In everything he played, Bowes revealed an exacting and deeply felt musicianship."
New
York Newsday 20 Feb 1997
"A powerful performance ...stunning ,virtuosic."
St
Louis Post Dispatch 8 Feb 1996
"..unrestrained emotional ardency and rhythmic intensity ...During the suite's brief Nana the violinist demonstrated exceptionally delicate bowing, producing a sound so ethereal as to be almost ghostly, yet which held together dramatically and projected out into the room.
The
Boston Globe 6 Feb 1996"... firebreathing, having a ball, over the top pyrotechnics. What a fiddler!"