Selected reviews:
- “...he sounds like Yuri Bashmet did in his prime.”
- “
...It is rare for a musician featured in the current issue as our One to Watch already to be on his second Editor's Choice..., but such is the pace of viola-player Maxim Rysanov's rise that it's difficult to keep up. His playing is fabulous and deeply moving in these works. Or, as our reviewer David Fanning puts it, "mind-blowing".” - “Maxim Rysanov's viola has an inward, lamenting quality that Yuri Bashmet's more conventionally projected manner misses. And it feels as though the chorus and orchestra (from Latvia's third city) are living and breathing every note... The music first transfixes, then scalds, and when consolation intervenes it feels multi-faceted and somehow palpably wise.
In short, here is a disc to blow the mind of anyone already in tune with these composers, and possibly one that may even lead a few sceptics towards a Damascene conversion. It was a privilege to review.” - “
...In this beautifully recorded recital Rysanov makes out excellent case for taking up the Franck A major Sonata, his arrangement judiciously steering a middle course between the violin and cello versions, but gaining an extra degree of richness of tone in the upper registers. He performs the work with fervour while finding sufficient time and space for poetic restraint especially in the third movement...” - “The playing, in its technical command and imaginative grasp, is outstanding.”
- “Rysanov appears as a true virtuoso...”
- “Young Ukrainian-born Rysanov tears into this music like a prime-time cold warrior... The rich tone of the viola melds perfectly with the repeated, dramatic rhythmic motion that serves the Brahms's structural Leitmotif...
The real surprise here is the sensational performer-arranged version of the Franck Violin Sonata...
What tremendous torrent of passion the artists take us on! ... [Maxim Rysanov's] sound is so persuasive and gripping that this reading has rocketed up to the top of my list, no matter what instrument.” - “Rysanov is a magical performer with a great talent for mellifluous lyricism. ...a disc of many pleasures.”
- “...the young violist Maxim Rysanov, who by a masterful achievement made Béla Bartók's Viola Concerto the concert's highlight. The lanky Ukrainian reminded through his outfit of the virtuoso violinist Paganini. And actually the stringplayer magically enticed a beautiful, rich and gorgeous sound from his instrument with the technical perfection and ferocity of the virtuoso.”
- “The Viola Concerto composed from fragments was taken on by the excellent soloist Maxim Rysanov... his instrument can whisper, bark, threat, wail: Rysanov, the Viola Devil.”
- “Rysanov presented himself as a brilliant virtuoso with a rare beautiful sound and showed impressive musical intelligence.”
- “There's a cultivated - and very successful - theatrical romanticism in their playing, which, allied to the unusual and inventive programme, makes this disc a real winner.
(About M Rysanov's new CD with pianist Evelyn Chang)” - “...Rysanov strikes me as one of the most talented violists of his generation...”