[… a prie-dieu Schubert, with clarinetist José Luis Estellés offering a counter-chant with extreme fineness and a breathtaking blending with the voice.]
“…this quintet of the highest compositional conception, was literally embroidered with the playing of the splendid Estellés who seems gifted with a virtuosity which is always musical and where nothing is forced”.
“… rarely an artist achieves that cry is as long, exciting and torn than in tonight’s Pórtico.”
“…and better still, the clarinettist José-Luis Estellés; possibly the finest in the country.”
“Estellés, extraordinary clarinetist who is increasingly taking hold in his role as orchestral conductor, gave life to the score with a natural recreational sense …”
“Triumphant night for Estellés, triumphant night for music … With his mastery, with his formidable artistic sense, he made us taste the beauty of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto … What a great luxury, what a great luck to have this artist, whose performances are framed between the best artistic ephemeris…”
“The performance was magnificent. Energetic, lively, colouristic. Created under strong leadership”.
“The performance we heard put Estellés’ clarinet to the forefront, ‘Vox Humana’ to the extent of enchanting for the variety of accents and for the extreme mellow colors, able to lend the piece aditional magic”.
“Special mention deserves José Luis Estellés, who shone beyond measure in his solo movement, Abîme des oiseaux, showing a stratospheric command of the registers and the dynamic range and gradation that can rarely be heard in this piece. He simply overwhelmed us in his reading of this movement.”
“His sound, his technical facility, his sense of tempo and his way of understanding melody are a pure wonder”.
CK