Return of the Lipinski Stradivarius"
"...highlighted just what a wonderful artist deMaine is. His clear sound, immaculate intonation, and tremendous musicianship were riveting...What stood out in this concert was the galvanizing effect of Robert deMaine’s magnificent playing. Every phrase had a purpose, and while there were no gratuitous musical gestures to draw the ear away from the overall architecture of the work, it was abundantly clear that deMaine possesses show-stealing skills." — William Barnewitz,
Urban Milwaukee Dial
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"DeMaine's playing is rapturous and outgoing...He made the two cadenzas - one in the opening movement and one at the end of the third - look easy. He's a dynamo, expressing soft and loud parts with seemingly effortless grace."
— Ted Shaw,
Windsor Star
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"...an exhilarating performance...played with robust passion, but also gentle delicacy, sensitive to every nuance of the music...This was a performance that enlivened the spirit."
— William Randall Beard,
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
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"DeMaine’s gorgeous, substantial tone conveyed great feeling...Every phrase, every note is crafted to perfection, nuanced with a deep understanding of the music and where it’s going. There were no loose ends, no "off" notes." — Gwenda Nemerofsky,
Winnipeg Free Press
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"...Andrew Armstrong au piano et Robert deMaine au violoncelle m'ont paru égaux à Ehnes comme techniciens et comme musiciens et les trois coéquipiers forment certainement un ensemble de premier plan."
— Claude Gingras,
La Presse, Montréal
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"deMaine’s high melody was exquisitely delivered. Tuning and timing were coordinated with uncanny precision." — Scott Cantrell,
Dallas Morning News
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"For a completely different (and much more romantic) take on folk materials, Mimir presented Antonín Dvorák's gorgeous Piano Quintet in A Major. Violinists Curt Thompson (who is also the executive director of Mimir) and Mills joined Chen, DeMaine and Chung. From the stunning cello solo that opened the piece to the final hustle and bustle of a country dance, the players perfectly caught the composer's intention. The nostalgic ending took on an added poignancy because the audience in the sold-out house knew that as the piece drew to a conclusion, so did Mimir 2011."
— Gregory Sullivan Isaacs,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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Frankly Music gets help from its friends
"Almond, deMaine and Armstrong played with tremendous expressive freedom and ensemble cohesion, giving each other room for graceful rubatos, relishing the piece's elegant melodies and matching each other's phrasings throughout."
— Elaine Schmidt,
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
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Frankly Music makes big music
"This big-scale drama should ebb and flow, but always build. It should top itself again and again, though it seems for all the world as if all possible limits have been exceeded. Almond, deMaine and Armstrong, in complete technical and aesthetic command, built to climax after climax over four movements and reached the ultimate peak at the end. If you want more catharsis in your life, Brahms, Almond, Armstrong and deMaine have something for you."
— Tom Strini,
Thirdcoast Digest
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Old Town Surprise
"Throughout the concert, I was impressed by the ravishing tone and probing musicianship of cellist deMaine. Although I have heard Saint-Saens' The Swan countless times, under his fingers the music had new life and new emotions."
— Kenneth Glick,
Glickarts
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"An American, deMaine communicated Dvorak’s idyllic yet heroic music with depth of feeling and instinctive understanding. His playing was beyond reproach, merging technical accomplishment with passion, tenderness, and sheer brilliance."
— William Furtwangler,
Charleston Today
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"The Kodály Duo for Violin and Cello was the highlight of the concert. Robert deMaine’s technical prowess was perfectly paired with Hilary Hahn’s clean, articulate style. There were no frills here. Both musicians let the piece speak for itself. "
— Leah Rankin,
The Newshouse (Syracuse, NY)
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"...DeMaine's art: a beautiful singing tone, lapidary technical precision, and a persuasive identification with the idiom of the music at hand...marvelous...in which every note had something lovely to say."
— Greg Stepanich,
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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"Throughout the concert, I was impressed by the ravishing tone and probing musicianship of cellist Robert deMaine...under his fingers, the music had new life and new emotions. The music and performances were sublime."
— Kenneth Glickman,
Glickarts
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"The slow movement (Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2) returned to chamber intimacy as a lovely duet bloomed between Andre Watts and cellist Robert deMaine, who played with such exquisite beauty that he practically stole the show."
— Mark Stryker,
The Detroit Free Press
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"A sublime, brilliant experience...Robert deMaine was spectacular - an understatement. Marvelous, nuanced magic - an afternoon of glorious music-making."
— The Hoboken Journal
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"Richard Strauss' "Don Quixote" rounded out the program. Our principal cellist, Robert deMaine, was perfect, playing with great passion and persuasion."
— Leonard Slatkin,
www.leonardslatkin.com
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"Equally as brilliant as Cani's technique was the tone and intonation of deMaine. Principal cellist of the Detroit Symphony, he demonstrated both his playing skill and compositional prowess in three of his Etude-caprices. Employing a bagpipe tune in one, a Brazilian folk song in another and drawing upon pure fantasy in the third, each was filled with formidable technical challenges that deMaine negotiated almost effortlessly."
— Matt Steel,
The Kalamazoo Gazette
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"The full-bloodedly romantic performance, markedly moving and profound, was in the highly capable hands of cellist Robert deMaine and pianist Peter Orth. Fauré's solemnity and stately grandeur sounded made to order for them, and the performers gave it a moving breadth and dignity."
— Shirley Fleming,
New York Post
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"Robert deMaine took center stage as the protagonist in Strauss' symphonic poem "Don Quixote." To the knight of sorrowful countenance, deMaine brought a tenderness and poignancy that can only be wrought through mastery of the highest order. Slatkin and the DSO backed their star with vivid, eloquent playing. It was music-making of genuine character, just the sort that Strauss -- and Slatkin -- had in mind."
— Lawrence B. Johnson,
The Detroit News
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"I have to say that it's hard to imagine another cellist fitting comfortably into Robert deMaine's shoes...a brilliant performer."
— Bernard Jacobson,
Music-Web International
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Schumann D Minor Trio Review
and
Schubert B-flat Major Trio Review — Zach Carstensen,
The Gathering Note
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Los Acordes del Chelo
"Robert deMaine, great American cellist, invited to play with Orchestra." — Lucia Herrera,
La Prensa Libre (Guatemala City, Guatemala)
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"The evening's greatest treat was the magnificent playing of Robert deMaine, whose technical brilliance is surpassed only by the beauty of tones he produces." — The Salt Lake Tribune
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"Cellist Robert deMaine brought a warm, rounded tone to Fauré's Sonata, and the constant sense of renegotiation gave the performance an unusual vibrancy."
— Allan Kozinn,
The New York Times
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"DeMaine, who has already become something of a legend, held the audience spellbound...mesmerizing."
— Matthew Erikson,
The Hartford Courant
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"Robert deMaine's gripping performance covered the piece's vast stylistic spaces with elegance and ease, and his intonation was perfectly true."
— Justin Davidson,
New York Newsday
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"Robert deMaine is one to watch. He plays with astonishing sensitivity and maturity. His playing is a dream: never overbearing, yet with an obvious focus of intensity and line. His musicality is a joy; he plays genuinely from the heart, without affectation."
— The Santa Barbara News-Press
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"Cellist Robert deMaine performed the works with elegance and authority. The Hindemith 'Trauermusik' proved deMaine a true master of his instrument as he elicited eloquent, haunting tones, and with sweeping bow, a plaintive melody...all accomplished with virtuosity, flair, and an uncommon intimacy." — The New Britain Herald
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"The performance amply demonstrated the young cellist's full range of technical skills and virtuosity. The atmosphere became electric as deMaine infused each work with an enormous amount of energy and intensity. The capacity audience was thrilled." — Dr. Elwood Bear,
Atencion San Miguel (San Miguel de Allende, Mexico)
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