Reviews
About his performance with the Brussels Philharmonic in the finals of Queen Elisabeth Competition:
Cheng shaped his performance with a constant sense of narrative, rising elatedly to match the first violin for a goosebump-inducing duet with the concertmaster to end the third movement [of the Dvorak Cello Concerto].
The internationally acclaimed, Berlin-based soloist is one of those wonderful artists who oozes confidence and conviction, knowing exactly what he wants to say with his music-making, and how to bring his ideas to life with plenty of personality and pizzazz.
The highly expressive player’s knack at easily slipping between the estimated 20-minute work’s [Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations] shifting moods were displayed throughout, from the second variation’s playful dialogue with orchestra as a particular highlight, to his soulful, recitative-like cadenzas worthy of an opera diva… Cheng’s richly resonant tone particularly in his lowest register allowed his lyrical, cantilena lines to sing during the sixth variation, while skipping through quicksilver runs during the fourth, performed with bulls-eye rhythmic acuity.
About his concert with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, November 11, 2022:
The great thing about the Pouliot-Cheng-Hewitt trio was that from the moment Bryan Cheng took the floor, we were reassured that this performance was from the perspective of dialogue (the almost mischievous games between Pouliot and Cheng) and reason. No one was going to try to be a big shot here, and all three soloists were playing in the same register of warm dialogue, which suits Angela Hewitt very well indeed.
In this trio, Bryan Cheng must really be mentioned as the one who set the tone. The more we hear this cellist, the more we like this simplicity, this art of not forcing anything. And the 1699 Stradivarius cello provided to him by the Canimex Foundation is a pure marvel.
About his concert at the Festival de Lanaudière, Québec, Summer 2021:
… he is a fine artist, distinguished, of great class… Bryan Cheng made a brilliant debut in the amphitheater.
… Bryan Cheng on his Tassini cello achieves powerfully contoured bass tones and the finest, tenderest heights with stupendous dynamics, sounding always cantabile, always beautiful, always perfectly in tune, and absolutely captivating.
Bryan Cheng [recipient of the 2017 Michael Measures Prize] has shown a depth of sensitivity and maturity that will secure him a distinctive place in the world of classical music.
Cheng sings the melancholy without schmaltz; the bitterness he gets exactly. Thus de Falla’s “Siete canciones” become razor-sharp character pieces and Cassadó’s solo suite an affair of austere, severe, yet dreamy beauty.
Bryan combines a dark, robust tone with jaw-dropping bravura…
brilliant…appear[ing] in fresh colours and afford[ing] much pleasure.
A full and elegant sound at the service of an easy and clear articulation, continuously attentive to the main line. Elegant, nuanced and gentle, an artist whose impulses always remain at the service of the true intention. Constant mastery, without pretentiousness, of technical demonstration.