Reviews

Vergangenheit oder Zukunft
"Zwei reizvolle Virtuosenstücke aus romantischer Zeit: Poème für Violine und Orchester Es-Dur op. 25 von Ernest Chausson sowie Introduktion und Rondo capriccioso für Violine und Orchester op. 28 von Camille Saint-Saëns. Beide Stücke wurden von der isländischen Virtuosin Judith Ingolfsson geschmackvoll und mit gebotener Vehemenz, doch ohne Zurschaustellung oberflächlichen Blendwerks, entfaltet."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Mit intensiver Gestaltungskraft
"Die Geigerin Judith Ingolfsson präsentierte zwei öfter gespielte Werke für Solo-Violine und Orchester: Ernest Chaussons „Poème" nach Turgeniews „Erste Liebe" und „Introduction und Rondo capriccioso" von Saint-Saens.. Mit intensiver Gestaltungskraft gelang es ihr, sich in die intimsten Nuancen wie in die ausladendsten Momente einer in hochromantischer Harmonik verästelten Musik einzudringen. Saint-Saens, oftmals als rasantes Virtuosenstück geboten, gewann in spannungsvoller Plastizität beredtes inneres Leben."
Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung

Review: Khachaturian Violin Concerto
“The performance was spectacular. It goes without saying that this violinist has mastered the mechanics of her craft, but what this budding superstar revealed went beyond technical command. She made this concerto absolutely and unmistakably her own...and approached it all with a panache of a true virtuoso. Nothing was held back...she was out to galvanize the orchestra and her listeners with the energy and power of Khachaturian’s music.”
The Baltimore Sun

Review: Einojuhani Rautavaara Violin Concerto
“Einojuhani Rautavaara’s two movement Violin Concerto was convincingly presented by Judith Ingolfsson. The composition itself is marked by contradictions that are not resolved. On the one hand, a modern progression of intervals in the solo part displays twelve-tone sounds that are contrasted with traditional arpeggios, on the other. The orchestration is oriented on an interesting combination of percussion and celesta with pleasant, transparent timbres. The soloist thus succeeded in lending the composer a touch of likableness in spite of the intended stiffness, and the listeners acknowledged this with considerable applause.”
Ostthüringer Zeitung

Review: Nikolai Roslavets Violin Concerto No. 1
“The soloist Judith Ingolfsson was convincing in the Violin Concerto No. 1 of Nikolai Roslavets. She effortlessly mastered the unusual melodies and double stops. Especially her clear sound - even in the most technically challenging passages - was a real treat.”
Mainzer Rhein-Zeitung

Review: Barber Violin Concerto
“Judith Ingolfsson played Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto with just the right mixture of easy grace, sonic luster and patrician refinement.”
The Washington Post

Review: Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
“In the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, Ingolfsson was able to effectively execute the acrobatics of the piece with ease and keen musical insight. Her playing was most enjoyable during the more intimate, melodic moments of the piece, when she lingered on phrase endings and harmonics to let us hear the lustrous sound of her 1736 Stradivarius, Muntz.”
Omaha News Herald

A Bohemian Paganini: Judith Ingolfsson Shines as Interpreter
“Born in Bohemia, Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst is unknown to most music lovers, although his contemporaries compared the virtuoso and composer to his role model Paganini. One of his main works is the Violin Concerto in F-sharp Minor, which is informed not by Paganinian “italianitá,” but rather by German Romanticism, displays a verve that at times is reminiscent of Weber, is calculated for great impact, but never at the expense of the musical substance. A glance at the solo part shows why it hardly appears on concert programs: it is simply fiendishly difficult and on a par with what the devil’s violinist from Genoa demanded from the instrument. For this reason, the achievement of soloist Judith Ingolfsson, who provoked thunderous applause with her radiant sound and stupendous virtuosity, deserves all the more praise.”
Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung

Review: Sibelius Violin Concerto
“It is a disconcerting world that inhabits Sibelius' Violin Concerto... the violin is a furious, stormy wind, and Ingolfsson rode that wind with aplomb. Her best one was her singing low strings, as though a human voice is offering solace. She negotiated the virtuoso sections of the finale like a kayaker in ruinously difficult river rapids -- not one wipe-out.”
Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)

Review: Barber Violin Concerto
“The superb violinist Judith Ingolfsson negotiated the lyrical melodies and the more agitated measures with soulful assurance. In the "perpetual motion" third movement, Ingolfsson displayed the precise bravura technique that won her the top prizes at several prestigious competitions.”
The Wichita Eagle

Judith Ingolfsson conjured up landscapes of the soul
“The Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1977) by Einojuhani Rautavaara at first tantalized the listeners by means of delicate tones and conjured up a listening experience that can hardly be expressed in words. Judith Ingolfsson is a violinist whose tonal magic on the violin one cannot forget.”
Thüringer Landeszeitung

Review: Mozart Concerto K.219
“Mozart's K. 219 concerto benefited from Ingolfsson's balance of assertiveness and cool precision. Few violinists can play softly without sacrificing the fullness of their musical lines; Ingolfsson succeeded whenever the challenge presented itself.”
Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)

Icelandic violinist turns up the heat with GSO
“The stunning soloist for the Violin Concerto of Alban Berg was Icelandic violinist Judith Ingolfsson. A work that seeks to portray the agony of a dying girl, and a final acceptance of Fate, requires a sublime artist to portray it, and it found her in Ingolfsson's stunning, shaded, virtuosic performance. Ingolfsson then played the Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso of Saint Saens, a crowd pleaser showcasing technique.”
Greenwich Citizen

Review: Barber Violin Concerto
“Ingolfsson brought an affecting sense of commitment to the piece [Barber Violin Concerto], wonderfully poetic and even improvisational in the first movement, darkly expressive and dramatic in the second. She commands both the technique to take the Moto perpetuo finale at breakneck speed and the tone to make it sound.”
The Vancouver Sun

Review: Mozart Concerto K.219
“Internationally acclaimed violinist Judith Ingolfsson was the splendid soloist in Mozart's "Turkish" Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major. Her playing was characterized by a clear yet sweet tone, immaculate pitch, digital integrity and touching lyricism.”
Chestnut Hill Local (PA)

Review: Glazunov Violin Concerto
“Glazunov's Violin Concerto in A minor (1904) begins with a plaintive theme played by the solo violinist. Ingolfsson brought the music to life with her warm interpretation and impeccable technique. In a long, difficult cadenza, she gave a stunning display of pizzicato and double-stop bowing and finger work. The concerto is played without a pause, with the second movement acting as an interlude within the first. Ingolfsson handled the polyphonic variations with grace and skill, rewarded by a standing ovation from the enthusiastic audience.”
Times Herald-Record

Review: Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
“Piotr Tchaikovsky’s monster of a violin concerto was mastered by an Icelander. Judith Ingolfsson, who trained in the USA, sensationally swept through the abundance of notes, tone colors, and emotions. She mastered the depths of the instrument and, without batting an eyelash, took up the challenges of the Allegro with its technical refinements. She managed the turbo arpeggios, multiple stops, glissandi, wild octave leaps, and the flutelike harmonics so well that she received spontaneous applause after the movement’s highly dramatic conclusion. At the end of her thrilling ride through hell on her 1750 Guadagnini violin she received prolonged applause, and reciprocated with an encore by Paganini.”
Märkische Oderzeitung

Review: Mozart Concerto K.219
“The naturalness of her artistic message, beautiful, deep sound, meticulously pure intonation, along with her lovely appearance and stage presence, made an extremely strong impression.”
Saratovskaya Oblastnaya Gazeta (Russia)

Review: Samuel Barber Violin Concerto
"Ingolfsson possesses artistic fire to be sure, but her playing is not flamboyant nor is it infused with hot theatrics. Rather she is a performer who projected qualities of depth, graceful mastery and serene assurance as she approached even the most daredevil passages of the richly layered and demanding Barber concerto. Her violin, crafted at the end of the Baroque era by Lorenzo Guadagnini, delivers an unusually gorgeous sound. Ingolfsson seems to dissolve into her playing such that the listener is drawn fully into the music. Her technical brilliance and poetic musicality illuminated the score Monday evening and her collaboration with Bragado and the orchestra was fluid and elegant. She played an unusually long encore from Baroque composer Tartini's famous "Devil's Trill" sonata, an utterly captivating performance that displayed another facet of her artistry while honoring the violin's 18th-century origins."
The Monterey County Herald

Review: Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
“The soloist Judith Ingolfsson played [the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Major, Op. 35, by Piotr I. Tchaikovsky] with brilliant virtuosity on her 1750 Lorenzo Guadagnini violin and breathed life into the concerto with her sensitive playing. Ecstatic applause was the reward.”
Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung

Review: Mozart Concerto K.219
“The violinist Judith Ingolfsson was musically outstanding in her performance of Mozart’s Violin Concerto in A major.”
Neue Musik Zeitung

Review: Ysaye and Sarasate "Carmen Fantasy"
"Guest soloist Judith Ingolfsson's amazing violin virtuosity highlighted a Midland Symphony Orchestra concert that had a particularly diverse program. So skilled was Ingolfsson that her playing on Saturday night sometimes sounded like that of two violins instead of one. She was featured on a solo sonata by Eugene Ysaye, who taught her teacher Jascha Brodsky. The piece certainly was a showcase for her impressive technique. Ingolfsson, an Iceland native now resident in Germany, then joined the MSO for Sarasate's "Carmen Fantasy," which uses mostly familiar themes from Bizet's opera "Carmen" to highlight the violin. Ingolfsson again made the most of the opportunity, and cameras allowed the audience to watch her fast fingering and her intense facial expressions. She and the orchestra were rewarded with an enthusiastic ovation for their efforts."
Midland Daily News

Review: Samuel Barber Violin Concerto
"Violinist Ingolfsson demonstrated a charming personality on stage even before applying bow to fiddle. When she played, she produced a big gorgeous sound that enveloped you and carried you along on a rich and exciting musical journey. In the first two movements, she gave us solid rich playing, lovely shaping of phrases and an intensity that commanded your attention every inch of the way. Her frenzied last movement, Presto in moto perpetuo, was a knockout. Her encore, Tartini's famous “Devil's Trill" in her own arrangement for unaccompanied violin included some of the continuo parts woven into the texture - a few of these sections we heard in multiple versions, both semplice and embellished. Her beautiful playing featured double stops, with contrapuntal lines twisting through them, and some occasional harmonics. It was spectacular!”
Peninsula Reviews

Recital Review
“On Saturday evening she gave a technically assured and interpretively astute recital at Carnegie Hall. Ms. Ingolfsson produced a tone that is firmly centered, gracefully rounded and tinted to match 
the score at hand...a sizzling account producing both fireworks and a singing tone...She moved easily between the work’s ruminative and ecstatic passages and made her performance a journey to the soulful core.”
The New York Times

Recital Review
“She is a truly outstanding player. Her effortless virtuosity is a tool in the service of the music; her tone is ravishingly beautiful, pure and adaptable, her sense of style is unerring, her expressiveness simple, direct, and strongly felt. Most striking, however, was Bach's C-major Solo Sonata: grand and noble in concept and execution, with every chordal and contrapuntal voice standing out, it was played with flawless sound and intonation, perfectly controlled pacing, phrasing and dynamics.”
Strings Magazine

Recital Review
“This authentic virtuoso gave a lesson in good taste, interpreting with warm sound and grand sonorous phrasing. The artist revealed not only her almost inhuman virtuosity, but also her magnificent musicality.”
San Juan - El Nuevo Dìa (Puerto Rico)

Recital Review
“The jeweled intensity of Judith Ingolfsson's Stradivarius, her finely honed bowing and stylistic finesse... were all the more impressive in that these aspects of her playing suited two works worlds apart: Bach's Solo Partita in B Minor, BWV 1002, and songs from Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess," arranged by Jascha Heifetz. In the Bach, Ingolfsson's bow defined the minute yet determining stylistic subtleties that divulge the particular character of each dance in the suite. Then she transformed her violin into a voice easily calling on the “portamento” swoops that capture the precise qualities of Gershwin's dramatic intent.”
The Washington Post

Recital Review
“Ingolfsson played with a pure, singing tone and projected ease and confidence from the stage. So masterful were the virtuoso sections that they became truly expressive gestures. Combined with her exotic beauty and widely-noted style sense, Ingolfsson's musicality kept the audience rapt.”
The Durango Herald

Recital Review
“In Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat, her tone and her timbres carried just the right insouciance to join convincingly in the battle for the soldier’s soul... the violinist confirmed her status among the top laureates in the IVCI’s history.”
Nuvo News (Indianapolis, IN)

Recital Review
"Heavenly Devil’s Trills - The violinist Judith Ingolfsson performed in Frankfurt/Main at the highest level with her duo partner, pianist Vladimir Stoupel. They rendered with distinct agogic Beethoven’s Violin Sonata no. 10 in G Major, Op. 96 – at once brilliant, nimble, tendentiously soft, discreet, and with thoughtfully chosen tempos. As a duo, they showed themselves to be most advantageously attuned to each other. Judith Ingolfsson displayed enormous solistic virtuosity in Giuseppe Tartini’s Sonata in g-minor “Il trillo del diavolo.” She mastered the work with instinctive certainty, fluency, and ease. Stravinsky’s Divertimento for violin and piano, based on his ballet “The Fairy’s Kiss,” came across as vigorously kinetic, often boisterous and dance-like."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Recital Review
"Violinist Judith Ingolfsson and pianist Vladimir Stoupel brought power and purpose to a varied duo program at the National Gallery on Sunday. Ingolfsson draws a clear, ringing tone from her instrument, the overtones enhanced by pinpoint intonation. When they played together, the sum of these two fine artists produced moments of great imagination."
The Washington Post

Recital Review
"Ingolfsson's recital was an absolute treat. A performer of consummate artistry, she wowed the audience with her musicality and technique. Ingolfsson is one of the rare breed of performers who looks past the notes into the heart and soul of the music. A recital with her is a journey of discovery. It's as if one is hearing these works for the first time."
Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT)

Recital Review
"Outstanding solo performance – Judith Ingolfsson hit the bull’s-eye with Giuseppe Tartini’s “Devil’s Trill” Sonata in G Minor. In consummate Baroque style, she deciphered the intense masterpiece with her master instrument. The three works by Tchaikovsky - Serenade melancolique, Meditation and Valse-Scherzo - delighted with their sonorous melodiousness and virtuoso impetuosity. One was thus able to once again admire the violinist’s brilliant playing."
Jungfrau Zeitung (Switzerland)

Recital Review
"The audience was enthralled by the Icelandic violinist Judith Ingolfsson, who opened the evening with Giuseppe Tartini’s (1692–1770) Sonata in G Minor (“Devil’s Trill”). Extraordinary music that one does not get to hear every day. Three pieces by Piotr I. Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) concluded the concert. The Serenade melancolique, Op. 26, played delicately and with a lot of soul, the very intimate Meditation, Op. 42, no. 1, in which Ingolfsson’s violin playing plucked at one’s heartstrings, and, finally, a vivacious Valse-Scherzo, Op. 34. So much vitality and virtuosity, combined with high spirits and joyful music-making, were audible that the audience could not help but respond with shouts of bravo, stomping of feet, and enthusiastic applause."
Märkische Allgemeine

Recital Review
“The violinist from Iceland movingly performed Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp minor with a clearly chiseled and yet languorous sound. Laks’s lost version of the “Trois Pieces de concert” for cello and piano she reconstructed for violin and piano. Her playing was accordingly intense and authentic. The first movement came across dance-like, fanciful, and with subtle humor. In the “Romance” her crystal clear playing enthralled with a mournfully beautiful melody, while in the last movement she allowed lots of room for the comical accents.
In Ravel’s Sonata for violin and piano, the duo displayed wonderful unity. Ingolfsson particularly brought out the light, lapidary, resigned character of the blues. The boisterous ballad-like character of the composition succeeded so well that it almost seemed like Kurt Weill’s Pirate Jenny was singing. The duo played fabulously.”
Hamburger Abendblatt

Festival Review
“Violinist Judith Ingolfsson is a fine player. Her octaves were clean, her left hand agile and her tone often seductively sweet. The Mendelssohn [Octet for Strings] was an unmitigated delight. Ingolfsson led a lithe, lively performance. The Andante offered lots of lovely, soft playing; the Scherzo was deliciously poised and delicate; and, some tonal gruffness aside, the finale's vivacity was bracingly conveyed. Ingolfsson was a confident leader and not at all domineering (a common fault in this work), and all the musicians seemed to relish the music and each other's company.”
Strad Magazine

THE DEBUT ARTIST OF THE YEAR AWARD
The award recognizes a performer or ensemble for an outstanding radio debut:
“Ms. Ingolfsson’s personality and temperament are reminiscent of a pre-WWII violinist. She plays with a remarkable intelligence, musicality, and sense of insight.”
NPR’s Performance Today