AS SOLOIST
“Louie’s talent is far from ordinary, and his command of the keyboard is impressive. His playing was distinguished by the use of enormous pianistic tonal variety for purely musical ends and the kind of animal magnetism only a few artists in each generation generate.”
OTTAWA CITIZEN
“Surprisingly enough, the Etudes of György Ligeti then turned out to be the high point of the evening. David Louie proved himself to be a world-class pianist. The horrendous difficulties of these pieces were executed without fault and by memory; more importantly, they served a strictly musical purpose. Few pianists today can dare to tackle these very eminent pieces of latest musical history. Without exaggeration, David Louie’s playing could only be qualified as a pianistic sensation.”
RHEIN-ZEITUNG, GERMANY
“Louie’s technique is extraordinary and, besides, he has a personal sound – rounded, full, with its own color – which only mature performers have. Superb performance.”
ABC, SPAIN
“Louie was dramatic, expressive, sensitive, ardent, and ecstatic. His virtuosity and creative powers had the audience experience [the Liszt Sonata] breathlessly.”
RHEIN-ZEITUNG, GERMANY
“David Louie…was nothing short of brilliant on the aging Steinway, equally handling delicate passages and great chords with power, speed and style.”
SASKATOON STAR-PHOENIX
“Louie’s seriousness and total concentration were communicated to the listener and all listened with sustained interest. It’s a foremost quality, perhaps the most revealing. He is capable of an astonishing power and also knows how to vary his tone with exquisite nuances.”
LA PRESSE, MONTREAL
AS CHAMBER MUSICIAN
“At Wigmore Hall, ARC (the acronymic Artists of the Royal Conservatory, Toronto) gave a beautifully performed programme of chamber works by Jewish composers undermined by Nazism…most memorable, an unfinished D minor violin sonata movement by the teenage Mendelssohn (Hitler had it in for him, too), completed by the pianist David Louie, who played it with Benjamin Bowman. The composer’s magical fleetness was in evidence, and other inspirations besides!”
SUNDAY TIMES, LONDON
“The disc [Chandos CHAN10769 Chamber Music of Paul Ben-Haim]…opens with the substantial (near half-hour) C minor Piano Quartet of 1920-21. The piano part is spectacular…David Louie does it handsome justice.”
INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW
“The Korngold [Suite] is not performed often, probably because it would scare off most performers. ARC pianist David Louie made a dazzling show of the demanding piano part – written in 1930 for left-handed pianist Paul Wittgenstein, the artist who inspired Maurice Ravel to write his Piano Concerto for the Left Hand.”
TORONTO STAR
“[Robert Kahn’s] attractive Suite for violin and piano, composed for Adolf Busch, hews to the tonal and structural world of Brahms…David Louie, who has worked with the Takacs Quartet, was a close, experienced collaborator in this US premiere.”
AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE
“The ARC (Artists of the Royal Conservatory) Ensemble appeared for a nimble performance of the presto movement of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Piano Quintet, Op. 18, which showed how friendly this hall is to fine-textured chamber music. The many two-handed staccato passages in David Louie’s piano rang out crisply, yet were full of colour.”
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
“Although Franz Reizenstein studied with Vaughan Williams, the shaping influence on his music was his earlier work in Berlin with Hindemith. Such was very apparent in his Piano Quintet Opus 23, the piece which ended one of the programmes of Music in Exile: Emigré Composers of the 1930s, a sequence of concerts and lectures at Cadogan Hall. The performance by the ARC Ensemble, the Artists of the Royal Conservatory, Canada, was emotional, even exciting, and demonstrated how closely Reizenstein matched his chosen medium with the music he wrote for it. All five instruments are driven hard and the pianist, David Louie, was especially admirable.”
MUSICAL OPINION, UK