The Times

It is not often that one meets with a performer who is young in years but almost fully mature in musicianship and interpretative ability and with an impressive technical command to boot. Miss Marlene Fleet, at her piano recital at the Wigmore Hall on Saturday night, proved to be such a rarity. In fact, on the strength of this recital we are tempted to predict that she will not have far to go before reaching the top of the ladder.

The programme consisted of works of the most various styles, including such heavyweights as Beethoven's Opus 111 and the Liszt sonata, yet,....Miss Fleet succeeded in realizing the full potential of the music. She began with Mozart's B flat sonata, K.333, giving a vivid account of it and bringing a natural feeling for the shape of phrase and articulate texture to bear on it.

The greatest, however, came in the Beethoven sonata. The first movement was conceived in a powerful masculine style and propelled by an incisive rhythmic sense, yet with every detail of phrasing and dynamics being given its full due....

Equally remarkable was the Liszt sonata, in which she captured the spirit of the music with the greatest felicity-its grandiose rhetorical gesture as well as its tender romantic poetry. Her imagination here was never a prisoner of her virtuosity, though she brought off double octaves, martellato chords, runs and all with the utmost brilliance. This was playing in the grand style.

Daily Telegraph

Marlene Fleet, who had an impressive career at the Royal Academy of Music, made an auspicious début at Wigmore Hall...

Her musicianship was never in doubt and her understanding of the Beethoven showed profundity.

Quickness of perception made her alive to the lightning changes of mood in 12 of Prokofiev's "Visions Fugitives" and there was some lovely tone colours in Debussy's "L'Isle Joyeuse".

Throughout her programme she showed that she had large technical reserves.

Daily Telegraph

Playing of an exceptionally gifted order was heard at Wigmore Hall last night when the 22-year-old pianist Marlene Fleet presented herself in works by Beethoven and Chopin.

Her technical command is astonishing and with this she combines an interpretative talent which is rarely found in one so young....her reading (of Beethoven's  Waldstein sonata)  was big-boned and grandly conceived. 

No less impressive was her imanginative treatment of Chopin's F minor Fantasy.



The Times

Forced to choose between letter and spirit in the interpretation of Beethoven, any audience would surely opt for spirit - and certainly Miss Marlene Fleet had plenty of that to offer in the 32 Variations in C minor, with which she began her piano recital in the Kirkman Concert series at Wigmore Hall last night...her imagination was plainly working at white heat in so far as the characterisation of each variation was concerned.

One of Haydn's less frequently played sonatas in E flat found Miss Fleet equally responsive in feeling; she produced nicely singing melody in the Adagio and found just the right tempo for the minuet-inspired finale.

The Times

The penultimate concert in the current Kirkman series in the Purcell Room on Friday proved one of those occasions when it was tempting to suspend critical faculty and just sit back and enjoy it all. Altough still very young, Miss Fleet had a way of illuminating every phrase which held the attention....the first movement (of Schubert's Wanderer Fantasie) and the fugal exposition were admirably spirited - and she was clever in adjusting her dynamics and pedalling to this problematic hall. The slow movement was nevertheless the most poetic of all, with melody and fine-spun accompanying figuation most beautifully blended. Mozart's little C major sonata, K.545, was yet another triumph, light as thistle-down, yet with every curve of melody and harmonic move fraught with point and purpose.

 

Daily Telegraph

An evening of masterly music-making. A highly accomplished, discerning artist.

 

Daily Telegraph

The Appassionata Sonata is an over-sized work for the Purcell Room, where the finer details of piano playing in music of these physical dimensions, are often drowned.

Marlene Fleet made many of its points impressively there last night in a strong performance that showed a solid technical command, a large musical grasp, and an ability to do justice to what it is about emotionally.

She went at it full tilt, and came through many of the great  pianistic skirmishes with credit, and with more than that in the coda to the first movement. The very different musical difficulties of the slow movement found her equally alert and sensitive, especially in her dynamically firm, but supple, presentation of the theme.

 

The Times

Miss Fleet did not belie her name in the defter moments of the variations and showed just how gentle and appealing much of this music can be.

Perhaps the pianist's rippling, intimate support to the strings in the ninth variation was most indicative of her unforced, simple style. One would like to hear her in Rachmaninov.

 

Daily Telegraph

Marlene Fleet was an able soloist, her playing sensitive in detail.

 

Musical Opinion

In the Symphonic Variations, Leinsdorf provided a fresh accompaniment to the prodigious and sensitive new talent of Marlene Fleet. Already she sounds in the Brendel school with more traditional romantic viewpoints.

 

Daily Telegraph

An affinity with Beethoven to an unusual degree emerged from Marlene Fleet's piano recital at the Purcell Room last night. When so many young pianists lack the technique and apparently interest in the great composer, it was impressive to hear the Sonata in C minor, Op.111, handled with so much intellectual grasp, as well as affection.

A full warm tone and a wide range of dynamics were hers to command, and from the purposeful Maestoso introduction to the contemplative Arietta and variations, there was a clear exposition of the vast structure and a tension which never slackened.

The fragmentary character of the six Bagatelles, Op.126, was not overdone and Miss Fleet was agile in making these sudden changes of mood and dynamics.

 

Daily Telegraph

Two magisterial sonatas flanked the fascinating and highly stimulating piano recital given by Marlene Fleet at the Queen Elizabeth Hall last night.

In Prokofiev's Sixth Sonata, her playing was flamboyant..powerful and full of the necessary steely precision.

Her exuberant performance of the Liszt Sonata, which combined finely controlled detail with a marvellous freedom of expression, subtly shaded poetry with an exhilerating romantic ardour.

Where the Liszt was strong and impassioned, Mozart's A minor Rondo was given with a natural, unaffected simplicity which at the same time preserved intact the music's inherent ambiguity....her playing had a flair and originality which immediately commanded one's whole-hearted attention.

 

Volksblatt, Wien

The Vienna début of the young English pianist was a delightful occasion. The young artist has an outstandingly developed technique: especially noticeable is the fact that her technique ia always employed with perception and sensitivity. She gave a beautiful account of the Mozart sonata (K.333) with pearl-like and sparkling, but nevertheless, vigorous and powerful tone; after which the proportions and tensions of the Beethoven Waldstein sonata and the Chopin Fantasy were fully revealed with great feeling and technical accomplishment.

 

Neues Osterreich

A great musical career can without doubt be predicted for her. She anticipated the success of her future career with her Chopin and Liszt performances. The audience acknoledged the obvious technical brilliance of this young virtuoso with unlimited admiration.

 

Arbeiterzeitung

Marlene Fleet showed, in her sold out recital, an excellent technique and, even more, abounding strength and energy.

 

Kurier

The young English pianist, Marlene Fleet, has reached an astonishing degree of technical maturity and demonstrated her abilities in the Liszt B minor Sonata.

 

Der Tijd, Amsterdam

Admirable are the qualities of titanic strength and yearning lyric passages at her command, and these are delivered with a strong attack and faultless octave playing. Marlene Fleet's fingers point the way to an endless mode of expression, and her rendering of Porkofiev's 'Visions Fugitives' set the seal on the impression that an important career lies ahead of her.

 

Het Vrige Volk

The greatest quality was undoubtedly shown by Marlene Fleet who talked Liszt's Sonata and Prokofiev's 'Visions Fugitives'. Marlene Fleet is a born pianist.

 

Daily Telegraph

Beneath the velvet glove of extreme delicacy, the youthful Miss Fleet shewed that she has a fist as mailed as any man's. To such full scale piano works as Schubert's 'Wanderer' Fantasy and Liszt's Mephisto Waltz No.1 and in the little Mozart Sonata in C major, K.545 she brought strength and agility, firm rhythm and also a tender and flexible cantabile.

 

Croydon Advertiser

Marlene Fleet - a pianist of exceptional brilliance, refreshingly free from affectation - opened this week's Fairfield lunchtime recital with a compelling performance of Schubert's 'Wanderer' Fantasy.

Her incisive playing, coupled with the subtle use of a wide range of dynamics, gave a new dimension to the opening allegro, and her deeply introspective, velvet-toned account of its adagio was stunning in its eloquence.

There followed the rarely heard Nine Variations on a Minuet by Duport, K.573, played with exquisite delicacy.

Miss Fleet made the transition from Mozart to Gershwin with perfect aplomb, giving a persuasive reading of the Three Preludes.

Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No.8 in F sharp minor gave scope to her formidable technique and inherent musicianship and ended the recital on a particularly brilliant note.

 

Hull Daily Mail

Marlene Fleet proved a sensitive soloist in Falla's 'Nights in the Gardens of Spain'.

The finest music of the evening was Fauré's ravishingly lovely Ballade for piano and orchestra, where Miss Fleet was again the soloist. Orchestra and soloist blended perfectly and the music received a poised, radiant and very moving performance.

 

The Cornishman

With resonant eloquence, the performance of Brahms' Concerto No.2 in B flat, with Marlene Fleet as piano soloist, will rank among the finest. The conductor, Mr. J. Morgan Hosking with his spacious yet sensitive reading of the score, brought out the rich textures, and the soloist interwove into this symphonic structure with great accomplishment.

This young pianist, who made such an impression on her first visit three years ago, again displayed her brilliant technical mastery and keen interpretation. Without the aid of a score, she maintained this 50-minute massive work, capturing in turn the fervent melodic and romantic moods. Little wonder she was accorded such an ovation by the audience and the orchestra.

The languid yet delicate and beautiful Andante movement, with the solo cello of Enid Truman, was particularly well phrased.

 

Leicester Mercury

Marlene Fleet was the understanding soloist in Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto, and I particularly liked her grasp of the poetry of the slow movement.

 

Bath Evening Chronicle

The balance which an artist strikes between a degree of detached professionalism and one of unbridled personal commitment is the vital, determining factor in the public's judgement of his or her worth.

This young prizewinner is a passionate devotee of the piano medium. Nevertheless, the courtship with which she exercises with her instrument is neither that of a nubile fledgling nor that of sangfriod sensibility, but rather one which stands at the threshold of a rich and fruitful marriage.

The elegance with which the three Chopin Waltzes Op.64 literally flirted with her fingers had all the freshness of initial discovery while the sensuous caresses brought to Liszt's Liebestraume were a heartfelt reciprocation of an enrapturing instrument feeding and feeding upon the composite nature of human understanding.

Yet, it was always evident, even more so in Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition that her impulses were always cerebral, but never fleeting: and all this couched through a remarkable self-composure which communicated itself vibrantly and unceasingly.

 

Grimsby Telegraph

It is after such a recital as the one given by Marlene Fleet at the Grimsby College of Technology last night that words seem inadequate even to attempt to describe the experience.

Suffice to say that those fortunate people present were plunged into a situation they will not easily forget. Music lovers who were absent should make sure they do not miss the opportunity should it arise again.

Grimsby-born Marlene Fleet has achieved much, and it is certain she will achieve more. Those who heard her last night were left in no doubt as to her wonderful ability at the piano.

Young and vivacious, with blond, shoulder-length hair, her composure is extraordinary, her talents exceptional. From the moment her fingers touch the keyboard she spins a web of magic, encircling and captivating her audience.

Not only has she brilliant technical assurance, but a depth of emotion which carries her and the audience from the brink of depair to the heights of laughter and joy.

The first part of the recital comprised two works by Beethoven, the sonata in F minor Opus 57 'Appassionata' and the sonata in C minor Opus 111.

It never ceases to amaze me how Beethoven was able to portray such a wealth of conflicting emotions - how a man racked by the encroachment of deafness could rise above his torment to compose music of such boundless joy.

This was particularly apparent in the C minor sonata, in which pianist and composer were as one.

In the second half, Miss Fleet played two lyrical pieces by Chopin of great charm, followed by a wonderfully vibrant piece by the French composer, Debussy.

The recital ended with Transcendental Study in F minor by Liszt - a tense, restless work emphasising the pianist's brilliant technical command, without ever losing its emotive power.

In fact it was not quite the end - an encore was 'demanded' and the audience were rewarded with an Etude by Rachmaninov.

I am sure the audience would have wished Miss Fleet to have continued playing - rarely can an hour and a half have passed so rapidly.

Thanks to the organisation 'Art for Grimsby' the recital was arranged - and Grimsby might feel proud to have produced such an artist to enrich the musical world.

Let us hope Marlene Fleet will return in the not-too-distant future.

 

Leicester Mercury

The concert's soloist was Marlene Fleet (now living in Leicestershire) who joined the orchestra in Cesar Franck's Symphonic Variations. Her reading, I thought, expressed beautifully and elegantly the music's romantic charm and I particularly admired the lyrical cantabile which graced its opening theme.

The piu lento section was subtly and delicately accentuated and the final allegro had the lightness and sprightliness of rhythm that it needs.

An impressive debut from this pianist in her new home county.

 

Derby Evening Telegraph

Heavenly works conceived on an intimate scale...Mozart's Piano Concerto No.21 in C major, K.467...in the English Sinfonia's Viennese evening at the Assembly Rooms last night under artistic director, Stuart Bedford.

With its mock military antics for orchestra, rippling keyboard part and grievously smiling Andante, K.467 is one of Mozart's most lovable concertos. Soloist Marlene Fleet gave an admirably clear and darting performance of the jaunty outer movements.

 

Northern Echo

The Teesside Symphony Orchestra conduted by Edwin Raymond gave good value for money at its concert in Middlesbrough Town Hall last night....

Marlene Fleet was the authoritative soloist in Grieg's Piano Concerto, playing with dynamic thrust and rhythm.

 

Despatch

Marlene Fleet, the young pianist who is playing the Grieg Concerto in Middlesbrough tomorrow night, gave an extra concert last night in Darlington College of Education for the benefit of Darlington Overseas Tour Association.

This was a gracious act..those who attended were rewarded with some excellent playing in a programme of Russian and Austrian music.

The final item, Schubert's last sonata, serene and lyrical with undertones of tragedy (he died a few weeks after writing it)..played with a dedication which fully involved the listener.

...the vigor and spikiness of Prokofiev's 7th Sonata was conveyed...this was true also of Rachmaninov's 5th prelude and polka....the Three Fantastic Dances by Shostakovich were a delight.

 

Leicester Mercury

For their concert at The Rowans on Saturday, the Leicester University Baroque Ensemble under the baton of Michael Sakin, had the advantage of Marlene Fleet, one of our best young pianists, as soloist.

Miss Fleet played Mozart's Piano Concerto No.21 in C major, K.467 with a beautiful phrasing and a fine feeling for the essential substance of each different movement. The composer's heavenly discourse in the slow movement was never lost, nor was the last lacking in brilliance.

 

Grimsby News

The Grimsby Symphony Orchestra, led by Peter Clarke, conducted by Leo Solomon, with Marlene Fleet as soloist, gave a magnificent concert at Grimsby Central Hall.

What can one say about the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 that has not already been said? No matter how many times one has heard it, each repeat carries some new aspect, seen differently by each player.

Marlene Fleet's brilliant technique, delicate, hesitant, dramatic as demanded, gave to this concerto the majesty which is its due. Miss Fleet captured for us an interpretation of Tchaikovsky which must, surely, rank with the best. Her performance was such that highlights blended into a continuous whole with clarity of expression allied to perfectly disciplined playing.

One would congratulate Miss Fleet upon her rendering of the No.1 and her immediate identification with conductor and orchestra.

 

Leicester Mercury

A recital by Leicester's own concert pianist Marlene Fleet is like a family occasion. Her recital in the MUseum and Art Gallery yesterday was just such an occasion.

The family element also feartured in her programme, for along with Robert Schumann's Scenes from Childhood we were given two pieces by his wife, Clara, better known as a pianist than a composer.

But the Romance in E flat minor and the Scherzo in D minor showed she was a competent composer for the piano as well, and pieces like this are attractive and suitable for many occasions.

The major work was Chopin's highly mature B minor Sonata.

Marlene's keyboard style has a beauty of its own that is always enjoyable to listen to.

Real inspiration took hold in two places, in Dreaming from Scenes from Childhood and the ending of the Largo of the Chopin Sonata.

 

Isle of Wight County Press

Two major piano sonatas, both late works of their composers, comprised the main part of an excellent piano recital by Marlene Fleet for the West Wight Arts Association at Freshwater on Saturday. Both sonatas were in the same key of B flat, but there the resemblance ended because the composers were Prokofiev and Schubert, an interesting contrast for any programme.

The Prokofiev work was the sonata No.7, Op.83, music of an incisive and often abrasive character but with a mature economy in its use of tonal and harmonic resources, giving it an inner strength that is always rewarding to the diligent listener. The performer meanwhile needs to be not only diligent but inspired, and Marlene Fleet was more than adequate to the occasion.

The playing transcended the technical problem of playing the notes, quite an exercise in itself, and brought out the structure of the music. The pace of the puter movements was such that a sharp edge could be given to the staccato playing, with little use of the sustaining pedal which was reserved for the more languorous chromatic harmony of the slow movement.

The Schubert B flat sonata was his last one, D.960, a work of unplumbed depths in spite of its air of almost casual spontaneity: its massive opening movement showing some new illumination at each performance, and its slow movement so uncannily anticipating the mature style of Brahms at the end of the century. These two movements were splendidly played.

The other works in this enjoyable concert were a brilliant performance of Liszt's Mephisto Waltz No.1, and a very sympathetic account of the lovely Mozart Rondo in A minor, K.511. It was altogether an extremely well-balanced programme. All credit to Marlene Fleet for her enterprise in including the Prokofiev; and double credit for playing it so

well.

 

Welwyn Garden City

..the highlight of the evening was Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto, played by Marlene Fleet...an excellent performance of what is regarded as a technically difficult piece. It demands great physical energy, not just in short bursts but in long, concentrated passages. Her cadenza was superb and the interpretation of the second movement really beautiful.

Tempo, phrasing and dynamics were well produced under Mr. Eugene Danks.

 

Elgin Courier

The very fine recital by Marlene Fleet, the distinguished young British pianist in Elgin Town Hall on Wednesday...the programme, presented by Moray Arts Club, opened with Mozart's 'Nine Variations on a Minuet by Jean Pierre Duport', a Parisian who was renowned as a cellist rather than as a composer. The pianist gave an exquisite performance with a porcelain touch in her ornamentation and scale passages.

Miss Fleet played John Ireland's 'Sarnia: An Island Sequence', a very poignant piece of music, with great feeling and warmth.

Equally impressive was her brilliant and technically breathtaking performance of the 'Hungarian Rhapsody No.8'.

The first set of 'Eight Preludes for Piano' by Patrick Piggott was the second work in the programme which was representative of the 20th century. Although only some 30 odd years separate Piggott and Ireland the differences in style of composition are, at once, apparent. Miss Fleet was completely in command of this technical, although not too atonal, piece of music.

The final work in the programme was Brahms' 'Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel'.

 

Leicester Mercury

Full marks to the Rutland Sinfonia and Barry Collett for an imaginative programme in Uppingham School Hall on Saturday....I also like Marlene Fleet's account of the solo part of Weber's 2nd Piano Concerto. It was crisp and brilliant.

 

Leicester Mercury

Grieg's Piano Concerto was an especial treat. Marlene Fleet's performance had poetry, charm, grace, an impressive fluency - and room to breathe....The first movement was particularly impressive for its spaciousness.

 

Western Morning News

British pianist Marlene Fleet returned to West Cornwall for the first time for a decade at the weekend to play the Grieg Concerto with the Penzance Orchestral Society.

Penzance first heard Miss Fleet as a youthful performer 13 years ago, and her playing in St. John's Hall this time showed the future and further development of a confident, strong player, with an individual feeling for phrasing.....

The sustained lyrical flow of the Grieg was well maintained and Miss Fleet offered a cadenza which summed-up the concerto's tunefulness and assertion.

 

Leicester Mercury

 Liszt's First Piano Concerto...an impressive account.

 

Leicester Mercury

The English Sinfonia returned to Leicester last night to play under Andrew Burnham at the Queen's Hall.

Marlene Fleet played in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.1 in C major...soloist, conductor and orchestra all caught the spirit of this work of paradoxical small scale magnificence.

 

Wycliffe College

A recital of outstanding quality..by the very gifted pianist Marlene Fleet...

She certainly commands an impressive technique combined with interpretative skill and sensitivity...

 

Leicester Mercury

There was an evening of concertos with two excellent soloists, Michael Thompson, horn and Marlene Fleet, piano. It was an all-Mozart programme with the Proteus Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Andrew Wilson-Dickson.

In Piano Concerto in E flat, K.449, Marlene Fleet played with her usual elegance of phrasing and control of the instrument.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​