This was a performance of patience and magnanimity, animated when it had to be but chiefly attentive to Schubert's leisurely way of building big statements -- just the right sort for a splendid new concert hall.
Indianapolis Star
Lynn Harrell’s presence was felt throughout the musical world. A consummate soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, conductor and teacher, his work throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia placed him in the highest echelon of today’s performing artists.
Mr. Harrell’s half-century career brought him to many leading orchestras including Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Detroit, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, and the National Symphony. In Europe he partnered with the orchestras of London, Munich, Leipzig , Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Zürich, and Tel Aviv. He also performed extensively in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Cellist Lynn Harrell gave an assured and virtuosic performance, rendering the score’s more declarative moments with the same unflagging confidence he brings to Romantic solo repertoire. The crowd’s reception went well beyond the polite applause sometimes given to new scores.
Boston Globe, on Premiere of Cello Concerto No.3 by Augusta Reed Thomas, March 2013
Harrell responds both to the famous elegiac element in [the Elgar Concerto] and to the robust, sinewy and ruddy-cheeked side, both aspects joined on a long, singing through-line. From the opening gesture, Harrell embraced us and didn’t put us down, gently but with a flourish, until the end. His playing was bold, imaginative, and surpassingly sensitive…fully human and rich in detail
The Boston Globe
