Reviews
P I A N O
CHICAGO
"Brown has everything it takes ... a fine technique, excellent projection, and playing in which taste and refinement are matched by consistent musical intelligence."
- Chicago Sun-Times
"...unflappable attention to detail, an ear which stays cocked to the sound behind the notes, and a laudable willingness to wait and let the musical ideas penetrate the audience's comprehension."
- Chicago Tribune
KANSAS CITY
"It was a grueling evening's work, and it showed Brown to be a pianist of great poise, seemingly boundless energy, and an authoritative command of the keyboard.... His reading of the Schumann Fantasy in particular had a lean, muscular quality that was positively thrilling."
- Kansas City Times
"Brown's performance of the Brahms D-minor Piano Concerto was at once aristocratic and elegant, commanding and passionate."
- Kansas City Times
OKLAHOMA CITY
"Pianist Thomas Brown is one of the most accomplished keyboard artists heard here in years." (Beethoven C-minor Concerto with the Oklahoma Orchestra)
- Oklahoma City Times
MIDLAND
"Thomas Brown held his audience spellbound Saturday evening in a superb performance of the Beethoven G Major piano concerto. Brown's understanding of the composer's demands in this work was little short of incredible.... Amazing savior-faire ... one must look, for example, to the now legendary performance of the G Major by Artur Schnabel with Frederic Stock and the Chicago Symphony to find an acceptance of Beethoven's challenge comparable to that of Thomas Brown in Saturday night's concert. Responding to a standing ovation and cheers from an audience that simply would not let him leave the stage, Brown performed as an encore the final movement of Chopin's F minor Sonata. His reading of this brief fragment in every way matched the elegance and grace which which he performed the Beethoven concerto."
- Midland Daily News
NEW YORK
"It was the lyrical side of Beethoven that Brown revealed in the Sonata Op. 109. He certainly knows how to caress a slow melody, and to let the music breathe; but when it needs to thunder, he let it roar. He didn't miss a trick in revealing the kaleidoscopic coloring of Debussy's three Images. Brown concluded with Samuel Barber's Sonata, Op. 26, a big, dense, dramatic showpiece. Here is a handful for any pianist, but Brown wasn't flustered. With everything coolly under control, he crowned his recital with a strong, exciting performance."
- Musical America
O R G A N
CONNECTICUT
"One went to Thomas Brown's organ recital Saturday night largely because it was announced that he would conclude by improvising on a theme suggested from the floor (O God, our help in ages past). One was not disappointed. Brown's improvisations were inventive, atmospheric, rather urbane but always musicianly. They crowned an evening of first-class music and first-class music making that attracted a large and appreciative audience. Why, one is tempted to join Brown's congregation just in order to hear him play every Sunday!"
- Danbury News-Times
"Brown began the program with three compositions by Bach, the first of which was the Prelude and Fugue in G Major, BWV 541. It was a brilliant performance, proving at once his mastery of the instrument."
- Waterbury American
COLORADO
"In my mental database of "Best Recitals Ever" was one played by Thomas Brown at the OHS Mini-Convention at Round Lake, New York, last summer. Now I have to start a Tom Brown file, and put today's recital in beside the other one. It was an Anglophile's Orgy, played as last year from memory, with everything perfectly in place - beautifully registered and wonderfully musical. There were lots of smiles all around, and a spontaneous standing ovation at the end."
"Thomas Brown, who played so wonderfully earlier in the week, gave us four completely brilliant improvisations on familiar hymn tunes."
- The Diapason
MICHIGAN
"Brown played an interesting, highly palatable, well-explained program practically note perfect with skillful exploitation of First Presbyterian's beautiful organ and with exciting and compelling musicianship. Particularly impressive were his ornaments, often a painful challenge for the learning organist, but in Brown's fingers expressive, flexible and significant parts of the musical line. Equally impressive was his subtle, on-going rubato which made each line seem to have its own life... Seeing "Improvisation on a submitted theme" as the last item on the program had provided a moment to wait for ... what Brown did with the Bach melody 'O Sacred Head' was ingenious, amazing, multi-styled ... the audience loved it!"
- Saginaw News
KANSAS CITY
"Organists rarely play whole recitals from memory. Even more rarely do they do so with the cool-as-a-cucumber technical assurance - indeed, brilliance - displayed Sunday afternoon by Thomas Brown. Maurice Durufle's Suite was composed for precisely these kinds of sounds - purring foundation stops and blazing reeds. And the composer, himself a fastidious virtuoso, surely conceived the work for organists with Brown's brand of spit-shine brilliance. At a hair-raising tempo, the Suite's notoriously difficult Toccata was tossed off as if child's play!"
- Kansas City Star
MANILA
"Thomas Brown belongs to the top ten organists in the world. His technical mastery of the instrument is only servant to his artistry, a superb one."
- Manila Bulletin