“… [Julius Rietz's clarinet concerto] How nice to make its acquaintance. And with such a soloist playing it! How nice to make his acquaintance too …. Sebastian Manz (23) brought his clarinet along, played in a captivating manner and earned himself thunderous applause.”
Remscheider Generalanzeiger, 13.11.2009
“… Comforting and soft as burgundy-coloured velvet: that was the sound of Sebastian Manz's clarinet …. from the sonorous depths to the highest and loudest notes. Julius Rietz's clarinet concerto benefited greatly from such exquisite sound quality.”
Bergische Morgenpost, 14.11.2009
“ … In Sebastian Manz the Bergische Symphoniker offered a clarinettist of extraordinary quality … [he] mastered the enormous challenge with an almost playful alacrity and ignited a veritable musical firework display.”
Solinger Tagblatt, 12.11.2009
Landscapes of sound
“… he blows, no he almost breathes the notes into his instrument, the somewhat lower-sounding basset clarinet for which Mozart composed his work, which gives this piece enormous warmth. (…) Sometimes the clarinet sounds like the human singing voice, sometimes like the velvety depth of a string instrument. As if he [Manz] wanted to conjure up the notes (…) so there visibly emerges between soloist and orchestra a mutual give and take. …”
Darmstädter Echo, October 26, 2009
“… The wisdom of the jury's decision in selecting this young soloist was audible to the enthusiastic audience in his interpretation of the works for clarinet and orchestra. Sebastian had chosen for this concert an 'Introduction et air suédois varié' by the Finnish composer Bernhard Henrik Crusell (1775-1838) and Gioacchino Rossini's Introduction, Theme and Variations in B flat; their velvety-smooth, sensitively modelled tones were highly virtuosic, and in the Rossini, in the splendid tableau of a grand opera scene ably accompanied by the orchestra, took brilliant form …”
Wiesbadener Tagblatt, August 28, 2009
“… What can top that? To stick with Goethe: a fifth 'reasonable person' to join the musical 'conversation'. In the second half of the concert, the Gémeaux Quartet welcomed the clarinettist Sebastian Manz, a virtuoso able to coax new qualities from the familiar A major Clarinet Quintet K581.”
Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz, August 13, 2009
“… Mozart's Clarinet Quintet saw Manz join the string quartet. After a brief phase of familiarization, the five carried on where the four had left off: balanced sound, ensemble playing at the highest level and sensitive interpretation. Manz sensitively adapted to the tone colours of the strings, sometimes in soft harmonic washes, at other times radiant and tuneful. Two hours flew by.”
Rhein-Zeitung, August 13, 2009
“… The playing techniques of both artists were phenomenal, both in the solo passages and as a duet. Thundering and whispering tones, rapid and thoughtful pace, almost reckless virtuosity were drawn from the orchestra hall's grand piano. The clarinet, on which the head was constantly alternated, laughed and wept, howled and cried in all registers up to the very highest violin tones. Tacit withholding of the instrument's power alternated with loud outbursts. … As a listener, one could not lose concentration without missing something important in this concert.”
Bietigheimer Zeitung, July 16, 2009
“ … His interpretation of the wind part in Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A major, K581, was fascinating not least for its intensely soft and warm, at times lightly whispered tone. At the same time, Manz is a master of semiquaver bravura, who well understands how to bring his instrument's eloquent voice on song in melodic arches. He has a seamless command of dynamic extremes and wind tones that literally blossom out of nothing. The popular Mozart composition took wing under these circumstances and bore the many-hued miracle of sound into the hearts of its delighted audience.”
Pforzheimer Zeitung, June 16, 2009
“… In Vito Zurej's Clarinet Concerto, the music surged up powerfully. (…) A strong, imaginative composition with a solo part of high virtuosity, ably realized by the strong lungs of clarinettist Sebastian Manz.”
Saarbrücker Zeitung, May 25, 2009
“… Yes, the 22-year-old Hanoverian overwhelmed his audience with Carl Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto, with a 20th-century piece — not something one can take for granted. The 1928 composition combines polyphonic rigour with burlesque melody, while letting the clarinet do what it does particularly well: sweet flattery. While the orchestra stamps and grumbles as if it has to set both industrial boom and stock-market bust to music, Manz traces lines of exquisite beauty. He lets the mood topple into grotesque squeaking, gives helter-skelter cascades of notes sense and meaning and in his solo cadenzas enters into a furious dialogue with himself. That generates a power of suggestion that nobody in the Europasaal of the Osnabrückhalle arts centre can resist.”
Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, February 17, 2009
“ … clarinettist Sebastian Manz provided the high point of the first half with Ignaz Pleyel's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra in B flat major. His impressively virtuosic playing gripped the audience and made the orchestra play ever more dynamically and more energetically. To present his credentials as a soloist yet again, he treated his already convinced listeners to an encore in the form of the third movement from Stravinsky's Three Pieces for Clarinet Solo. Alone with his instrument, Sebastian Manz gripped his audience.”
Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung WAZ, January 31, 2009
“… The way Sebastian plays the B flat Concerto by Ignaz Pleyel simply takes your breath away. The piece is difficult, of course, a showpiece for virtuosos. What does Sebastian Manz do? Puts in some extra ornaments. Anybody who handles music like that is no longer mastering it but shaping it. This is a capability one can only admire in Sebastian Manz. Apart from that, he brings into play a wealth of facets and feelings that we have long missed in young clarinettists.”
WDR 3 “Variationen”, broadcast of February 14, 2009
“ … The Duo Riul truly offered a programme that met the highest expectations and faithfully communicated their unbounded enthusiasm and joy in playing music that was at turns beautiful and awkward (…) Manz and Klett again demonstrated their love for modern works in their first, heartily applauded encore, the 'Petit Pièce' of 1910 by Claude Debussy. But that was not enough for their listeners, and the first movement of Milhaud's 'Scaramouche' had to be repeated, until the clapping finally ebbed away after further bows to the audience. Sadly though, for the critic — at an event where there was nothing to criticize — this concert gave “no pleasure.”
www.osthessen-news.de January 18, 2009
Debut at the Salzburg Festival. Sebastian Manz is a chamber-music partner of Christiane Karg, Renaud Capuçon, Katja Lämmermann, Antoine Tamestit, Clemens Hagen, Alois Posch, Albrecht Mayer, Magali Mosnier, Herbert Schuch, Gereon Kleiner, Leo Schmidinger and Martin Grubinger. Austrian radio station ORF 2 and the 3sat TV channel broadcast the opening concert at 11 am.
It has just been announced that Sebastian Manz will receive the 2011 ECHO Klassik award in the category “Newcomer of the Year”.
There has been released the first recording of the Duo Riul at the label GENUIN Classics. Sebastian Manz plays together with his duo partner, pianist Martin Klett, works by Brahms, Berg, Debussy, Lutoslawsky and Yun.
Sebastian Manz makes his first appearance with ARD prizewinners Ramón Ortega Quero (oboe), Marc Trenel (bassoon) and David Alonso (horn) at concerts in Polling and Munich. The piano part in the Mozart and Beethoven quintets is being played by Herbert Schuch.
On September 25, Sebastian Manz plays for the first time in his new position as solo clarinettist with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra of the SWR broadcasting station.
Another important debut, this time at the Konzerthaus in Vienna. Sebastian Manz is playing Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the concerto that won him the 57th ARD International Music Competition.
Sebastian Manz debuts with Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in the Zurich Tonhalle and takes his audience by storm. The North West German Philharmonic thrills under its new Principal Conductor Eugene Tzigane.
“… The way Sebastian plays the B flat Concerto by Ignaz Pleyel simply takes your breath away. …”
WDR 3, Variationen, 14.02.2009