Rave Reviews for "Into Madness"

Posted by Maxim Lando, on Sep 05, 2022

Refined Frenzy – The New Record | Deutschlandfunk

by Marcus Stäbler

“With a beguiling Bartok and a world premiere recording, Tassilo Probst & Maxim Lando set a shining exclamation point.”

Flawless Interplay – Die Rheinpfalz

by Thomas Behnke

CD debut that has it all

Tassilo Probst (violin) and Maxim Lando (piano) are the names of the two high-flyers who present a CD debut that has it all. Three composers of the same generation, but with an entirely unique tonal language. In an interview, the American Lando described the triad of this CD as romantic, folkloric and absolute madness. Whereby craziness in a positive sense means the absoluteness of artistic devotion and its sparking creativity.

“Crazy. Two 19-year-olds put the heaviest things on the music stand, including a first recording that others probably preferred to leave in a drawer because of its technical difficulties. And they look pure gold from it. They give the whole thing a title that suggests more rock than chamber music – and leads back to the initial remark: “Into Madness”.

It is astonishing how mature and expressive, but also with what ease these changing landscapes are measured, every note is illuminated, precisely and yet full of emotional richness.

The double CD is a strong piece of music by two rising stars in the musical sky, in which dizzying ability still benefits from the carefree and artistic boldness of youth.”

Two 19-year-old newcomers are stirring up the world of classical music – Bremen Zwei

by Wilfried Schäper

“Tassilo Probst and Maxim Lando have made a phenomenal debut with their first album. Here two positively “crazy” virtuosos play a repertoire that you can’t hear every day. Hard to believe that the two are only 19 years old. The technical and musical level of the recording can hardly be topped”

“Tassilo Probst and Maxim Lando are a Dreamteam on violin and piano.”

Deep Adventurers – SZ.de (sueddeutsche.de)

by Klaus Mohr

“The listening impression is absolutely captivating. So if the two musicians are crazy, then this characteristic is required of the listener in the same way.”

The New Century in Motion – Artamag

By Jean-Charles Hoffele

“What a debut album!”

“Merveille!, Bartók ‘s Youth Sonata , filled with nostalgic landscapes, a sound naturalism still tinged with romanticism. … the brilliant bow of Tassilo Probst , the piano so independent, and whose solos, magnified by the versicolor playing of Maxim Lando , infuse a fantasy, a taste for the strange which in fact shows a score in the process of switch from one world to another.”

The other world is also that of Enesco…Probst hisses and flutes, languid and bubbling by turns, in the dancing settings surrounding him by the piano at times Ravelian – elegance, art of suggestion – by Maxim Lando: their interpretation takes time, savoring this harmony just troubled as it should.

The madness promised by the title of the album will be found in Joseph Achron ‘s Opus 45 , his great Second Sonata. Achron composes his work on the black: fabulous harsh, tortured music, traversed by an expressionist fever suspended by a few episodes filled with a whimsical mood.

Online Merker

by Dr. Ingobert Waltenberger

“The wild youngsters are here – chamber music is as adrenaline-pumping as bungee jumping”

“They are both 19 years old, one lives near Munich, the other in New York. With this album, the German violinist Tassilo Probst and the no less technically adept and fearlessly expressive American pianist Maxim Lando plunge headlong into the great shark tank of the classical music business. And I have to say: they prove themselves instinctively charged with infinite energy and stupendous artistic potency.”

“What is so impressive on the CD in the end is the palpable desire to experiment, the considerable risk in crossing the limits of what is technically possible and the emotional extroversion with which they go about their work interpretatively, and yet always remain playful, relaxed and boldly on the ball.”

“Unconditional artistic truthfulness right down to the tips of the hairs of the scores. Absolutely recommended!”

Classic Today (klassik-heute.de)

by Guido Krawinkel

“You don’t get the impression that there are only two highly specialized exceptional musicians playing here, on the contrary. Both have internalized this music down to the tips of their hair, which you think you can really hear in every bar.”

” At the end you can only be amazed: new repertoire discovered, new talents found, captivating music heard. As I said: you should remember the names of Lando and Probst!“

Probst and Lando: First League – Pizzicato

by Remy Franck

“With their first album the German violinist Tassilo Probst and the American pianist Maxim Lando, both only 20 years old, play themselves right into the first league.“

“They begin with the early, unnumbered Violin Sonata by Bela Bartok. The interpretation is exciting and very expressive. Probst and Lando prove to be equal, technically superior partners whose real strength lies in their rhetoric. Their musical dialogue and a very spontaneous, immediately engaging music-making give the music a meaningfulness I have not often heard in this work.”

“In Enescu’s Third Sonata, the two performers are very different from Enescu’s own recording with Dinu Lipatti, whose interpretation is by no means as imaginative as this one. The differences come from the tempo, among other things, because the duo Enescu/Lipatti is considerably faster than Probst/Lando, especially in the first two movements. The rapid and virtuoso historical recording is contrasted with an extremely idiosyncratic and spontaneous interpretation, as if improvised. Probst and Lando stimulate each other’s inspiration and thus create an electrifying tension that really challenges the listener. Neither Enescu/Lipatti nor Isaac Stern with Alex Zakin, Ida Haendel with Vladimir Ashkenazy or Leonidas Kavakos with Peter Nagy designed the Misterioso in the Andante so grippingly.”

“The recording of Joseph Achron’s Second Violin Sonata is a world premiere recording. The music is often nervous and excited and somehow always ‘fantastic’. It can remind one of Scriabin, Bartok and Prokofiev. Either way, the sonata becomes immediately attractive in a stunning performance guaranteed to raise the pulse. Probst and Lando meet Achron’s extreme technical demands and intricate alternation of give and take without difficulty, with dazzling timbres, imaginative nuances of all kinds and lean intensity throughout, creating a mesmerizing effect.”