The Strad Magazine
"Recording contemporary, unaccompanied violin music [Andrew Violette's Sonata for Unaccompanied Violin] on this scale is no mean feat, and Robert Uchida throws himself at it, leaning into phrases and attacking long chains of double-stops with gusto. Uchida straddles the twin technical challenges of quick-fire ornamentation and chordal salvos admirably, while the Bartok pastiche is well-captured by earthy semi-poradic portamento. The sparkling torrents of the souped up 'Bells with Trills and Scales' channel his virtuosic energy in shorter bursts and the music is more potent for it."
- Chris Elcombe, April 2009
Strings Magazine
"Although a sonata for solo violin that lasts 107 minutes and requires two CDs may seem like a mere trifle from a composer who has composed a three-hour piano sonata, Andrew Violette’s harmonically meandering, but surprisingly gripping, tour de force is a rewarding musical adventure for performer and audience alike. And while its dedicatee, Robert Uchida, says that it “makes use of every possibility on the instrument from Bartók to Paganini,” it is more an extended reflection on sonority and gesture than a demonstration of violinistic fireworks. The centerpieces of the 2006 sonata are a 34-minute chaconne and an hourlong set of seven variations on the opening aria (with nods to Ysaÿe, Kreisler, Bartók, and Verdi), while its three “Bells” movements, the last a stunning exercise in trills and scales, provide a unifying thread to the experience. The unvarnished recording does not prevent Uchida from making ravishing sounds on his Italian fiddle (attributed to Carlo Bergonzi, ca. 1733). The youthful concertmaster of the Symphony of Nova Scotia in Halifax plays with an eloquent, hypnotic intensity and inevitability that seamlessly accommodate occasional outbursts of energy, including a series of sudden, wonderful arpeggios midway through the chaconne. What Uchida calls “the sheer magnitude, almost religious nature of the work” comes through—after you get accustomed to the music’s introspective pace and graceful shape." - Laurence Vittes, June 2009
The Vancouver Sun
"On Saturday the sublime duet near the end of the finale between soloist [Daniel Müller-Schott] and, in this instance, visiting Concert Master Robert Uchida (from Symphony Nova
- David Gordon Duke, June 2008
The Chronicle Herald, Halifax
"Uchida evoked shouts and cheers for his solo performance in Prokofiev’s, spiky, cubist, Violin Concerto in G minor. He played it with a thorough understanding of its modernist style. His tone was light and rich by turns, and his technique virtuosic."
- Stephen Pedersen, April 2008
"Uchida’s genius was to find this solid vein of musical gold by going right back inside Vivaldi, creating vivid tone paintings of the seasons as bright and active as a Brueghel canvas, which he finessed in a way, without making a bigger deal of the simple, fiery virtuosity of the violin solo writing than just what was needed to make it one of the most colourful performances I have heard in a while."
- Stephen Pedersen, February 2008
