"The music of Brazil's most famous classical composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos, is as vast and colorful in scope as the rain forest and traditions he so dearly loved. There are a number of recordings of his irresistible piano music, but none played with more authentic dash and understanding than this, and with a more consistently attractive program of selections. Clélia Iruzun grew up in the colorful hustle of Rio de Janeiro, beginning her piano studies at age four. She continued her studies in London at the Royal Academy of Music, and in Paris with a student of Claudio Arrau. Iruzun has won many awards in Brazil and in Europe, including the Tunbridge Wells Piano Competition in the UK."

Allegro

"She begins with the fairly well-known Bachianas Brasileiras No.4 and gives ripely beautiful accounts of its four haunting movements. At Prole do Bebe No.1 arresting examples are Pobrezinha and Bruxa, but every piece is a delight, and Iruzun's playing brings out the music's vitality with immense conviction. The playing is at all times richly idiomatic and wonderfully colourful."

MUSICAL OPINION, UK

"The pianist, Brazilian-born but London-based Clélia Iruzun, has a natural feeling for this type of music. It shouldn't be over-sophisticated but it must be elegant and rhythmically alive. To me her playing sounds utterly idiomatic.
All in all a disc that I have already played for pleasure several times and intend to return to every so often when in Lecuonan mood. "

Göran Forsling, Musicweb

"Ernesto Lecuona put Cuba on the musical map, and created some magically memorable tunes in the process. This CD also includes a couple of songs by his elder sister (Ernestina, naturally!). Brazil-born pianist Clélia Iruzun's playing is both sensitive and brilliant."

Castle Classics

"As they say in the States: "If it ain't got that swing, it don't mean a thing". Fortunately, in the young London-based Brazilian pianist Clélia Iruzun, the Lecuonas find an ideal performer. The music's hypnotic and sensuously seductive rhythms come as second nature to her - and are almost an invitation to dance - whilst the more pianistically challenging works find her fully equal to their considerable technical demands. Well recorded and stylishly presented (save for not mentioning session dates), this issue deserves the widest currency, and would make an ideal gift. Buy yourself one, too! "

Douglas Cooksey, Classical Source

"Colours, strong rhythms and fire characterize the performances by Clélia Iruzun. Very and very interesting this new CD, on the Lorelt label, of the music by Ernesto Lecuona, a landmark, without any doubt, in the gallery of Hispano-American composers."

Carlos Dantas, Tribuna da Imprensa, Rio de Janeiro, August 2005

"Probably the most influential musician in the musical life of Cuba in the first half of the 20th century, Ernesto Lecuona, nicknamed the 'Cuban Gershwin' is a singular composer.
The pianist Clélia Iruzun, 'carioca' resident in London for many years offers on this CD a selection of extreme good taste and representative works, also including two works by Lecuona's sister, Ernestina. Her performances are impeccable and of the highest standard."

Revista Concerto, Sao Paulo, September 2005

About her Brazilian Mosaic CD

"The sheer effervescence of Brazilian music, its larger-than-life thirst for never-ending vitality, is there for all to hear in its electric rhythms and panoramic colours. Lorelt evidently aimed to celebrate the kaleidoscopic dynamism of this country with one of its pianists, the young Clélia Iruzun, whose sheer joie-de-vivre is infectious.
No surprise either, that Cuban conductor Odaline de la Martinez sounds thoroughly immersed in this music's modes of expression and totally at home with her own ensemble, Lontano."

MUSICWEB 2003

"This album is filled with exhilarating compositions by Brazilian composers. Some are played solo by the distinguished Brazilian-born pianist Clélia Iruzun. She is particularly effective in Edino Krieger's classic-influenced Sonatina, with its alternating brightness and serenity. The Cuban-born, American-raised Odaline of la Martinez and her ensemble Lontano are also in impeccable form on this delightful panorama of Brazilian music."

NEW CLASSICS 2003

"Iruzun's characterful playing matches the colour and mood of the pieces and her solo piano piece on the disc-Edino Krieger's Sonatina- is beautifully played, showing fine technique and a genuine association with the music."

THE PIANIST magazine, June/July 2003

"There are several short solo piano pieces on the disc, including Villa-Lobos´s Tres Marias, and this important new album enjoys excellent sound and explendid playing by both soloist and orchestra. It is strongly recommended. More please!"
Click here to see the full review

MUSICAL OPINION, Jan/Feb 2003

"The release of this CD deserves an applause. The cuban maestro Odaline de la Martinez and her Lontano made, "cum laude", a brazilian mosaic, to which praise contributed - greatly - the brazilian pianist Clélia Iruzun"

TRIBUNA DA IMPRENSA, Brasil

"The past few years have seen an almost endless number of recorded piano recitals built around the dance. From the first track, Chopin's Waltz, Op. 34:1, it was apparent that this one was going to be something special. Clelia Iruzun knows how to perform Chopin and pushes all the right buttons for tone, phrasing, and the elusive natural-sounding rubato. She applies this to the melancholy Waltz Op. 69:1 and to the rest of her program as well. There is a refined sensibility to everything she plays, enabling the listener to feel fully comfortable with her performances.
The Granados is the 13 minutes of Valses Poeticos. From her native Brazil, there are waltzes by Fernandez, Mignone, and Villa-Lobos. Each in its own way is captivatingly played, with spirit and warmth. In the more virtuosic pieces such as Liszt's Mephisto Waltz No. 1 and the Schulz-Elver arrangement of the Strauss Blue Danube she has plenty of sparkle and does not rely on the sustaining pedal as a crutch when the going gets rough. Brief waltzes by Godowsky, Levitzki, and Brahms (guess which one?) complete the program. I will certainly be searching out her other recordings."

American Record Guide, Jan-Feb, 2004, by Alan Becker

“Ah, what a musician! Throughout you are struck by her imagination always grounded in musicality; All those stretching rubatos, which she always keep on the right borders of sentiment and sentimentality. Chopin's A flat major waltz, "Farewell", is a brilliant pearl which has not shimmered more beautifully since Rubinstein died, and she breathes new, and rather unexpected, life in to old war horses like von Weber’s Invitation to the Waltz or Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz what more can You ask on such great journey of discovery”.

DAGENS INDUSTRI (The largest finance paper in Sweden)

"There are few grounds for complaint about Clélia Iruzun’s technique, which allows her to confront the challenges of the Mephisto Waltz with justified self-confidence. She can also summon up the rhythmic fluidity necessary to shape the improvisatory lines of the Mignone and Fernandez charmers.
There are enough persuasive items here not only the Mignone and Fernandez, but also the sunny Granados and the dashing account of the Weber to make this CD worth the attention of pianophiles."

INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW, UK

“This is a generally imaginative programme by a thoroughly musical and capable pianist, well played and recorded, musicianly throughout. Most welcome here are the waltzes by Villa-Lobos, Mignone, Fernandez and Levistzky, most welcome because least familiar and like everything else, they’re excellently played.”

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE, UK

“The attraction of this disc is its variety, a mix of the familiar, such as Weber’s Invitation to the Waltz and those by Chopin, Brahms and Liszt, with comparative rarities, in this case three of them by Brazilian composers Mignone, Fernandez, and Villa-Lobos (all active in the 20th century), an apt choice by this talented young Brazilian pianist.
Clélia Iruzun is a fine pianist with a few discs already behind her and a seemingly full schedule of recitals ahead of her and is not only technically assured and idiomatically colouful, but she also gets to the heart of these varied waltz styles. A highly enjoyable hour and a quarter listening”.

MUSIC ON THE WEB

“When recording a collection of piano music, it’s imperative in this day and age that you show you have something different to say, as Brazilian pianist Clelia Iruzun demonstrates here.
Overall her playing has a pleasing warm tone and a good transparency of texture, resulting in an emphasis on harmonic texture.”

THE PIANIST, UK

The outstanding Brazilian pianist Clélia Iruzun gives scintillating performances of waltz music by Carl Maria von Weber, Chopin (Grande Valse Brillante, Valse Op. 69), Liszt (Mephisto-Waltzer No. 1), Brahms (Waltzer Op. 39), Johann Strauss Jr/Adolf Shultz-Evler (Arabesques on the Blue Danube Waltz), Mischa Levitsky, Leopold Godowsky, Enrique Granados, Francisco Mignone, Lorenzo Fernandez and Heitor Villa-Lobos. Clélia Iruzun’s playing is technically brilliant yet always natural and splendidly idiomatic.
NEW CLASSICS, Website

“Where keyboard virtuosity is called for she is dependably brilliant”

GRAMOPHONE, UK

“Clelia Iruzun has technique to burn and a strong temperament. I particularly enjoyed the 3 Argentinian Dances and Milonga by Alberto Ginastera. This well played, very well recorded disc fills a number of minor gaps in the recorded piano repertoire.”

AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, USA

“This is a hugely enjoyable disc played with flair, invigorating rhythmic élan and a rich palette of colours by Brazilian-born Miss Iruzun. I never knew you could do so much with a tango.”

CLASSIC FM MAGAZINE, UK

“Coming from Rio de Janeiro inevitably puts this music in her blood and the 24 Latin American Dances are little gems, played with infectious enthusiasm.
The choice of both pieces and composers ensure that there is plenty of variety of mood, with sultry melodies, such as Francisco Mignone’s Tango juxtaposed by Marlos Nobre’s spiky Frevo and Alberto Ginastera hypnotic Milonga.
The two dances in enrico Granados’ A La Cubana and Ginastera’s three Argentinian Dances end this thoroughly enjoyable dip into the Latin American world and tempted me to start all over again!”

MUSICAL OPINION, UK

"Note how exciting the Brejeiro by Nazareth is played. The often performed tango has here an incomparable interpretation...Clélia Iruzun closes the CD with the Argentinian Alberto Ginastera's Three Dances. Such an achievement in form and idea brought by this young Brazilian pianist makes it a golden close. The listener has here a first class recording. At the same time an extremely pleasant CD and a document of the Latin American and Caribean cultures."

TRIBUNA DA IMPRENSA, Brasil

“Ms Iruzun can handily hold her own with Serkin in the coruscating opening movement display; yet she brings out the lyrical beauty of the music very well and is also highly expressive in the central Andante. There's a wealth of high spirits in the final Presto, yet a gratifying warmth and supple phrasing as well. Ms Iruzun seems to be enjoying herself immensely”. (First Piano Concerto)

AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, USA

“The Mendelssohn opens with a delightful performance of the popular G minor Concerto and an impressive account of the Variations Serieuses before the conductor Joachim Gustafsson takes up his violin to join Iruzun in the equally joyful performance of the rarely heard Piano and Violin Concerto.”

MUSICAL OPINION, UK

“The Concerto in G minor Op.25-which opens the programme- the clarity is impeccable and the rhythm measure kept withouth any risks to the overall interpretation.
The slow movement sounds particularly beautiful thanks to the well balanced use of nuances.
The last movement is delivered in a scintillating and jubilant virtuoso style.
In the Variations Serieuses the playing of the closing section calls for one adjective "dazzling".
In the Double Concerto for violin and piano, the same security and integration between the soloists. The work flows at the highest level. Allegro-Adagio-Allegro Molto follow each other urging the listener to burst in applause".

TRIBUNA DA IMPRENSA, Brasil