Critiques
THE WASHINGTON POST
“Azkoul can make his instrument sing. This is a skill far more important than the ability to whip out thousands of notes per minute accurately and expressively, which he can also do.”
(Joseph McLellan) Washington D.C.
CLASSICAL GUITAR
“His talent for entertainment came to the fore in Schwartz’s jazz-with vocals piece, and even more so in a very funny version of Freight Train. Victor Borge could not have done better.”
(Colin Cooper) Krakow, Poland
IKE
“The man who found the soul of the guitar. His guitar spoke with a breadth of timbre and purity of tone one rarely associates with that instrument. Worthy of particular praise was the absence of any discordant squeak as his fingers and hand slid up and down the strings and the neck of the instrument. The secret of Jad Azkoul’s preeminence as a classical guitarist goes beyond his mastery of technique.”
(George Miller) Beirut
SUD OUEST
“Le mot ‘grand’ n’est pas trop fort: il a suffi que s’égrènent les premières notes de la guitare pour que les auditeurs comprennent immédiatement qu’ils avaient affaire à un des tous premiers maîtres actuels de l’instrument. … Le jeu d’Azkoul se définit par la pureté du style, la finesse dans l’élocution et une infinie variété de la palette sonore, en nous épargnant de surcroît les bruits parasites …”
Festival de Monflanquin (France)
SOUNDBOARD
“Azkoul is a lyrical performer; his music is well-selected, varied, impeccably prepared, and he gets a lovely tone from a guitar I fell in love with, a spruce beauty by Northern Irish luthier George Lowden.”
(Richard Long) GFA festival
EST VAUDOIS
“Finesse, souplesse et sinsiblité sont les principales caractéristiques du jeu de Jad Azkoul.”
Festival de Guitare, Montreux
CLASSICAL GUITAR
“His approach is intelligent, humorous and sympathic and he imparted a charm which at once established a rapport with the student and also with audience. His often zany but never derisive humor helped his class very popular.”
(Jamie Adams) Krakow, Pologne
LE JOURNAL D’ABBEVILLE
“Etre et rester le maître en toute simplicité. Comment ne pas tomber sous le charme entre les mains du maître un soir d’avril dans la petite église…3
Abbeville, France
SOUNDBOARD
“Jad’s master class was another revelation. He came across as a superb teacher. His knowledge of the repertory and its different stylistic elements is impressive.”
(Matanya Ophee) Krakow International Guitar Festival, Poland
NICE MATIN
“Une excellente technique, une virtuosité, une clarté polyphonique qui caractérisent les grands guitaristes, mais aussi une grande simplicité de jeu, un refus du ‘spectaculaire’, le souci de faire de la musique, une approche esthétique très grave, très profonde des oeuvres, une attention soutenue portée aux problèmes de sonorités, tel est le bilan que l’on peut dresser à l’issue du concert.”
(René Doumène) Festival de Menton
THE WASHINGTON POST
“Azkoul’s flowing account of Astor Piazzola’s Adios Nonino was a true homage …three US premiers of works by Lourival Silvestre and five Preludios Americanos by Abel Carlevaro were twin high points, not because of flashy content, but because Azkoul handled each technical demand without fuss.”
(Charles McCardell) Washington D.C.
EL DIA
“Azkoul se mostró mas aplomado, logrando extraer de su guitarra un hermoso sonido y demostrando poseer una extraordinaria musicalidad y un gran temperamento, lo que unido a su carismática personalidad constituyó una velada sumamente interesante y de altos valores artísticos.”
(Daniel Stéfani) Montevideo
CLASSICAL GUITAR
“Jad Azkoul’s playing, warm and intimate, reaches out to his audience.”
(Colin Cooper) Wigmore Hall debut, London