“Joanna MacGregor's new recording of the [Lou Harrison] Piano Concerto is certainly something to treasure. Her understanding of the music's ebb and flow is exemplary, from the volatile moods of the first movement to the intense introspection of the third, beautifully rendered in a performance where each chord is given a different weight and direction.”
BBC Music Magazine
“With Joanna MacGregor as soloist, his own Piano Concerto No 2 (James McMillan)was always going to be the centre of attention.”
The Independent, Britten Sinfonia, Queen Elizabeth Hall
“And who better to unleash his (McMillan's) whimsy, his furies, his dreams and his tantrums than Joanna MacGregor, who jigged, boogied and reeled her way though a tangle of angular unison and melodic miasmas in the stings of the Britten Sinfonia.”
The Times, McMillan Piano Concerto
“Joanna MacGregor was then the dream soloist in Adam's piano concerto, Century Rolls; from the piano-roll virtuosity of the first movement, via flirtatious echoes of Satie and Fats Waller to the jazz, boogie-woogie and blues lines of the third, the scintillating MacGregor proved the perfect foil to Adam's witty pulsating orchestral writing.”
The Observer, on concert with John Adams and LSO, Barbican
“Joanna MacGregor is a mould-breaking artist - innovative, imaginative and challenging. She brings a breath of fresh air to the concert hall with her beguiling personality and individualistic approach to programme planning show to great effect in this memorable recital which ended with a huge ovation for a thought-provoking, powerful and compelling account of Bach's Goldberg Variations characterised by vital, spontaneous and superbly controlled playing.”
Leicester Mercury, Leicester Music Festival
“Everything in this ostentatious eclectic collection is played with attitude. Joanna MacGregor's career is practically built on a reinvention of the star virtuoso tradition, applied to the often cerebral and style-oblivious world of contemporary music. But MacGregor's verve, energy and astounding technique are always at the service of the music and never vice versa. Her ability to inhabit so many sound worlds with the same intensity and commitment is profoundly impressive - so why not flaunt it?
BBC Classical Review, Joanna MacGregor 'Play' album
“Joanna MacGregor has transformed the image of the classical pianist, bringing great passion and adventurous spirit to her music making.
About Adelaide, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra- Master Series
“Programmes of fragments ranging over the centuries can seem irritatingly disjointed and inconsequential. But with a controlling genius like Joanna MacGregor in charge, the results can also be extraordinarily stimulating. Her latest compilation juxtaposes Ligeti and Byrd, Cage and Dowland, in an eclectic but strangely coherent hour of piano music.”
BBC Music Magazine
“MacGregor has played a huge role in British music over the past years, helping to sweep away the rather dusty old concert pianist image, wheeling and dealing with the best in jazz as well as being one heck of a classical and contemporary music player, not to mention conducting and composing.
Adelaide Advertiser, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
“With her combination of maverick mind, flamboyant style and conspicuous talent, MacGregor is unlikely to shake off constant media attention any time soon.”
Sydney Morning Herald
“MacGregor tore into the piano part( Lou Harrison) with relish, easily tapping into the rhythmic intricacies of the work's overall architecture. This was compelling, raw and energetic playing.
Australian Contemporary Music Festival, Sydney
“She is one of the most exciting and enterprising pianists of the moment.”
The Observer, CD of the Week- Bach: French Suites
Music Natural and man-made are wonderfully combined, from the “duos” for piano and sampler to the gorgeous washes of tropical exotica…Playing for 30 minutes with barely a break, MacGregor encompassed this dual role with her customary fervour.”
The Daily Telegraph, London Sinfonietta, 'Bird Concerto with Pianosong'
“Century Rolls was delivered with terrific brio by the soloist Joanna MacGregor.”
Financial Times, LSO/Adams concert, Barbican
“MacGregor's flirtatiousness grew with the piece, pedaling its way through myriad stylistic allusions from Fats Waller to Erik Satie.”
The Independent, on LSO/Adams concert, Barbican
“MacGregor's sense of the arresting scene, and how to place it within the carnival canvas, is hard to define, yet it nonetheless shows true taste.”
BBC Music, Neutral Circuits CD
“She was an immediately endearing performer, obviously relishing the music emerging from her fingertips and making even the brasher parts of the opening Bartok Piano Sonata sounds atmospheric.
Edinburgh Evening News, Edinburgh Usher Hall
“A spellbinding night of music that demonstrated comprehensively Piazzolla's revolutionary rethinking of the tango form…The playing was out this world. Great musicians in a very rare combination-a real festival occasion.”
The Herald, on Piazzolla Quintets, Edinburgh Festival
“For the past few days I've been listening to a remarkable CD by a remarkable pianist who created the label it was released on. 'Play', by Joanna MacGregor, available on the SoundCircus label, offers a uniquely intriguing musical hour. Sometimes it has the minimalism of Zen, sometimes it's dizzily athletic. It delves into the past to bring out exquisite arrangements of English lute music and it forges into the future with sampled sound. It reaches out to India for piano-tabla fusions and southwards for jazz in Africa. And it's fabulously well played.”
Sunday Express
“This is clearly a work MacGregor knows well (Cage Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano), and she played it with a great deal of emotional commitment, but also with incisive control, clearly differentiating the mood-states embedded in the different movements and exploiting the many effects brought about by the 'preparation'. MacGregor managed to convey the overall architecture of the whole, so that it felt like an integrated work rather than just a series of quirky pieces.”
Andante.com
“An exceptional disc, both for the work itself (Lou Harrison Piano Concerto) and the remarkable performance…. MacGregor matches the music's ebb and flow seamlessly, from the glittering shower of clusters in the 'Stampede' to the intense introspection of the slow movement.”
BBC Music Magazine
“A classical virtuoso, MacGregor has a remarkable facility for combining jazz devices with improvisational motifs of her own.”
The Guardian
“Now that MacGregor is recording for her own, internet-based label, there are no limits on her choice of repertory. Not that there ever really were. This multistylistic, multiethnic, electronically assisted sequence is utterly characteristic of her approach over the years… everything rushes to the MacGregor centre like filings to a magnet. These bright, fresh performances are bursting with enthusiasm.”
Sunday Times
“Joanna MacGregor is as reliably eclectic and daring as most of her fellow pianists are the reverse. This imaginative, stimulating programme has the intimate feel of an hour spent in her quixotic company… Stylishly produced on the pianist's own label. Worth every penny.”
CD of the Week, The Observer
“MacGregor demonstrated that a strong interpretative conception can be allied perfectly well to incisive playing without a separate conductor.”
The Independent
“It was the effusive spirit of British pianist Joanna MacGregor that stole the limelight. Her gregarious style and rhythmic vitality speak volumes about her highly informed preparation.”
Herald Sun (Melbourne)
“Joanna MacGregor's new recording of the [Lou Harrison] Piano Concerto is certainly something to treasure. Her understanding of the music's ebb and flow is exemplary, from the volatile moods of the first movement to the intense introspection of the third, beautifully rendered in a performance where each chord is given a different weight and direction.”
BBC Music Magazine
“This piece by the iconoclastic American composer Lou Harrison (CV includes forest fire-fighter, animal nurse and calligrapher) was written for the jazz pianist Keith Jarrett in 1983-85. It challenges any player_s technique with its virtuosic demands. No one is better equipped to cope than Joanna MacGregor, who embraces the whirl of styles and influences (prairie, dance, Asian as well as Western classical and jazz) with grand passion and admirable precision. The first movement nods at Brahms and the Midwest. The second, entitled 'Stampede', scatters tone clusters like hailstones with a Latin beat; airy serenity takes over in the third movement and an intricate, featherweight canon dances through the last.”
CD of the Week, The Observer
“Joanna MacGregor performs with her customary effortless brilliance and blistering commitment to the cause.”
Gramophone, December 2000, re Harrison - Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
“Joanna MacGregor, making her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut, was just the sort of soloist this music needs - firm of rhythm, incisive of attack, as coolly commanding at the keyboard as Boulez was on the podium. A terrific performance all around.”
Chicago Tribune
“Speaking of slow music, Joanna MacGregor's poetic playing of the andante in Mozart's 12th piano concert was absolutely wonderful. The piano fairly sang and the whole thing was sheer delight from beginning to end, a masterly performance of featherlight dexterity, loving shaping and phrasing which never cloyed.”
Sheffield Herald
“MacGregor seems incapable of giving performances that are not at once extremely intelligent and entertaining…. She brilliantly multitracked herself in Conlon Nancarrow studies intended for player-piano, but bare musicality prevailed in her closing piece, a deeply touching account of the Allemande from Bach's Fourth Partita.”
The Sunday Times
“She performed some of the most profound and inventive music in the piano repertory. From the beginning of her sixty-minute recital with the delicate Baroque extravagance of William Byrd's Hughe Ashton's Ground to ending with Astor Piazzolla's most famous tangos, her performance was laden with bravura technique tastefully put to individual interpretation… Joanna MacGregor is to be applauded for bringing a challenging and diverse programme to a new audience who may not be regular classical concert-goers.”
Festival Vancouver