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"The pianist Marina Lomazov was dazzling in Nikolai Kapustin’s perpetual-motion, stylistically eclectic “Concert Étude No. 8” (1984). Ms. Lomazov also played “The Body of Your Dreams,” a fresh and fanciful piece by Jacob Ter Veldhuis, composed in 2003. It is written for piano and a boom box soundtrack that takes phrases and words from a breathlessly enthusiastic commercial for a fitness program promising tight abs and a dream physique. The piano part is a kind of busy but oddly breezy toccata, with melodic flights and chord patterns that often cleverly match the word patterns." The New York Times (May 25, 2011), Anthony Tommasini
¨More jazz influences closed the evening on a dazzling note with Marina Lomazov tackling Kapustin’s Variations, a monster of sharp edges tumbling over each other. Kapustin is not for the squeamish, but from Lomazov’s ultra-cool reading, she has nothing to be afraid of." Review of the Keys to the Future concert on March 25, 2010 "The bold seriousness that engulfed four of Schubert's "Moments Musicaux" at the beginning of Marina Lomazov's recital Sunday could not have foretold the spirit-lifting program that would unfurl in the ensuing 90 minutes.
"Is there a more famous opening theme in all music than the riveting piano figure that launches the Grieg concerto? Beethoven's fifth symphony, maybe a few other pieces. Lomazov electrified the audience with a fiery attack of the familiar opening bars of the old war horse's first movement, the Allegro molto moderato, then filled Southern Oregon University's Music Recital Hall with rippling cascades of crescendos. Seeming to strike sparks off [], she segued without a pause into the poetic and rather hushed second movement, the Moderato, which she played with a meditative lyricism. The final movement, the Allegro, nods at the environment of Norway and throws in some folksy influences. If it seemed to stand somewhat apart from the first two movements, Lomazov clearly relished it. She played with punch, her long fingers moving nimbly over the big Steinway, her short hair flying as her body jerked to the crescendos. The audience responded by refusing to let her off the stage for intermission.
"Marina Lomazov closed the program with Carter Pann’s “Three Strokes” (2000) and William Bolcom’s “Serpent’s Kiss” (1969), works with an academic connection: Mr. Pann was a student of Mr. Bolcom’s. In Mr. Pann’s work a lyrical movement of childlike simplicity is framed by steely toned, rhythmically sharp-edged, almost mechanistic movements. Mr. Bolcom’s piece is more lighthearted: hints of ragtime and late-19th-century salon styles are intertwined with virtuosic figuration and theatrical effects (tapping the piano and whistling, for example). In Ms. Lomazov’s outgoing performance the work’s tongue-in-cheek turns made their point, drawing laughter mixed with admiration for both Mr. Bolcom’s and Ms. Lomazov’s comic deftness. The New York Times (May 20, 2009), Allan Kozinn
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"Marina Lomazov's outstanding performance Tuesday opened the 17th season of the International Piano Series at the College of Charleston in the Scottile Theater. [Lomazov] began with Debussy's"Images", Book I. Lomazov brought particular delicacy to it's opening "Reflets dans l'Eau", and her brilliant dexterity made the concluding "Mouvement" a sparkling dazzler... The piano music of Rodion Shchedrin is not frequently heard in this country, though his orchestral scores surface occasionally, but Lomazov made one wish to hear again the suite from "The Humpbacked Horse", originally a ballet score. The folk-like "Girls Roundelay" and the jazz-infused "Scherzino" movements were especially delightful. "Basso Ostinato" seemed like an expressionist film score - one heard echoes of Prokofiev and Moussorgsky. The Post and Courier (January 2007), Charleston, SC
"Lomazov was mesmerizing to watch and a delight to the ear as she led the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor... So ferocious was the pace that Lomazov was near impossible to watch while her fingers moved with superhuman speed... An audible "wow" was heard from the audience in the brief moment before the closing allegro... Members of the audience began to lean forward in their own seats as she reached the magnificent climax of the concerto and sparked the room to their feet with the final note."
""Lomazov's majestic sweep and passionate conviction made this concert [Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto] individual and memorable... Her performance created a frenzied standing ovation at its conclusion."
"One of the many remarkable things about Lomazov's playing is how she makes every nuance seem perfectly natural and absolutely right. In Lomazov's hands the second-movement Andante [Shostakovich Concerto No. 2] was gorgeous, the soft notes glistening in the air as she flowed over the keys. Her performance was affectionate and personal, like an intimate moment shared with a lover - perfect for this Valentine's weekend concert. The audience returned the emotion with an immediate and universal standing ovation, summoning Lomazov for numerous curtain calls: they just couldn't get enough of her."
“Lomazov's performance was a winning combination of vitality, technique and artistry. Her vigorous playing actually seemed almost effortless at times, her fingers shimmering over the keyboard and coaxing cascades of sound... It was simply the best piano playing I have ever witnessed”
“Marina Lomazov gave the well-known work (Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto #1) thrilling dimensions with dazzling fingerwork throughout, remarkable power in the more assertive crescendos and subtle poetry in the quieter passages. She astonished her enraptured audience with a memorably strong performance of the great work.”
“Marina Lomazov thrilled the overflow crowd with power and charm. Her slender figure conceals great tensile strength of backbone and forearms, which fully supported an enormous range of dynamics and of tone color, and made her performance riveting both to watch and to hear.”
“Marina Lomazov is certainly one of the best young pianists in America today. She plays with fire in her fingers and such a passion for the music that she carries the audience into a land of musical fantasy, like few pianists do.”
“It was a performance that accomplished the seemingly impossible feat of utterly redefining one of the most familiar works in the piano repertoire (Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1).”
“In recent months the Myra Hess concert series has shown us a succession of outstandingly gifted pianists. Calling any one of them the best yet is a bit rash, but it is tempting to say that about Marina Lomazov. Her concert June 27 was simply spectacular. Technical power and brilliance can be expected from Russian-trained pianists, but not many combine them with this high degree of musicality.”
“No pianist performing in Key West has ever played better or more brilliantly than lavishly gifted and dynamically self-confident Ms. Lomazov”
“… Lomazov put a real individual stamp on this familiar music (Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto #1)...”
“It is easy to make the piano sing. Making it cry is far more difficult. But that’s exactly what Ukrainian-born pianist Marina Lomazov did… Execution of dazzling musicianship that demanded not only superior piano technique but also the intelligence to conceive of the music’s framework and the emotional range to carry it off.”
“Lomazov has a velvet touch…[Her] fingers were amazingly independent, creating an enormous spectrum in her sound palette. Lomazov has a captivating demeanor to her playing… Lomazov was turbocharged with Beethoven’s Op. 111 C Minor Sonata. Her steely fingers sparkled fireworks. When the music required Lomazov to sing, she proved herself a diva of the piano.”
“…a mesmerizing risk-taker… an extroverted pianist who blends emotional zeal with superb control… Lomazov gave the most remarkable performance… (of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano concerto). She was poised, confident and heroic and brought an ebullience to the final movement of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto we don’t often hear from pianists of renown.”
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"Big-boned virtuosity..."