"This was an exceptional finale fit for an exceptional festival, neither to be missed."

Owen Campbell-Moore | READ FULL REVIEW?

"Young cellist Richard Harwood, who now has an international career, returned to his south-east Hampshire roots to give a brilliant performance of Lalo's concerto with the Havant Symphony Orchestra.

This is not an easy piece but Harwood's passage-work was clear, and the balance with the orchestra under the direction of Peter Craddock was perfect."

"Cellosolist Richard Harwood begeisterte beim 4. Abonnementkonzert der Sinfonietta Baden im Festsaal des Congress Casinos Baden mit Joseph Haydns Konzert für Violoncello und Orchester Hob. VII:b1...Ein Rising-Star der Musikszene...Mit dem Werk, das spätbarocke Züge trägt, begeisterte Harwood das Badener Konzertpublikum. Traumwandlerisch meisterte er die hohen Lagen des Soloparts und beeindruckte besonders mit dem schwierigen kantablen zweiten Satz."

"Cello soloist Richard Harwood was inspirational in Sinfonietta Baden's 4th subscription concert in the Festival Hall of the Congress Casino Baden with Joseph Haydn's Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra Hob. VII:b1...A rising star of the music scene...In this work, which has late baroque features, Harwood enthralled the Badener audience. He mastered the high passages of the solo part with somnambulistic instinctive accuracy and was especially impressive in the difficult cantabiles of the second movement."

"The night before, more mysticism at a Messiaen Anniversary Concert. The French composer was honoured in a performance of his Quatuor pour la fin du temps, played with robust commitment by Finghin Collins (piano), Elizabeth Cooney (violin), Richard Harwood (cello) and Carol McGonnell (clarinet). And for those players, the Belfast-born composer Ian Wilson had written a “setting” of the Gabriel Garcia Márquez short story, The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World.

With Gavin Friday as narrator, it received its UK premiere in a packed Corn Exchange: sand-ripples of meandering lines and sea-sprays of song and tremolo, in a cunning score that never upstaged, but was as impassioned as the words themselves."

"The first instalment of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Lion Foundation Twilight Series was a cracker of a concert, even if audience numbers were undeniably disappointing for an event that, in London, could have filled the Wigmore Hall.

From the first exquisitely moulded phrases of Schumann's Adagio and Allegro Opus 70, it was clear that cellist Richard Harwood and pianist Caroline Almonte were a partnership blessed by Parnassus.

The major work before interval was the Brahms E minor Sonata. Territory was tenaciously defined in the opening bars, with the clarity of the first theme leading inevitably to more athletic adventures in the movement's development section.

The cellist's own programme notes suggested that the minuet of the second movement only toys with being a dance; yet the litheness of this rendition, even in the dreamier ambience of the Trio, would have brought a smile to the face of Terpsichore herself.

Shostakovich's D minor Sonata led off the second half of the evening. After an Allegro moderato in which lyricism was adroitly tempered with simplicity, the second movement was almost unbearably exciting as Harwood and Almonte ran the gamut from Firebird filigree to spine-tingling frenzy.

After a Largo that made one realise the souls of Shostakovich and Rachmaninov shared the same motherland, the work ended with a Finale which did full justice to the "Haydnesque and hectic" that Harwood had signalled in his notes.

Frank Bridge's only Sonata of 1917 poignantly caught the spirit of the same war that hung over Elgar's Cello Concerto. No resources, physical or emotional, were untapped in the full-on dramatic Allegro. The pair expertly explored the many changing moods of the second movement, from its arresting opening, with Harwood's dissonant entries stabbing into the brooding piano textures through to the optimistic major glow of its final moments.

An encore of Rachmaninov's Vocalise was generous after such a demanding programme and so persuasively delivered that one could quite happily have heard this over-familiar salon piece again."

"an awesome talent"

"His Beethoven Op5 No1 was one of the finest performances I've heard. It's young-style Beethoven and Harwood perfectly caught the freshness and delicacy of this sonata."

"Die meisterte der 24-jährige Brite Richard Harwood beispielsweise gestern Vormittag mit erstaunlicher Innigkeit und legt damit die Latte für die Konkurrenz extrem hoch. Für manchen Nachfolger zu hoch..."

"The brilliant 24-year-old Britain Richard Harwood set an example yesterday morning, playing with astounding profundity and, with it, set the bar for the competition extremely high. For many of those following him, this bar was set too high..."

"Alles andere als eine große Solistenkarriere des 23-jährigen Heinrich-Schiff-Schülers Harwood wäre eine Überraschung."

"Anything else other than a big soloist career from this 23-year-old Heinrich Schiff student would be a surprise."

"Sharing this PLG concert was the cellist Richard Harwood, already, at 22, a very considerable artist, with an engaging platform presence, bags of musicality and a striking command of the many and varied techniques that his programme demanded."

"Richard Harwood is a name to watch for."