Full of distinguished playfulness, Knight illuminates with her slender cello sound. She plays with fine strokes and a chamber music-like grace, opening up new horizons for the “concert piece” that Schumann wanted to be understood as a cheerful fantasy with three successive attacca movements.”
Concerti Magazin (Peter Krause)
This is an instructive and well-recorded programme that sheds new light on Schumann’s concerto, stripping it back to a time before editorial and executant additions. More than that, perhaps, is the subtly adjusted ethos of the work that emerges in performance. Add the previously unrecorded Piattis and you have a vibrant addition to the discography.”
MusicWeb International (Jonathan Woolf)
Josephine Knight has done great service by reviving these works […] this is a fine disc which has much more than curiosity value.”
Classical Music Magazine (Simon Mundy)
Knight plays with rapturous expression and the recorded sound is vivid.”
Sunday Times Culture Magazine (Paul Driver)
A strong performance throughout from soloist and orchestra.”
Lark Reviews (Brian Hicks)
Performing as part of the Josephine Knight and Friends ensemble was both a pleasure and an inspiration. Both her artistry and generosity of spirit shine through, and she creates a palpable, natural chemistry between audience and musicians. I hope someday to make another contribution towards one of her well-conceived and beautifully executed projects.”
David Finckel (January 2013)
When I hear Josephine Knight perform it reminds me of when I first saw a Picasso Painting at the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris. Coming face to face with this vibrance of colour, the integrity of line and shape, stopped me in my tracks and captured my complete attention. The last performance I attended of Josephine Knights at Kings Place did just this. I did not want it to end as I was delivered to Utopia, a dreamland, a eurphoric episode of perfection, flavour and expression. Josephine’s performance has that special ability to not only take me to a better place but also a new one. Thank you.”
Jacqueline Kroft (Burgon) (February 2013)
The demands of sheer stamina required for Josephine Knight’s recital were positively gladiatorial, they certainly enabled her to prove her credentials as a technically formidable cellist.”
The Strad (Wigmore Hall)
Occupying centre-stage was cellist Josephine Knight, radiantly pregnant as if to remind us that in the midst of death, we are in life. Knight played almost ceaselessly, her tone sometimes sweet or sorrowful or anguished. Hers was a performance of utter dedication.”
Evening Standard, Hickox/City of London Sinfonia, Cadogan Hall, November 13th 2008
Would stand in any company”
The Times
The next two works in the all-Sallinen first half drew those second and third phases together: his Chamber Music IV is based on 1964’s Elegy for Sebastian Knight for solo cello, marvellously played here by Josephine Knight.”
The Independent, English Chamber Orchestra, Barbican Concert Hall, London
CD Reviews
Josephine Knight’s way with the solo part of Tavaner’s masterwork (The Protecting Veil) neither displaces Steven Isserlis’s famous recording nor aims to do so, but offers a strong, incisive and convincing alternative. Knight and the English Sinfonia under Bramwell Tovey thrillingly capture its concentrated power – the sonic counterpart of a light almost too blinding for the eye.”
Classic FM Magazine, Malcolm Hayes
Arguably the most enjoyable item is Rossini’s Duetto. Josephine Knight and Seldis combine in exciting, witty and stylish readings of the outer movements, while the beautiful central Andante molto flows effortlessly along in true Italian cantabile manner.”
Bassist Magazine 2001, Malcolm Creese