"Kristina Vårlid plays with an incredibly beautiful tone and a deeply rooted urgency that is impossible to escape.
(...)
I am often moved by music, but here I am shaken in a much deeper sense than usual. It's a powerful experience."
- Ange Turell, Gitarr och Luta Magazine
"Vårlid has an almost insane
power in the quiet sections.
Even the softest note is
perfectly shaped - so delicate that I hardly dare to breathe.
This is the most beautiful
classical guitar record I have heard since I started as a reviewer, and a poignant memorial to Vlaskalic."
- Ola Nordal, Ballade
"...she plays so brutally that the strings slam into the fretboard. There is a will of expression here that is rare to hear.
Something similar happens in Koshkin's second guitar sonata, where she makes the phrases sing like few others do."
- Egil Baumann, Klassekampen
“Kristina Vårlid’s playing is technically immaculate and deeply involved.”
- Musicweb International
"A musician who really comes across as an orchestrator of the guitar. I'm not going to compare her to Bream. I suppose, like all great artists, she should just be compared to herself, even though it's obviously impossible. But she has some qualities in her playing that make me a bit euphoric when I think about what she actually gets out of the classical guitar... She has a tone formation I've rarely been exposed to. The impact is infinitely varied and she uses the whole guitar. (...) Vårlid really plays with an extreme virtuosity and speed. The finale of José's sonata: here the brilliantly unadorned is combined with passages sparkling with beauty. This is quite the debut: interpretative and varied in sound and form, through musicianship that takes your breath away. So I'll have to think a bit about Bream after all.»
- Egil Baumann, Klassekampen
«...Augustin Barrios's Catedral, a high point of this recording, especially the climactic "Allegro solemne", one of the best recordings of this movement this reviewer has ever heard!»
- American Record Guide
"Norwegian classical guitarist extraordinaire Kristina Varlid has the magical ability to conjure landscapes through her guitar. The quality of extracting so much color and expression from the instrument is what struck me first upon hearing her play. It is almost as if she were painting a masterpiece instead of playing one."
- Six String Journal
Photo: Damiano Rosa