Applause
“Mr. Romero has great agility, adequate power and an unusually large repertory of colors and dynamic levels. More important, these virtues evoked a sense of the music at hand rather than mere piano technique.”
"...Friday evening Romero made the piano alive: it sang beautifully, then whispered very softly or sometimes thundered tremendously. His technical abilities are phenomenal, and his musicality ensures that his performances are sensitive and honest...His playing had an exquisite spontaneity and rhythmical pliancy which stressed the wide range of emotions...it is the music which moved and addressed one's heart and soul. Only great artists achieve that."
- Die Burger, Cape Town South Africa
With fleet-fingered dexterity and a strong lyrical impulse, the pianist from Chula Vista adjusted his virtuosity to the musical requirements, no matter how unusual.
- San Diego Union-Tribune
This pianist phenomenon radiates an aura of warmth and candor, which endears him to his audience almost before he touches a piano key. And once he begins to play, they are his forever.
- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Florida
“Romero’s playing combined a basic patience, the willingness to let the music come at its own pace, with a certain tautness of phrase that clarified rhythms, phrases and paragraphs. This was Chopin with backbone.”
"It was impossible not to take note of Romero’s athletic approach to Haydn’s C Minor Sonata, Hob. xvi:20. Haydn’s spirited, galant phrases lept from the instrument, sporting widely-contrasting dynamic levels and a constantly varied palette of attacks and articulations."
- Kenneth Herman, sandiego.com
The playing is authoritative, incontrovertibly Beethovenian in recreating the composer's style, technically immaculate and compelling in the extreme. One came away convinced that these five sonatas...had been analyzed and probed thoroughly.
- Los Angeles Times
On this particular evening pianist Gustavo Romero offered an intriguing, highly personal concept of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3. It was elegant, graceful, pensive - not the usual adjectives associated with this work of sharp contracts. Like a kind of philosopher-poet, Romero kept turning the notes over, looking for and finding surprising layers of meaning. More than performance, it was as if the audience were overhearing an intimate conversation between the pianist and the composer. Romero seemed incapable of producing a harsh tone at the piano or of indulging in crowd-pleasing bravado though this concerto offers ample opportunity for both. The fluidity and ease of his playing made clear that the interpretative choices were dictated by his particular musical temperament rather than technical limitation. Deliberately casting aside the sardonic and the startling which may find in Prokofiev, he produced a convincing, consistently arresting interpretation.
- Albuquerque Journal, New Mexico
“Romero is a Chopin natural, a serious young pianist with singing tone and bravura technique. The same strong fingers, outgoing dynamism and lyric melodic touch can serve Bach as well.”
"His articulation must be heard to be believed, and it could only be achieved with the kind of unfettered facility which Romero enjoys." "The drama unfolding was mesmerizing, and I for one didn't want to miss anything." "He opened up Pandora's Box as the evening progressed, showing us, in Beethoven, the power and nobility of a work that most unthinking players see as only a display piece." "Most of all, he engaged his remarkable imagination to draw the audience into the work with him. The jaws of hell opened before us as did the sublime vision of eternity in which Liszt ultimately put his faith."
- The Dominion, Wellington, New Zealand
We were thrilled with your presence and artistry over the weekend... Thank you so much for coming and sharing your gift.
- Julie Rozman
This was an unforgettable experience for me... Mr. Romero has an ability to touch people's hearts.
- Juanita Garcia, Mexican American Catholic College
A master of detail and an elegant sculptor of phrasing, Romero created a kaleidoscope of shimmering tapestries...
- Ken Herman, San Diego Story
Young American pianist Gustavo Romero took the audience for a wild ride on Sunday with his performance of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concert No. 3 with the Honolulu Symphony... (the work) is a virtual obstacle course of technical challenges, none of which posed much of a problem for this brilliant artist. With just about every note played perfectly, the precision of his performance was impressive in itself, but it was the soul of the interpretation that brought the audience to its feet. Double octaves thundered off the strings, building a passion that contrasted with more understated sections. The strength of the bravura passages seemed impossible for someone of Romero's rather slight build, and one would be a fool to test his handshake.
- The Honolulu Advertiser, Hawaii
His Haydn Variations in F Minor, Hob. xvii:6, proved a model of fastidious architecture that still allowed for dramatic mini-dramas to unfold in each variation. Although the theme is stated in minor, each variaton alternates the major and minor mode in such a way that the material always sounds fresh and welcome, and Romero made the most of the composer’s luxuriant exposition.
- Kenneth Herman, sandiego.com