"This richly rewarding work needs a sensitive and perceptive soloist to master its diverse moods. The gorgeously eloquent, Swiss-born Mirjam Tschopp brings just these inspiring qualities, lending a warm, serene presence to the opening and eerily capturing the glowing mystique of the slow movement. The declamatory and almost cheerfully comic finale is passionate and rhythmically charged."
The Strad (Roderic Dunnett), 09/2005 - CD Saygun Violin Concerto
"It is this eloquence which ensures that listening to soloist Mirjam Tschopp is truly an experience, for we cannot help but participate, in aural and almost scenic terms, in the tale told by Ahmed Saygun's epic work."
klassik heute (Eckart van den Hoogen), 31.5.2005 - CD Saygun Violin Concerto
"Mirjam Tschopp is a double-threat player, trained as both violinist and violist. She won the Max Rostal Competition for viola in 2000. Certainly, her skills on the violin are no whit inferior, if this recording is an example of her art. Saygun's Violin Concerto alternates passages of great warmth with those of sparkling virtuosity, including double-stops, arpeggiated runs, and a variety of attacks. Through it all, she displays an excellent technique and a degree of focus that sets her apart from many equally young, less-formed musicians."
Fanfare Magazine (Barry Brenesal) , 01/2006 - CD Saygun Violin Concerto
"Mirjam Tschopp and the WDR Symphony gave a triumphant first performance of the concerto. It certainly needs a performer as experienced as Mirjam Tschopp to give these highlights their wonderful brilliance. The heartfelt cantilena and bravoura attack she elicited from her part, beautifully supported by Semyon Bychkov and the committed orchestra, are worthy of the highest praise."
Curt J.Diederichs in the Kölnische Rundschau, 1.12.2003, WP Bacri violin concerto
"Mirjam Tschopp seems to be fully in command of the work's requirements both in drama and in poetry."
musicweb international (Rob Barnett) - CD Saygun Violin Concerto
"Mirjam Tschopp clearly is a talent to watch."
American Record Guide, 11.12.2005
"The violin concerto leads the listener through a fascinating journey filled with darkness, energy and episodes of tranquility. This strange work is wonderfully played by Mirjam Tschopp who, perhaps, is the only violinist to play this demanding work."
classicalcdreview.com, 06/2005
"The performances in this series have captured this quality particularly well, being unflinchingly direct in expression, colorfully played, very sympathetically conducted, and gorgeously recorded. In the concerto, Mirjam Tschopp does a particularly fine job with what must be a very difficult solo part."
classics today (David Hurwitz), Saygun Violin Concerto
"Ecstatic song and simple dialogue: Bacri's Concerto No.3 for violin and orchestra, commissioned by the WDR and premiered in the Philharmonie, is also easily accessible thanks to its proximity to traditional rhetoric and forms. Especially when performed with the clarity and passion of Mirjam Tschopp and Semyon Bychkov at the head of the WDR Symphony."
Gunild Lohmann in the General-Anzeiger Bonn, 1.12.2003, WP Bacri violin concerto
"Music at the highest level: in the viola sonata by Shostakovitch, written just a few weeks before he died, Mirjam Tschopp did full justice to the variety of the instrument's timbre. The dry, brittle style and the warm sound of the extensive lyrical sections were impressively realized."
Thuner Tagblatt, 10.5.2004
"From the first note, Mirjam Tschopp played with lyricism and unflagging tension, and this also made her solo cadenza in the first movement into an aha experience."
Badisches Tagblatt, 3.11.2005 - Mendelssohn Violin Concerto e minor
"She gave a flawless and controlled performance, allowing the music to flow with beautiful expressiveness, clear phrasing and focused tone."
Eleftheros, 13.4.2005 - Beethoven, Violin Concerto
"Mirjam Tschopp combines musical elegance of playing with tonal brilliance."
Rheinpfalz, 29.10.2005 - Mendelssohn Violin Concerto e minor
"Mirjam Tschopp was the artistic highlight of this prizewinners' concert. From the first note, Tschopp fused poetry with erotic passion, while engaging in a subtle dialogue with the orchestra's soli. Her elegiac tone was pure and artistically flawless. The musical elements of this magical concerto were supremely and clearly rendered."
Badische Neuste Nachrichten, 3.11.2005 - Mendelssohn Violin Concerto e minor
"In the Allegro amabile it soon became clear that her emotion and powerful sound are almost stronger on the viola, although she excels at both."
Südkurier, 13.10.2005 - Brahms Viola Sonata Eb major
"Mirjam Tschopp presented a passionate and spirited solo part, interspersed with heartfelt and very sensitive moments. Dazzling virtuosity alternating with rapt lyrisim gave the impression of a musical 'carrot and stick'."
Badisches Tagblatt, 1.8.2005 - Bartok Violin Concerto Nr 2
"In Rimsky-Korsakov's Concert Fantasy and later in Saint-Saëns's Introduction et Rondo capriccioso, the audience found in Mirjam Tschopp a bravura soloist. Like a delicate, careful surgeon, with supreme calm she probed the essence of every phrase, every motif, exposing their meaning."
Cellesche Zeitung, 10.1.2006
"A sweeping, emotional work full of illustrative drama. Tschopp plays sensitively, with melancholy and relish. Ari Rasilainen conducts the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz: generously orchestrated pictures, rhythmical, sensuous and brutish. Worth discovering!"
Schweizer Illustrierte (Hans Uli von Erlach), 27.6.2005 - CD Saygun Violin Concerto
"The real jewel of this recital was the sovereign mastery displayed by Mirjam Tschopp both as violinist and viola player."
Neue Luzerner Zeitung, 31.8.2002, Debut at the Lucerne Festival
"Her Ravel Sonata was excellently paced, the opening Allegretto being just that and the sardonic Blues movement rich in nuance."
The Strad, August 2001, Debut at Wigmore Hall London
"Mirjam Tschopp showed herself as a sensitive violinist who is able to form phrasings with best stylistic sense, interesting colours and an evidently clear technique. The lively applause by the audience that crowded the theatre was rewarded with a repeat of the splendid Andante, delicately refined and in an atmosphere of almost ecstatic concentration."
L’Arena Verona, 18.9.2000, Mozart: Violin Concerto G major
"Her playing, besides the perfection taken for granted nowadays, is distinctly individual; the virtuosity is filtered through a very personal approach to sound, making her playing really memorable."
Thurgauer Zeitung, 20.2.2002
"Mirjam Tschopp - a superior debut: The 18-year-old violinist has already done a lot in her young career. And drawing on this experience, the high school pupil also mastered her Tonhalle debut with ease. She performed the solo part of Mozart‘s Violin concerto in A major with verve, a big sound, impeccable intonation and scrupulous articulation."
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 7.3.1995, Debut at the Zurich Tonhalle
