KRONEN ZEITUNG, 6/11/2008 --- Then Claire Huangci's performance of Haydn's piano concerto in D major (Hob. XVIII/11): delicate phrasing, rhythmic precision, chords that were custom-fit with the orchestra. Whoever had any remaining doubts was enravished by Horowitz' "Carmen-Fantasy".
BADISCHE ZEITUNG, 7/10/2008 --- The only 18 year old Claire Huangci appeared as a bright, easygoing, charming, brilliant and grasping performer of great piano concertos. (...) Claire Huangci performs without any technical difficulties, controls the touch with the utmost discipline. Nothing seems strained. In the slow parts of the eleven movement piece [Bach partita in B minor], its intimacy and emotion shimmer through, in spite of all restraint. (...) It is a pleasure to watch the young lady play - the way she strikes a chord and plays swift staccato passages, touching the keyboard subtly and sensitively, the way a hand floats over the piano for half a bar before all ten fingers fly over the keys again. (...) The young pianist is primarily featured with buoyancy, romantic sentiment and the pleasure of doing.
BONNER GENERAL-ANZEIGER, 17/7/2008 --- The 18 year old of Asian descent caused a lot of amazement and exaltation due to her confident technique and her musical rendition. (...) Claire Huangci started with Mozart's (...) Sonata in F major KV 280, which she traced with sophisticated and subtle articulation as well as perfect malleability. (...) At the end of the recital she gave a most impressive performance with Robert Schumann's Sonata in G minor op 22 in regard to clever interpretation and the conception of specific gestures of sound and expression. The compelling and sensational performance earned bravos.
CINCINNATI POST, July 2008 --- Perfectly poised and confident, Claire not only succeeded in giving the most hair-raising account of Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit, she also won the hearts of all in attendance.
SCHWÄBISCHE ZEITUNG, 10/6/2008 --- The young pianist also exploitsan extensive range of expression in Beethoven's Sonata in F minor op. 57 Appassionata, with moods abruptly changing from sensitive and dreamy melodies to boisterous uproar. It seems as if there were hands of fays and fists of giants working at the same time. (...) The pianist, who convinced with somnambulistic certitude, power and vibrancy, completed the concert with two etudes by Alexander Skrjabin.
THE REPUBLICAN, April 2008 --- Pianist Claire V. Huangci's spirited playing of Frederic Chopin's concerto was the evening's piece de resistance. (...) When her cue arrived, she attacked the keys - clean, sharply-delineated chords and passages - serving notice that she was in charge, a girl just 18, playing Chopin's concerto as if she were channeling him or Liszt. From the high registers, clusters of descending notes sounded like a delicate clinking of crystal cubes. During interludes ideal for profound thinking, Huangci's nimble fingering loosed hundreds of butterflies into meadows of wildflowers. Of all the glowing comments overheard by the smitten at intermission, the most-often expressed was, "A tour de force!"
NEW YORK CONCERT REVIEW, April 2008 --- It takes something extraordinary to be able to pull off what Claire does at the keyboard with such ease, finesse and grace.
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, January 2008 --- Claire brings to mind the memory of Horowitz, with additional panache. She is indeed a pianist of unlimited possibilities! Her exquisite varieties of sound brought Chopin's Sonata into a whole new perspective. The mind-boggling pyrotechnics of Blue Danube were a delight for the ears, as well as the eyes.
DIE RHEINPFALZ, 6/3/2007 --- The programme including three repertoire pieces and a hazardous virtuosic oeuvre could have been a risk. However, from the very beginning of the matinée, right after the first bars of Busoni's piano adaption of the Chaconne from Bach's Partita D minor for Violin, it was unmistakeably clear that Claire Huangci could afford to take it. For the graceful person, charming amazingly resonant and colourful piano sounds out of the concert grand, captured the audience immediately. Claire Huangci is not only skilled at the keyboard thunderstorm, though. Moreover, her sound range is diversified including a multitude of exquisite nuances. (...) Claire Huangci played the highlight [Beethoven Sonata in F minor] absolutely authentically, with heartfelt and mindful musicianship, agitating with stupendous technique.
BALTIMORE SUN, February 2007 --- Charmingly slight of build, Miss Claire seated herself demurely at the piano, then proceeded to blow the roof with a massive yet insightful attack on Prokofiev's Second Concerto. She got Prokofiev's concept right, interpreting the concerto as the bold statement of a new generation. Her speed and control were dazzling, her tone full and rich, her mastery of the composer's wicked passage work nearly perfect. Not yet 18, she seems already destined to become one of this century's major talents.
CHOPIN MAGAZINE, December 2006 --- Very rarely can a young pianist arrive in Japan and create such a tsunami of emotions and energy among its listeners. Such a sense of natural beauty and style that is wonderful to discover.
MINNESOTA STAR TRIBUNE, July 2006 --- A Wunderkind! But that would be a great understatement for the young girl who managed to narrate a tragic story in Busoni's arrangement of the Bach Chaconne, ooze elegance from every pore of Chopin's colossal third Sonata, and play the hell out of that knucklebreaker known as Liszt's Don Juan! Remember the name.
