…This Italian pianist showed artistic maturity beyond his years… there was a wonderful clarity and control of inner voices in his performances…

..Plano’s performance was a real revelation. He has been able to extract from his keyboard every kind of sound.. A deep and exciting pianist”

…the lithe Mr. Plano evoked the poetic and supremely confident spirit of Vladimir Horowitz. …Mr. Plano has a firm hold on his technique and displays it with the air of a warrior… A young lion.

..Roberto Plano demonstrated a sturdy technique, a living conception of the musical form and clearly expressive intentions

…a young pianist who is destined to be one of the stellar artists of the contemporary age… truly a thrilling evening of music, suggesting a career for the performing artist which will ascend to the highest level of international triumph.

…Many artists are brilliant technicians but somewhat lacking in expressiveness or vice versa. Rarely is one successful, as Plano is, in combining both in a flawless unity, to be technically brilliant on the one hand and at the same time to let profound emotions speak.

Plano fascinates with sculpted staccato as precise as a metronome. His runs, accurate and gently pearling or murmuring like a spring, are a dream.

How is it possible, in a fraction of a second, after hushed tones, soft as silk and dabbed in with celestial weightlessness, to change to a stormy, unleashed earthy force? At times he revels in majestic chords, then in sensuous arpeggios or plunging cascades. His playing has an elegant effect and yet it is filled with passionate power and intensity.

There are indeed a number of excellent pianists on an equally high level. But hardly has one felt there could be no higher level, along comes someone like Roberto Plano and proves there is.

With on the one hand highly charged, on the other hand deeply sensitive interpretations he delighted and overwhelmed the audience. Completely one with the music and without cheap showmanship Plano achieves a result of seductive effect.

Plano’s performance was a real revelation. He has been able to extract from his keyboard every kind of sound.. A deep and exciting pianist. In his homeland the Italian pianist is a star. With such outstanding presentations as the one in Kiesel, it cannot be long until he begins his triumphal procession through the concert houses of Germany.

…A wave of enthusiasm in Plano’s Liszt… Public in delirium at the end of the recital ..

…the pianist’s mastery of both technique and expression was nothing short of amazing…His outbursts of passion were truly operatic under his fingers… perhaps he could be called “the Pavarotti of the Piano?

Roberto Plano is clearly a serious and thoughtful musician…[He] exerted a real personality… His aristocratic playing in the Dvorák made every phrase matter.

An incredibly sensitive pianist, Plano is capable of enormous power, then glistening, fluid runs, then breath-taking suspensions…

…he dazzled the crowd with the demonic-sounding first movement – like devils dancing on a mountaintop.”

…A gifted virtuoso on the threshold of a big career, Plano has the talent, technique and personality to advance to the big leagues of the piano world…

If there is any justice in the world, Roberto Plano will win the gold medal in this competition… This guy can play anything, literally anything, and play it well. He is astonishing. No grandstanding and no flash, just the real deal

I was personally acquainted with most of the great ones, including Serkin, Rubinstein and Horowitz, but I waited decades for the next keyboard giant to arrive. Then one evening I heard Mr. Plano in recitalAs no other pianist now concertizing, he combines an almost supernatural range of sound and color with phenomenal musicianship, technique, and charisma.

…I like to say how charming and communicative is his playing, how sincere and severe is his musical thinking, and how spectacular and clean is his technique…