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| Mannheimer Morgen 07.10.1997: | A Promising Talent | | ...a remarkable technical ability at his disposal (...) the young Felix Hell is one of the most talented young organists... |
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| Die Rheinpfalz 02.01.1998: | With dreaming sound into the hearts | ...an organ firework (...) on New Years Eve (...) once more Felix Hell succeded: only a few tacts of Bach's music evoked deep devotion of the audience. Warmly, brilliant then the choral fantasy of Buxtehude (...) Between Dupré's luminous and purling Entrée and Sortie a dreaming Canzona with a nearly spheric sound Felix Hell found his way into many hearts...
...unbelievable, how Felix made the organ roar or whisper (...) a deep impression to listen how the young Felix expressed his gratitude to the composers for the beauty of their works.
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| Die Rheinpfalz 07.01.1998: | | ...the audience had joined the concert expecting to listen organplaying of a child and left with the consciousness of having listened to a master...
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| Rhein-Neckar Zeitung 03.08.1998: | | ...technically on a very high level Felix Hell mastered even unsuperable difficulties with his characteristic easiness...
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| Eberbacher Zeitung 11.08.1998: | | ... nomen est omen: "Felix", that means "the happy", "the lucky" (...) his performance was not a show of trained tricks, his playing was of natural musicality (...) and then the 6th Sonata of Mendelssohn, who himself was a wunderkind like Felix Hell: one should have seen the little hands in action to be able to judge about his performance.
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| Lüdenscheider Nachrichten 27.01.1998: | In search for an adequat superlative | 12 years old, but on the organ already an "old expert": Felix Hell (...) That superlative which would be adequate to meet the recital of the 12-year-old "Mozart of the Organ" Felix Hell on last Saturday in the Saviour Church has to be found yet. With almost inseizable brilliant musicality and unbelievable degree of technical performance...the young organist withdrew the audience one and a half hours into the world of sacred music...
... the works of the Grand Masters of Sacred Music like Dietrich Buxtehude, Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Leon Boellmann Felix Hell mastered with the selfpossession of a moon-madness walker...
...only after standing ovations of serveral minutes and wishes for autographes the audience allowed Felix to leave
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| Die Rheinpfalz 29.06.1998: | Sounding flowers of paradise in line with devoutness |
Organ recital in St. Paul's Ludwigshafen. "Wunderkind" Felix Hell with fascinating stylistical feeling. ...there are many young talents in the world, but only a few, who have the mind and the sense, to seize on the structure, the atmosphere and the movement, which is living in every work (...) Felix Hell has an amizing ability to understand this coherence...he is a master of the art of careful and undemonstrative agogic...
...very interesting Bach's Toccata and Fugue d-minor: the free, "fantastic" interpretation of the Toccata, the articulation of the fugue and the performance of ornamentations indicated a future minded thinking...
...with the performance of Mendelssohn's sixth Sonata one could
realize the astonishing balance and maturity of the young artist...
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| Der Bayerwaldbote 19.07.1998: | | ...Felix Hell took the audience on a thrilling journey through the epochs of organ literature. He played (...) with a very transparent registration and a glass-clear interp expression (...) no doubt at no point about his musical and technical sovereignty...
...it bordered on a miracle, about what the audience had been
witnesses this evening...
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| Miesbacher Merkur 17.08.1998: | | ...Felix Hell was able to hold the stage from the beginning to the end...
...technical brilliant
...each note filled with sensative feeling...
...he created a thrill and beauty as well...
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| Heilbronner Stimme 19.08.1998: | The ability of a mature artist | ...announced as a young Mozart Felix Hell with his grandiose technique was more similar to the young keyboard-master Liszt...
...the ability of the mature master inspired the audience to
ecstatitic enthusiastic applause...
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| Mannheim Morgen 01.09.1998: | | ... a remarkable ability of a spontaneous and improvisational created interpretation...
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| Rhein-Main Presse 01.09.1998: | | ...amazing the stupendous virtuosity and the mature ability of a remarkable talent...
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| Mannheim Morgen 09.09.1998: | | ...breath-taking pedal- and finger-technique...
...Felix Hell is only 13 years old, but an "old expert" on theorgan (...) with the right rhytmic sense and his own suggestion of interpretation has his playing nothing, what usualy is characteristic for a child (...) and after all: a refreshing natural personality without any "Wunderkind"behaviour...
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David Dyer, Aspen Daily News, Aspen/Colorado,
June 30, 2000: | | ...a most extraordinary and gifted organist (...) a dazzling, once-in-a-liftime kind of talent (...) definitelysomeone to watch in the upcoming years as a major musical star...
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| The Courier-Journal Lousiville/Kentucky, October 16, 2000: | | ...spectacular playing. (Felix Hell) hit many of the familiar high notes of organ literature (...) with a barn-storming, barn-burning blaze of technique...
...his Bach choral preludes warm and elegic...
...(made) the concluding movement of Mendelssohn´s Sonata F Minor more of a romp than I would have thought possible...
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| The Post und Courier, Charleston/South Carolina, June 3, 2001: | | ...Hell projects a winsome stage personality, but to hear the virtuoso is both humbling and awe-inspiring. (His) enormous amount of youth exuberance propelled him throug an extraodineray difficult recital.
In matters of musical artistry he is an extremely mature performer...
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Die Rheinpfalz
January 11, 2002: | | Felix Hell is a phenomenon: still a teen, but already a fascinating master on the "king of the instruments" (...) (His) clearly, logically, and forcefully formulated rendering of the performed works eloquently testifies of his souvereign control of the organ unto the very last nuance of sound. One really did not know, what to admire more: his stupendous manual and pedal technique (...) his unconceited never exhibited brilliance (...) his strongly developed stylistic ability (...) or his mental discipline and concentration (...) Full of thrill, majestic size, rousing agogic, and most elegant virtuosity. Then the point of conclusion: Franz Liszt's Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H, a true firework of organistic technique, kindled by his impetus of youth and his mature interpretative gesture...
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| Orlando Sentinel, Orlando/Florida, April 18, 2002: | | ...the nimbleness and momentum he gave this glittering music (Widor's Symphony No. 5) sure didn't betray any fatigue. Nir did the relish he put into the climactic chords, which he drew out with dramatic pauses that let him bring on more organ's power each time...
He gave generous helpings of virtuoso abandoon to the music that needed it: the big fugue in Mendelssohn's Sonata No. 3; the first and last movementsof Guilmant's swashbuckling Sonata No. 1; Franck's turbulent Chorale in AMinor; and Franz Liszt's exuberantly theatrical Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H. The sweep Hell gave Guilmant - right from the bounding pedal solo that launches the first "Allegro" - was commanding from the start. But the gradual way he built that Mendelssohn fugue was just as imposing in its way...
...Hell came also along with some interesting twists, though. He gave anextra dimension - literally - to Bach's fugue by playing the middle sectionon the part of the organ behind the audience. He made the contrasts in Liszt's B-A-C-H as vivid as they could possibly be. In the most histronic moments, he unleashed the trumpet pipes; at the other eytreme, he let Liszt's music scurry alongin murmurs and wisps.
But he handled some things with a telling simplicity (...) Bach's Deck Thyself, My Soul, with Gladness - whose flowing accompanimentis as melodious as the official tune - glided along in glowing tones. And (Felix Hell) molded ist lines with dashes of speciousness that brought out their expressiveness without bogging them down. He put over the charm in the lyrical "Andante" of Mendelssohn's Sonata No. 3 the same way...
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| The Hamilton Spector, Hamilton/Ontario, Canada July 12, 2002: | | ...You would expect fireworks, flash, dash and headlong viriuosity from one so young and awesome gifted. And indeed we got all the jaw-sagging pryotechnics from young Felix anyone could crave...But what enthralled, was the utter musical clarity and depth of Bach´s trio Sonata in E flat...
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| Buffalo News, Buffalo, New York November 18, 2002: | | ...He is a speed demon in many ways, but one whose interpretations managed to sound more inspired than hurried. Any member of the packed house who witnessed his performance in Slee Hall could probably be forgiven for gifting Hell with the „genius“ tag. His undeniable talents and the surprising depth of his interpretative insights augur a bright future...
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| American Organist October 2003: | | ...(Felix Hell's) ability to juxtapose the dramatic with a delicate lyricism was a moving experience for all attending...
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The Boston Globe.
November 12, 2004: | |
A young organist of staggering virtuoso gifts, Felix Hell, put the instrument through its paces in a recital that ended with Liszt's majestic ''Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H." Hell's playing of this great work was magnificent in the breadth of its conception and the finesse of its detail -- not to mention the thunderingly majestic climaxes summoned by flying fingers and feet.
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New York Times.
October 11, 2005: | |
Felix Hell captured Fox's exuberance in a richly embellished, dramatic, big-boned account of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor and a high energy Dupre Prelude and Fugue.
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stereophile.
February 2007: | |
FELIX HELL. Organ Sensation.
Reference Recordings RR-101 CD.
...Hell's technique reminded me of Glenn Gould's ability to articulate each note so that it stood clearly on its own, regardless of the tempo. Liszt's Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H allows Hell to reveal the rich palette of orchestral color and warmth of the Schoenstein organ...He also shows a profound understanding of the organ literature, and an ability to communicate lyricism through the massive instrument.
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| New York Times. February 2, 2009: | |
Mr. Hell demonstrated a superlative technique, with especially fluent work on the pedals....
... (he) brought an imposing pomp to the Grave-Adagio that opened the Sonata No. 2 in C minor and dazzled with his fluid motion during the work’s finale. But his tenderness in the Andante religioso of the Sonata No. 4 in B flat showed that he was also equal to Mendelssohn’s effortless way with a simple, effective tune.
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