Reviews
From the beginning a remarkable musical talent and sensitive feel for the music showed clearly from Elizabeth Rossiter’s recital… [she] interpreted Granados’ melancholic vision of ‘The Maiden and the Nightingale’ with great expressive intensity…
— Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
…accompanied by the ever-sentient piano playing of Elizabeth Rossiter
— Hilary Finch, The Times
Rossiter was an excellent accompanist throughout… but her finest moment came in the piano-only ‘Entr’acte’ from Woolwich’s A Paper of Black Lines, the third chord of which descended with the dark, smothering weight of a concrete duvet. Nothing else in the recital could match this moment for me but, in that asphyxiated second, everything was brought suddenly into sharp focus.
— Tim Rutherford-Johnson, musicalpointers.co.uk
…With the rock-solid underpinning of Elizabeth Rossiter at the piano [soprano Kiri Parker] gave the world premiere of John Woolwich’s quirky A Paper of Black Lines, willing the audience to sit up and take notice.
— Stephen Pritchard, The Observer
When Sulki Yu performs she owns the stage… The audience was immediately riveted. She appears completely at ease performing, her whole body honed to expressing the music. Elizabeth Rossiter was equally assured and the two played Bartok’s monumental sonata with character and poise. The pair seemed to have true understanding of the Bartok’s folk idioms…
— Anna Michel, musicalpointers.co.uk
The piano solo in Act II proved especially memorable: rather than miming at the keyboard, the boy stood behind the pianist (the excellent Elizabeth Rossiter), whipping her along like a champion jockey.
— Yehuda Shapiro, Opera
Max Key’s beautifully orchestrated production gives us echoes of Sorley’s cultural inheritance through the use of songs by everyone from Schubert to George Butterworth, immaculately sung by Hugh Benson accompanied by Elizabeth Rossiter on piano. Tom Marshall and Jenny Lee play Sorley’s parents with great dignity but the chief burden falls on Alexander Knox, who captures the young poet’s campaigning zeal and quicksilver intelligence in a way that left me much moved.
— Michael Billington, The Guardian, 5*
Max Key’s unfussy production, which originated at the Finborough Theatre, ensures the language stays centre stage, and boasts an excellent central performance: Alexander Knox honours Sorley with a deeply sympathetic portrayal, finely balancing passion and poise. Tom Marshall and Jenny Lee as his grieving parents successfully conjure the dilemma of being torn between granting their son posthumous fame and keeping his words for themselves. And Elizabeth Rossiter’s deft music direction, accompanied by Hugh Benson’s singing, appropriately combines British and German songs.
— Theo Bosanquet, Time Out
The music, sung exquisitely by Hugh Benson and accompanied on piano by Elizabeth Rossiter, hauntingly underscores Sorley’s conviction in the beauty of German culture.
— Claire Allfree, The Telegraph
Interspersed with the text are songs sung by Hugh Benson at a piano played by Elizabeth Rossiter. There’s Vaughan Williams, Schubert and poems from Goethe and Brooke put to music. It brings a lovely rhythm to the show, which probably would have felt a little too biography-heavy without them… It’s sad, but the music and the journey of Sorley’s parents – the way they slowly come to terms with their loss – fills the stage with hope. It Is Easy To Be Dead is a little gem.
— What’s On Stage
…accompanied by a delightfully nuanced pianist, Elizabeth Rossiter. It’s thrilling to hear the passion of those old musical settings brought to life so vividly here, and it elevates the action nicely.
— Aura Simon, Musical Theatre Review
Musical accompaniment, encompassing German lieder and period British compositions from, among others, George Butterworth and Ivor Gurney, amplifies the spoken text while giving the singer Hugh Benson a workout, alongside Elizabeth Rossiter at the piano.
— Matt Wolf, New York Times
Alexander Knox is stunning as Sorley, giving him the bonhomie of a young thing, the clear-sightedness of an old soul. Whether generating uneasy sexual heat with his German hostess (Elizabeth Rossiter, also the pianist) or shouting an account of battle against a barrage of sound effects — the director, Max Key, keeps the atmosphere vivid throughout — Knox has a radiant ease about him. He joins in with the show’s singer, Hugh Benson, on some powerful musical moments too.
— Dominic Maxwell, The Times
As directed by Max Key… its smooth dovetailing of song, dialogue and recitation, with the warm lighting by Rob Mills accentuating this small theatre’s cosiness. The tenor Hugh Benson and pianist Elizabeth Rossiter provide a splendid recital’s worth of the appropriate numbers: George Butterworth’s setting of A. E. Housman’s “On the Idle Hill of Summer”, a jolly “Gaudeamus Igitur” for Sorley’s mixing with German students.
— Michael Caines, The Times Literary Supplement
The end result is clearly moving and magical. An experience heightened by the presence of concert pianist Elizabeth Rossiter who sits at the grand piano throughout, punctuating the play with Gabriel Prokofiev’s lyrical score. Like the text itself, the fragile underscore verges on dissonance with something beautiful underneath. Rossiter’s fingers move across the keyboard, careful not to shatter the melodies as the individual notes pierce like shards of glass. A more poignant soundtrack could not be hoped for…
— Jonathan Evans, The Spy In The Stalls
Notably, there’s live piano on stage from the consummate Elizabeth Rossiter who alternates between Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words and Gabriel Prokofiev’s score, particularly a stunningly beautiful waltz and spikier incidental music.
To the side of the stage, pianist Elizabeth Rossiter gives a sumptuously polished delivery of Gabriel Prokofiev’s gorgeous, gently dissonant, appropriately glassy score.
— Rachel Halliburton, The Arts Desk
Gabriel Prokofiev’s score, played by award-winning concert pianist Elizabeth Rossiter, punctuates the production and adds class.
…and with live piano on stage from Elizabeth Rossiter this is a classy production.
— Richard Maguire, The Reviews Hub
There are some very good things in this production… One of the main reasons I wanted to see this is that the music, beautifully played live (with a little help from pre-recorded moments) on the piano by Elizabeth Rossiter, is a new score by Gabriel Prokofiev and it’s very fine, especially the extended ‘concerto’ that Alexandra believes she is composing inside her.
The piano interludes by Elizabeth Rossiter are beautifully played with music with a modern-informed classical edge by Gabriel Prokofiev. Particularly amusing is the use of tinkly scales to accompany the Princess’s attempts at walking with a piano inside her, each step accompanied by a note or two, underlining the “piano inside me” premise.
The fifth member of the company is the superb pianist Elizabeth Rossiter, playing music specially composed by Gabriel Prokofiev, underscoring mood and character.
To the side of the stage, there is grand piano, played by concert pianist Elizabeth Rossiter. Her playing of Gabriel Profokiev’s atmospheric score is one of the production’s biggest strengths.
