"Two generations ago this all-Schubert recital would have been one by Artur Schnabel. Pierce plays the posthumous B-flat Sonata (1828) in a literalist, non-pedantic style, with a fine sense of the dramatic rumbles and pauses that afflict Schubert's pointed thoughts on emotional loss. If Pierce's playing reminds me of anyone else's, it is Claude Frank. ... (he) handles the agitated triplets and harmonic shifts in the first movement smoothly and on a large scale ... (he) evokes a high, tense singing-line, and he projects the intricate left-hand bass harmonies without forcing them.
... Plastic rhythm and a veritable array of piano colors, always delaying by ever-devious means the resolution of the music into the tonic B-flat. When Pierce wants the golden hammer, he uses it, only to transform the percussion into silver bells.
The set (1828) of six Musical Moments is likely a publisher's ploy, since the works originally appeared somewhat separately. Pierce applies a conscious yodel effect for the opening C Major, a pert dialogue that wanders between major and minor as far afield as E Minor. Loveliness for the A-flat moment, perhaps the most innately lyrical of the set. Pregnant pauses, an outburst of passion, and attention to harmonic colors set Pierce's rendition along some fine realizations, not the least of which is that by Rudolf Serkin on CBS."
- Gary Lemco, Audiophile Audition

"The world of pianistic extravagance is boldly served on this new disc... Each piece has charming music amid the pyrotechnics but what sticks is the audacious manner in which the composers treat the piano as an instrument of grand flourishes and almost breathless buoyancy. No keyboard wallflowers need apply here."
The music exemplifies the kind of opulent writing composers were supplying virtuosoes in the day - either themselves or others. Mendelssohn' Rondo Brillante in E flat major Op 29 has typical brightness and thematic poetry, which reams of glistening material to keep the soloist happily occupied. The piece eschews the big contrasts of tempo and atmosphere that the disc's other repertoire embraces. But it is a delightful concoction. So are the slightly more expansive creations by Czerny, Hummel, Reinecke, and Weber...On a series of more playful notes is Hummel's Introduction and Rondo Brillante in A major which abounds in energetic, heavily embroidered writing of enormous rhythmic vitality. In Weber's Konzerstucke in F minor the pianist engages in vibrant conversations with the orchestra, even as it scampers by way of octave leaps and perpetual-motion ascents and descents of tireless intrigue. Most sweeping of all is Reinecke's Konzerstucke in G minor with lyrical nods to Mendelssohn and Schumann...
Joshua Pierce, once admired mainly for his advocacy of new music, is an inexhaustible champion of these luxurious showpieces. He has the facility to tame every technical beast and clarify the thickest textures...
- David Rosenburg, Gramophone. July 2007

"Pianist Joshua Pierce has assembled a quintet of virtuoso concert works by a diverse set of Romantic composers, a series of inflated, grandiose gestures not particularly anchored by profound ideas, but certainly demonstrative of digital prowess. He begins with Carl Reinecke's stormy Konzerstueck in G Minor, which at several turns reminds me of Schumann's Introduction and Allegro, Op. 134. The coda alone expounds on about three Chopin etudes. The 1814 Introduction and Rondo by Hummel typifies his lyrical and bravura style, one that makes a potent bridge from the Mozartian galant idiom to that of Chopin. In terms of instrumental colors and harmonic modulation, it displays an inventive, captivating charm. The rondo-sonata has all kinds of flute and horn flourishes, col legno strings, and quicksilver piano runs that move from A to C and then E Major. The Chopin Krakowiak seems a close cousin. Glittery, elegant, bold, the piece has makes a cumulative effect of richly ornamental power. Carl Czerny, the noted creator of innumerable piano etudes, has in his Op. 255 a kind of bel canto vehicle for piano and orchestra, rife with 32nd and 64th notes, a long orchestral tutti, and countless, frequent modulations of key. We hear vague echoes of Chopin's E Minor Concerto, surrounded by Czerny's idiosyncratic bravura. Rezucha and Pierce adopt a rather brisk tempo for Weber's ever-fascinating Konzertstueck in F Minor (1821) - the prototype for Liszt's A Major Concerto.

"Another bel canto excursion for piano that modulates to A-flat, the piece allows Pierce to indulge in every kind of rhetorical curlicue and arpeggiated syncope. The music, long a favorite of Casadesus and Arrau, finds in Pierce a passionate advocate of its several labyrinthine episodes, including a pungent march in C Major. His huge glissando is worth the price of admission. Frisky excursions into F Major, C Major, and D-flat lead to a festively jubilant conclusion, kitchen-sink music of the first order. The 1834 Rondo by Mendelssohn first had its slick beauties revealed to me via Peter Katin. Fashioned out of a guiding 6/8 motif, the piece proceeds as a series of flurries and meditations, the latter in G Minor. Exuberant and self-assured, the Rondo emanates a jaunty air as it cascades to a fiery conclusion that has Pierce exhibiting powerful 16th-note triplets and octaves in regal fashion. "
- Gary Lemco, Audiophile Audition

"The American's bravura is polished and often fearless ...this more-than-complete set has much to offer...a technically stellar, exuberant and often illuminating traversal...[the Concerto in E-flat] is well played by Pierce, expressive yet keeping within Classical parameters...[in the Concerto No.2]
Pierce is largely just as impressive, particularly in the first two works. The soloist enters with bright vivacity in No. 2 (properly placed first), the fleet tempo underlining the youthful impetuosity of the young Beethoven, Pierce's playing is energized and brilliant with nice shade in the cadenzas.
The soloist is equally sensitive in the Adagio...Pierce brings wit to the rather oddball original Rondo of No. 1, bringing out the insistent staccato humour and finessing the mercurial shifts...In the First Concerto proper, Pierce's light-fingered articulation is well suited to early Beethoven and again the cadenza is superb, spun out with sparkling virtuosity and phrasing that leads the ear on...In the slow movement, Pierce floats the main theme in a natural way...[the] fast tempo and vivid articulation are scintillating...an exhilarating performance...[In No.3] the cadenza is again dazzling...The Largo is refined and elegant...[Pierce shows] speed and brilliance...[In the G major] the playing is faultless...[In the Emperor] Pierce is at his finest, with fleet yet bracingly vital and vividly characterized solo playing. [In this set] the performances are never less than involving, technically commanding and delightful."
- Lawrence A Johnson, Gramophone, June 2007

"I have listened to this set over and over, and each time, I hear more of the nuance in Pierce's playing (of Beethoven), especially in Piano Concerto #4. And the Finale of the First Concerto, has a clarity to it I have not heard before. I love this set. It's lyrically exhilarating! An amazing series. an amazing CD"
- March 19, 2007, Amazon.com

"I have listened to many versions of the Brahms first and Joshua Pierce gives a powerful performance The same is true with the Burleske. Pierce's performance caused me to go back and listen to it several times. This is my top choice for Strauss' Burleske."
- E. Smith "ES classical ear", January 1, 2007, Amazon.com

"Pianist Joshua Pierce gets off to a great start in Vol. 1 of what promises to be a series of Franz Schubert's piano music with the Sonata in B-flat Major, D.960 and the Moments Musicaux, D.780, with the sprightly Allegretto, D.915 as attractive filler. He approaches the opening movement of the sonata in a straightforward manner, preferring to capture the abundant beauties en passant, without too much fuss over the pauses that follow the remarkable trill in the bass that we hear from time to time, as if the piano were compelled to testify under oath to memories too painful to recall. In this movement, the melodies are deceptively simple, at first just a cluster of notes around the home key. But what Schubert does in developing them is something else. How often merely a slight change in metre or a striking key shift, often without modulation, will change the entire mood of a passage! There is a fatalistic current underlying the most innocent melodies ñ my pet name for it is "the Schubert Undertow" ñ and Pierce is sensitive to its presence.

The slow movement is a solemn prayer ñ with an anguished moment of reflection before the final solace. The Scherzo is a quicksilver Allegro Vivace with a curious little humpbacked dance as trio. The finale is fast and furious, belying the qualifying phrase phrase "ma non troppo" which refers basically to the tentative, hesitant nature of the opening figure. The high dynamic level selected by Joshua Pierce for this movement and the steady tempos he employs throughout the work are in marked contrast to the more introspective approach used by Andrew Rangell on Bridge 9153, which I previously reviewed in this column, and, at 40:01 his timing for the sonata is seven minutes quicker. Both approaches, I should add, are valid.

In Schubert's Moments Musicaux, a landmark in the Romantic genre of poetic character pieces, striking changes in mood and mode prevail in four of the six pieces. All these pieces have distinct characters, from Moment #1 which unfolds like a gradually evolving walk through nature to the solemnity of Moment #6, a nocturne in all but name, but one in which the prevailing mood has more to do with midnight than the charm of twilight. Moment #2, leisurely and introspective, has an anguished outcry in the reprise of the B section, while the overall ferocity of Moment #5 does not abate until the very end. Moment #4 is harmonically subtle and dancelike. Moment #3, often played as an encore, has a lot in common with Schubert's "Hungarian Melody." A winsome collection, these "Musical Moments"!
- New Classik Reviews, Atlanta Audio Society March, 2007

"Kleos new release with Joshua Pierce (Music for Piano and Orchestra, KLEOS CLASSICS KL5137) is well programmed....Joshua Pierce's arpeggios and scales powerfully propel (Young Apollo) to its rapturous conclusion...this is a fine recording of a work that receives too little appreciation...also impressive is Pierce's eloquent reading of Finzi's Eclogue...(Conductor Kirk) Trevor and Pierce create a true feeling of nobilmente, to borrow Elgar's famous coinage."
- Michael Fine, Fanfare Magazine, July/Aug 2006

"That the American pianist, Joshua Pierce is a fine player, is evident from this collection (KLEOS CLASSICS KL5137) and from his biographical information from the booklet and elsewhere. While he is at home with the standard repertoire he has also forged a reputation for contemporary music, John Cage in particular, and more recently, Daron Hagen.

Britten's Young Apollo was composed in 1942 to a commission from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The music portrays the young god in all his hard dazzling splendour. The opening is as icy-cold and brilliant as that of Les Illuminations...A short reflective passage just before the end is sensitively handled by Pierce and the challenging bravura throughout the rest of the piece holds no fears for him. I suspect that Joshua Pierce is perhaps more faithful to the composer's intentions. The work has had very few recordings and this performance is easily good enough to make the disc valuable for this work alone.

The programme is interesting and a welcome change from the usual concerto fare. Joshua Pierce is a pianist who need fear no comparison with the finest and the orchestral support from the two Slovak orchestras led by the English conductor Kirk Trevor is excellent."
- William Hedley, MusicWeb-International.com

"This collection of three somewhat disparate works provides listeners with an energetic revisiting of a standard of the repertoire, as well as an introduction to two splendid works that may not have been heard elsewhere. Accomplished pianist Joshua Pierce joins Anton Nanut and the RTV Symphony Orchestra of Slovenia.

"The Rachmaninov is easily the fastest rendition in memory. While some performers may falter with such ambitious tempi, Pierce thrives. Every note is clearly articulated even in the most bravura passages. Each variation flows naturally into the next and by the last three, Pierce has the listener at the edge of his/her seat wondering if he can keep the fireworks. The RTV Symphony ably keeps the momentum going, although there are occasional intonation issues in the winds, most notably in the 17th variation.

"As an orchestrator, Respighi was a master of variety in color, mood, and evocation. The Toccata for Piano and Orchestra is no exception, making it puzzling why this piece is not heard more frequently. Pierce and the RTV deftly handle the many changes in mood from the grave beginning, to the scintillating and whimsical end sections, and the extended lugubrious, brilliantly executed cello solos.

The outer movements of the Casella Partita for piano and orchestra are rambunctious and bombastic almost to a fault. A lesser pianist may quickly lose the listener's interest, but Pierce manages to pull it off despite the blaring orchestral tuttis. The second-movement Passacaglia is quite different, however, and is extremely heavy and brooding."
- Mike D. Brownell, All Music Guide

"Joshua Pierce...proves an exciting pianist in classical repertory. The fast movements bristle with excitement, giving the strong impression of concert performance...Pierce and company produce some exciting Beethoven. [In the earlier works] Pierce's no-nonsense approach and clear, detached fingerwork make a fine effect. [These recordings] have much to admire..."
- American Record Guide, March / April 2007

"Beethoven's complete piano concertos...are strikingly played by Joshua Pierce with involved accompaniments by the Slovak State Philharmonic under Bystrik Rezucha...yet another version of these concertos must offer something special to be competitive, and this set does - Pierce's unceasing energy and his uncanny sense of rhythm. The finest performers manage their accelerandos and ritards so that there is an eventual compensation that evens out the musical flow from time to time. For Pierce, this sort of compensation is constantly at work; it becomes central to his interpretations, which take on tension and excitement accordingly, illuminating this familiar music in an unfamiliar way. Technically, Pierce is impeccable...If your collection does not contain these pieces, the set can serve as a fine introduction; as an alternative to more standard interpretations, it makes a fine second version."
- Turok's Choice, Issue No.183, December 2006

"Rondo Brillant: Early Romantic Works for piano and orchestra (MSR 1196) is an imaginative blend of early romantic works for piano and orchestra, including two pieces, the Reinecke and Czerny, that as far as I know, have never been recorded. The Mendelssohn and Weber pieces are more familiar, and the Hummel Introduction and Rondo Brillant was [also] recorded recently by Howard Shelly for Chandos...There's some imaginative busywork for everyone and Pierce makes of it a heady romp, handily rivaling Shelly in agile fingerwork and leaving sprawled in the dust both Klaus Hellwig on Koch and Rudolf Macudzinski on a Fidelio LP...Pierce simply plays the hell out of it, and his crystal clear tone makes Shelly sound muffled by comparison."

"In the Mendelssohn Rondo Brillant, Pierce once again goes to town - it's an exhilarating affair, yet entirely at the service of the music...Tempermentally he hits just the right note. Indeed, he seems the very model of moderation next to Peter Katin's hectic treatment; and the Hyperion with Stephen Hough comes close...The Reinecke is a real find!..There is much bravura writing for the soloist, yet always tempered with style and grace; though it is the longest piece on the disc, Reinecke never wears out his welcome. Pierce responds with solid tone and an affecting gravitas...This is a major addition to the romantic piano literature."

"Czerny of course was a member of Beethoven's circle, yet the smoldering sentimentality of the Introduction is a foretaste of what will yet come. The more "classical" Czerny stand revealed in the landler rhythm that follows, with it's piquant yodeling effects; yet some of the runs farther in could be taken for Mendelssohn, and Pierce's buoyant approach adds to the fun."
- Steven J. Haller, American Record Guide, Sept/Oct, 2006

"Pierce's freewheeling, heart-on-sleeve approach in the Liszt Three Piano Concertos, proves quite satisfying and he makes of Totentanz (MSR 1154) an exhilarating tour de force, concluding with a whirlwind fugue and a blistering closing salvo...sheer visceral excitement!"
- Steven J. Haller, American Record Guide, Sept/Oct, 2006

"Having audited Mr. Pierce in the music of Liszt prior (MS 1148), I was already familiar with his digital credentials. Pierce has a big, extroverted technique and temperament, and he likes to throw notes around in the grand manner, a la Liszt style. ... The Pierce E-flat (E-flat Concerto) is bombastic, intimate, and heroic in turn, a nice collaboration all around. ... If the finale has a touch of Mendelssohn pointing to Saint-Saens, it's a healthy frivolity. Pierce turns on his afterburner fireworks for the Totentanz (in D Minor), whose three cadenzas provide him plenty of characterization."
- Gary Lemco , Audiophile Audition

"Pierce and the Slovak State Orchestra, right from the opening bars, demonstrate a dark and chilly intensity, evocative of a storm in progress. ... The playing strives to establish composure, leaving the listener with a sense of calm after the storm. (Joshua Pierce - Music for Piano and Orchestra, KLEOS CLASSICS KL5137)

"There are very few versions of Young Apollo in the catalogues and I admire this stimulating account from Joshua Pierce and the Slovak State Chamber Orchestra under Kirk Trevor.

"No one remembers the ballet Salade but the score to Le Carnaval d'Aix became one of Milhaud's most popular scores. Pierce provides an impressive interpretation that is carefree and high spirited. The playing is outstanding right from the carnival-like festivities of the Le Corso, to the shy and sultry Isabelle, the childlike uncertainly of the Polka, the effervescence of the Cinzio to the Final section that shifts from an unsettling and sombre mood to one of carnival excitement. I especially enjoyed Pierce's interpretation of the penultimate Souvenir de Rio (Tango) section that skilfully moves from cool and refreshing to mature sophistication to carefree juvenility.

"A fascinating and well performed collection that I feel sure I will return to."
- Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International, 2006

"The first thing which struck me about this CD was the creative and non-hackneyed programming; not your usual piano and orchestra disc. Next was the interpretive abilities of the fine pianist behind this CD, Joshua Pierce. He is expert at both standard repertory and contemporary music, but in addition he is a prolific performer who has built up a vast repertory of music which spans all of piano literature.

While the Richard Strauss would be the most familiar work in this program, the other three deserve more hearings and attention than they have received. The two short works by British composers provide a taste of that country's approach to music for piano and strings. The Milhaud of course demonstrates the French touch. It is subtitled a Fantasy for piano and orchestra, and has a dozen very short, dry movements with some wit. Wonder if the pianist was thinking back to his early piano instruction while he was playing the movement titled Le bon et le mauvais tuteur (The good and bad tutor)... Sonics are good and the Slovakian musicians are right on target. An altogether wonderful alternative to the endless Big Piano Concertos.
- John Sunier, Audiophile Audition, 2006

"First of all, the American pianist, Joshua Pierce was marvelous. He breathed as one with the British conductor Kirk Trevor ... Pierce's playing was beautifully balanced between grandeur and impulsiveness." (Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2, MS1148)
- McVeigh, Music & Vision, June, 2006

"Born in New York, Joshua Pierce studied at Julliard, the Manhattan School of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Columbia University. Among his teachers and mentors are Artur Balsam, Victor Babin, and Arthur Loesser. With a pedigree like that, it is little wonder that Pierce is one fantastic pianist who has to his credit a quite eclectic discography spread among a number of various labels. It appears, however, that this is his first walk down Romantic Main Street; though the emporia he has chosen to visit, except for the Brahms, are not exactly Repertoire Central.

"I kid you not when I tell you that Pierce's Brahms Second put my long-standing favorite, Fleischer/Szell, at grave risk. This is one of the most difficult of piano concertos to bring off, and Pierce's reading of it is about as near to perfect as one is likely to hear. The identity crisis of his First Concerto behind him, Brahms now no loner Suffer confusion over what he is about. The Second Piano Concerto is a concerto in name only. It is symphonic in dimension ands scope, and had Brahms called it a "symphony with piano," I doubt that anyone would have taken issue with him. Like much else of Brahms's music for piano, the B-flat concerto does not lie comfortably on the keyboard; it is not natural for the piano, as is the music of Chopin and Liszt. This is not to day that Chopin and Liszt are easy; rather, it is that their technical difficulties find solutions that are innately pianistic. But this alone is not what makes the Brahms so challenging. It is the way in which the piano engages with the orchestra. It is not a protagonist vs. the world relationship. It is an interleaved dialogue in which sentences begun by one are taken up, continued and completed by the other min a continuous conversation. Timing, inflection, dovetailing are critical. Pierce is a powerhouse who negotiates Brahms's hurdles effortlessly, as for most pianists who tackle the work; but what makes this performance a standout is the rapt and seemingly intuitive engagement between Pierce, Kirk Trevor, and the Bohuslav Martinu orchestral forces, the magic of oneness I've encountered only rarely in readings in this score.

"Programming Cesar Franck's symphonic poem for piano and orchestra, Les Djinns ("The Genies") was quite the master stroke, and not just because it is so seldom heard. Equally interesting is the Franck's piece, though closer in style and content to Liszt's symphonic tone poem, takes a similar approach to Brahms in fashioning the role of the solo piano in relation to the orchestra. Whether by accident or design, it is significant that ArkivMusic.com categorizes its only other two listings of the piece not under "Soloist and Orchestra", but under "Orchestral." Both of those recordings, which I've heard (on BIS with pianist Kerstin Aberg and on Naxos with pianist Francois-Joel Thoillier), are competitive with Pierce, and may be preferred by some for offering all Franck programs. But Trevor's and Pierce's Les Djinns is very fine, and for me its particular mixed program makes good sense.

"You might think that Pierce has offered Liszt's Concerto pathetique as the cherry on the sundae, but the fact that this Lisztian virtuosic confection also has a logic within the context of this program. It is both the earliest and the latest of the three items on the disc. Begun some 35 years earlier as a grand concert for solo piano, the piece underwent a number of transformations and title changes before finally being published in 1886 in it current form in an arrangement by Liszt's pupil, Eduard Reues. Shades of Brahms and his First Piano Concerto? Given the time span over which Concerto pathetique shape-shifted, it stands as an "amazing amalgam of Liszt's musical thought and style over the final four decades of his life," says Eric Salzman, who believes the piece is indeed Liszt's "unacknowledged Piano Concerto No. 4./FONT>

"For all lovers of great concerted muscle for piano and orchestra, and for phenomenally fine playing and recording all around, this is a highly recommended. (Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2, MS1148)."
-Jerry Dubins, Fanfare Magazine, July/August, 2006

"Pierce's prestidigital brilliance (Liszt: The Three Piano Concertos, MS1154) ... [is] remarkable
-Fanfare Magazine, July/August, 2006

"Joshua Pierce's powerful playing of Brahms' Second Concerto (MS 1148) offers an imaginative, poetic, yet rhythmically-driven reading. ... fleet playing in Franck's short, seldom-heard 'symphonic poem for piano and orchestra,' Les Djinns and keen playing of the Liszt Concerto Pathetiqué (MS 1154).
"Pierce has always been an impressive Liszt player; on a reissue originally released by Carleton, he performs the two famous piano concertos, the authenticated but seldom encountered Third Concerto and the craggy Totentanz with powerful virtuosity and grand feeling."
-Turok's Choice, Issue 177, May 2006

"Pianist Pierce gives exciting performances of all three works ... The Brahms Concerto in B-flat Major, Op. 83, is a pungent, vigorous delight, muscular and often free-wheeling in temperament. ... The Lisztian elements abound in this virtuoso piece (Les Djinns (1884) of Cesar Franck), with stunning key changes from its initial F-sharp Minor. The momentum increases, the syncopes rummaging between 2/4 and 3/4, and the orchestral textures thickening into a malevolent brew. Pianist Pierce plays its runs, cascading arpeggios, glissandi and keyboard recitative with deliberate pace and tension, a veritable color touch-piece. ... (Pierce's) lyrical sections (Liszt's E Minor Concerto Pathetique) hearken to the lovelier aspects of the Years of Pilgrimage, with nice touches from oboe, clarinet , cello, and violin. ... Besides its distillation of diverse styles in Liszt, it constantly changes its emotional contour in protean colors, quite reminiscent of the A Major Concerto ... the two great Liszt sonatas."
- Audiophile Audition, April 1, 2006

"Featuring the music of John Cage, Charles Ives and Ivan Wyshnegradsky, critically acclaimed pianist, Joshua Pierce, joined by Johnny Reinhard on bassoon (tracks 23, 24) and Mike Ellis on saxophone (track 24), brilliantly communicate these sharp and brittle pieces which fully engage the senses with striking instrumental color and stupefying imagination. The Cage sonatas for prepared piano are especially mesmerizing, often turning the sound of the instrument into something more of a strangled gamelan ensemble, a broken, metallic wind-up music box or steel pan duo gone awry. The voice and musicality that Pierce milks from these works is astonishing and while he is greatly respected and admired for his skill and artistry, even more telling is his ability to "stay out of the way of the music" and let the original inspiration shine through. For contemporary classical collectors, this is a disc that belongs in every library."
- Tamara Turner, CD Baby

"Joshua Pierce plays Cage's music with a nice integration of invention and seriousness."
- Jan. 5, 2005, Amazon.com

"Featuring the music of John Cage, Charles Ives and ivan Wyshnegradsky, critically acclaimed pianist Joshua Pierce brilliantly communicate these sharp and brittle pieces which fully engage the senses with striking instrumental color and stupefying imagination...The voice and musicality that Pierce milks from these works is astonishing and while he is greatly respected and admired for his skill and artistry, even more telling is his ability to 'stay out of the way of the music' and let the original inspiration shine through. For contemporary classical collectors, this is a disc that belongs in every library." (Joshua Pierce: Live At The Dom/Alternativa Festival, Moscow, Russia, Solyd Records 0303)
- CD Baby.com, Editor's Picks, July, 2006

"The recent rendition of the Moonlight Sonata by Joshua Pierce in Kirnberger III tuning (American Festival of Microtonal Music a couple of weeks ago) was a revelation: dehackneyed, disconnected from routine hearings, the piece took on incredible beauty and power - even for me, not a Beethoven afficionado."
- Elodie Lauten, April 2, 2006, Sequenza 21

"your Ludwig v. Beethoven was so extraordinary, that most of us in your audience last Saturday hope to hear (it) again." (Beethoven's Sonata quasi une fantasia in C# Minor, Op. 27, No. 2)
- Richard Kostelanetz, March 27, 2006

"A splendid disc featuring pianist Joshua Pierce, with Kirk Trevor leading several excellent Slovak orchestras, offers Milhaud's Carnival d'Aix, Britten's Young Apollo, and an acute reading of Strauss' suite from Le Bourgoise Gentilhomme in which the often virtuosic piano part (which weaves in and out throughout the score) is given greater prominence than it ordinarily receives (KL5137). Milhaud's delightful piece sparkles in Pierce's hands far more than it has on its few other recordings and the Strauss is so impressively done that it belongs among the top versions of this much-recorded piece. Pierce expertly balances the solo passages (which he plays with great panache) with those that require more blending with the other instruments."
- Turock's Choice, Issue 176, April 2006

"We've been listening to the (recording of) concert (Piano Masters Series at Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA, October 13, 2005) some, and with each listen we are more taken with the music and with your genius. Looking forward to more."
- Genevieve Kaye, President, Lehigh Valley Piano Society and Bucks County Piano Society, October 2005

Charles Ives: Universe Symphony (The Stereo Society, SS007)

"The premiere of Johnny Reinhard's realization of Charles Ives's /Universe Symphony, /at Alice Tully Hall on June 6, 1996, is still justly remembered as counting among the great concerts of the 1990's. It included dozens of "downtown" performers, including flautist Andrew Bolotowsky, percussionist Slip La Plante, violinist Tom Chiu, and pianist Joshua Pierce, most of them working out of an appreciation of Reinhard's effort to produce Ives's final, purportedly unfinished piece."
- Richard Kostelanetz, The Brooklyn Rail, November 2005

"In an effort to find new ways to use the piano, Cage came upon the idea of inserting objects on the strings such as nuts, bolts, erasers, cutlery, and so on. What he got was a wonderful percussion orchestra that makes these charming pieces so special.

Much of the music is very rhythmic and driving and does not in fact sound too much unlike an Indonesian Gamelan. Other music is more spacious and lets the intriguingly novel sonorities resonate and sink in. Cage was very specific about exactly what materials should be used to "prepare" the piano and where those materials go. I appreciate that the booklet that comes with the CD gives a list of all the preparations used.

This CD will both open your ears to what is possible with the piano and make a delightful addition to your record collection, even if you are new to new music.

Pianist Joshua Pierce plays these pieces very well with a nice integration of invention and seriousness."
- klangfarbenguy, Amazon.com

"Michael Harrison's "Revelation" is a caressing, cataclysmic, monumentally over-the-top ode to a comma. It lasts 90 nonstop minutes. It is played on a piano curiously tuned. The piece was finished this year, and Joshua Pierce's astounding performance of it at Los Angeles Pierce College (no relation) on Saturday night as part of this year's MicroFest was a west-coast premiere.
"The piano at Pierce was a splendid monster, a 9'2" Blüthner, and once the pure consonances had mellowed us out, Harrison slowly released the dissonances. The notes fight with one another and produce an acoustic phenomenon of beating. They make rhythm. And when the tremolos start roaring in the tone clouds, it is as though the beasts have been let out of their cages.
"The real sophistication comes in the keyboard writing. Harrison's music, until now, has been intended for him to perform in his dreamy, improvisatory, transcendental way. "Revelation" was notated at Pierce's request, and the pianist adds a whole new dimension of phrasing.
"Pierce is an old-school virtuoso who likes to mix things up (he is best known for his excellent Cage and Liszt recordings). His stunning performance Saturday was a feat that will not be soon forgotten."
- Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, May 16, 2005

"The measure of Joshua Pierce's greatness as a contemporary music pianist has been his awesome performances of the extended/exhaustive modern masterpieces, among them John Cage's Sonatas and Interludes, Charles Ives's Concord Sonata, and Michael Harrison's Revelations, which are keyboard challenges that separate giants from duffers."
-Richard Kostelanetz, writer, artist, and critic April. 2005

"Michael Harrison's 90-minute "Revelation," which will be presented on February 10, 2005 by World Music Institute and Thomas Buckner in a performance at Merkin Concert Hall by pianist Joshua Pierce, is that sort of revolutionary work; it sounds as novel and astounding to our ears as "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" must have to its first audience...And in Joshua Pierce, Mr. Harrison has found a wonderful collaborator - a Grammy-nominated pianist whose 35 recordings range from the Liszt, Brahms and Beethoven concertos to the music of John Cage, with whom he worked closely. In past performances, this virtuosic music and its interpreter were as one: by turns tender, fierce, thoughtful, and soaring. The achievement is worth experiencing."
-Stuart Isacoff, "A Work That Harnesses Nature's Harmonies/New York Sun, February 7, 2005

"...So why drop 24 (euros) on yet another rendition of Four walls and Sonatas and Interludes? Well, if Joshua Pierce's fiesty interpretations don't pique your interest, then maybe some early Cage rarities: Three Early Songs and Prelude (Piano Sextet) for Six Instruments in A minor - released here on CD for the first time, will light a fire under your credit card...In addition to a few obscurities, expect to find something fresh, edgy, injected with spunkiness and flair."
- New Music Box The Web Magazine of the American Music Center, Issue 68-Vol.6, No.8, Dec. 2004

"Joshua Pierce, a pianist of genius, put on two works by John Cage and Michael Harrison, both decidedly on the leading edge of music - utterly transforming."
- On The Scene (Where we've been, who we've seen)/The Improper Magazine, Vol. IV, Issue 6/October 2004

"Joshua Pierce's performance of Mussorgsky's Pictures at An Exhibition and the Liszt Funerailles on the Estonia Piano 273 were fantastic...I wish more people had chosen that piano for their interpretations."
- Pianoworld.com, Online review/discussion (From the Faust Harrison Piano Marathon of October 24, 2004)

"Pianist Joshua Pierce, on the best recording of piano works by John Cage in decades, plays two major works: the Dance score Four Walls and the Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (plus a bevy of shorter works, some of which are first recordings) with such brilliant rhythmic acuity, timing, tenderness and imagination that, resistant as TC is to this fragmentary music, the powerful performances are entirely persuasive (ANTS RECORDS AG06, two discs)."
- Turok's Choice, Issue No. 159, October, 2004

"The East End has always been fertile ground for innovation in the arts, from William Merritt Chase to Jackson Pollock to Ray Johnson, and the community has prided itself on knowing originality when it sees it."

"Which makes it all the sadder to see a missed opportunity, a moment last week when a short drive to the John Drew Theater at Guild Hall in East Hampton presented an enormous return on invested energy, but few took advantage."

"A minuscule but appreciative crowd of about two dozen scattered in the theater on Wednesday, September 1, rewarded pianist Joshua Pierce and composer Michael Harrison with a standing ovation at the conclusion of the 100-minute work "Revelation," performed for the first time in its entirety after five years in the making. The debut of the newest version of the work, the bulk of it written while Mr. Harrison was on retreat in Westhampton Beach, comes about five months before the official unveiling before what will likely be a much larger crowd in Manhattan."

"'Revelation' was teamed with John Cage's "Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano" in a program titled "Piano Metamorphosis." It was an apt title, as both pieces use pianos altered for their purposes: the Cage work was written specifically for a piano "prepared" with various items placed in its strings, according to the composer's strict instructions, while Mr. Harrison's majestic piece was written for the harmonically tuned piano, a tuning that changes the essential complexion of the notes the instrument produces."

"Mr. Pierce is an accomplished pianist who has tackled works by some of the world's greatest composers; it's instructive that he found himself drawn to the work of Cage, a true innovator who collaborated with Mr. Pierce in recording his works. On stage at the John Drew, the pianist's technical brilliance was on display, but so was the emotional quality he brings to his interpretations. Visibly and, more importantly, audibly, he was deeply connected to the music he played."

"The 19 individual works that make up Cage's "Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano" were written over a two-year period beginning in 1946. They playfully intermingle the various sounds produced by the distorted piano strings, blending rhythms and melodic themes into the kind of quirky music produced decades later by synthesizers."

"The piano is, of course, a percussion instrument, and that is never more apparent than after it has been prepared a la Cage. Some keys, when struck, produce thumps and thuds that are strictly percussive; some ring like bells, some buzz and rattle. In certain cases, they produce unmistakable sounds that simply seem out of place coming from a grand piano: for example, keys that reproduce, with stunning accuracy, the sound of a chiming grandfather clock."

"Cage's "Sonatas and Interludes" are not grand in scale, but they are intriguing and riveting, dark and complex, pulled back from the brink of discordance by delicate interplay. Mr. Pierce played each individual work with the confidence of someone who knows the territory, seemingly singing the odd foreign language with a native's tongue. With his skilled guidance, the work becomes not merely odd, but fascinating, hinting at the musical mysteries that first attracted the composer to such uncharted territory."

"After a brief intermission, Mr. Pierce then dove into the challenging new work by Mr. Harrison, who assisted the pianist on stage by turning pages of the massive score and providing assistance in other ways. It was a marathon, equally challenging to the pianist's skill and physical stamina, and Mr. Pierce was up to the task."

"A word about the harmonically tuned piano: An explanation of the method and philosophy could fill a newspaper page, but in short, the piano is tuned not to the typical "equal temperament" but to "just intonation," or "pure" tuning. The difference is astonishing, it seems almost impossible for two notes to clash, and it is quite possible for a bouquet of notes to blend, mix and tumble together in a way that is pleasing to the ear."

"Mr. Harrison's "Revelation" is, not surprisingly, a spiritual work that uses the musical purity offered by the special tuning to explore the new landscapes it creates; the title refers both to the tuning and to its musical result. It also implies a search for divinity that is inherent in the work."

"It's difficult to capture the astounding way Mr. Pierce was able to create the "tone clouds" that are the centerpiece of the work. They are created in clusters of notes, played in a flurry, with each resonating as the other is added measure after measure of complicated runs, extending for long minutes, hovering and shimmering with a multitude of colors. At the climax of "Revelation," Mr. Pierce played powerfully with both hands, weaving the tone clouds, while simultaneously pounding the keyboard with his right elbow - which simply added more notes to the mix that blended perfectly."

"As he did with John Cage, Mr. Pierce has worked closely with Mr. Harrison on the piece, both men offering input as it evolved and mastering the performance of the work, no small feat. "Revelation" is a lengthy piece that is never tiresome in its search for the divine. It's fair to say that the "just intonation" seems to strike a chord somewhere very deep inside the listener, far beyond the eardrum."

"When 'Revelation' gets its "world premiere" at Merkin Hall in New York City on February 10, 2005, the music world likely will take notice: rarely does innovation sound this lovely and accessible, and succeed on such a spiritual plane. A much larger audience likely will join the two dozen who stood last week and applauded the work in East Hampton. The applause will be louder, but it won't be more heartfelt."

"It would be easy to say, on paper for example: here comes "another" Cage record. In fact, the risks are high in such an undertaking and also, what about the performance? Does it match the spirit of the composer? 'A Tribute'(AG-06) doesn't have any of these problems, because the interpreter Joshua Pierce is use to working on Cageian polemics and is considered one of the highest experts on the matter. The range of works contained herein also serves one of the most important and highest expressions of Cage's piano music. Agreeably, 'A Tribute' is essentially an album of early works along with ultra-known material and distinguished compositions issued here for the very first time." "The "listening" of this double CD is suggested to everyone; but much more to the denigrators of Cage's music. Anything else, to the contrary, on such an indisputable album as this, can only be considered a waste of time! Have a good listen!"
- Eterio Genio, SANDS , Italy, 2004

"This time, Ants Records(AG-06) has really out done itself, publishing two full discs of music containing two of John Cage's most important masterpieces: Four Walls and Sonatas And Interludes for Prepared Piano; performed by the American pianist, Joshua Pierce. In Four walls, we find the ideas of time as a founding and unifying parameter between sound and silence. The performance by Joshua Pierce is tremendous! He is totally attentive to the best rendering of its poetic sounds, both in the modal melodic-harmonic concatenation to the attacks, harmonics and wide dynamics. Mr. Pierce successfully conveys his own expressive urgency and in so doing, underlines with great contrast, the transparency of silence juxtapose to a performance of great drama and sensitivity." "The nine emotions indicated by the Indu traditions is at the center of Pierce's superb rendition of Sonatas And Interludes. Every sound, every timbral-nuance of this work, are evoked by the sensitive and musical pianism, which is consistently demonstrated by the extreme accuracy of the recording - a "live" one made at New York University on May 23,1999. This is a version of great clarity, comparing to the likes of: Takahashi, Cardini, Vandre or for that matter, Pierce's famous Wergo Recording from 1975. All in all, the personality and experience of Joshua Pierce plays a fundamental role, assuring us all the necessary dynamics and great musical expressivity."
- Emes Rosina, All About Jazz, Italy, 2004

In "John Cage: A Tribute," (ANTS Records, AG06) pianist Joshua Pierce has selected pieces that "show a musical and emotional range and depth missing from the composer's earlier efforts. Their beguiling sonorities are vividly alive and vibrant, and Pierce's interpretation has a feathery lightness and delicacy. Most of this fascinating double CD is taken up with Sonatas And Interludes (1946-1948), and the less known Four Walls (1944) ... Much of its material is surprisingly reminiscent of Copland's American pastoralism, though the repetitive structure looks forward to minimalism. Spontaneous Earth (1944) is a rare example of Cage in jazz mode. In The Name Of The Holocaust (1942) comes from a James Joyce pun and not the terrible events then unfolding in Europe - a haunting piece that shows Cage's early mastery of prepared piano, informed by techniques from his teacher Henry Cowell. Prelude (Piano Sextet) For Six Instruments from 1946 is rare Cage chamber music that gets its first recording. Music For Marcel Duchamp, for a surrealist film sequence by Duchamp, is a spare yet compelling prepared piano piece linking two key, if ambivalent, dada icons."
- Andy Hamilton, The Wire, Issue 245, July 2004

"Johnny Reinhard and Joshua Pierce performed in a bassoon and piano duo, in the Meditations on a Theme from the Day of Existence, originally for cello and piano by the one of the first pioneers of microtonal music, Ivan Wyschengradsky...Atonal, romantic piece, which alternated between the spirited and the exalted, yet with a more lyrical and tragic mood. The performance by Reinhard and Pierce, possibly the very first ever in Russia, was one of the most inspired ones they have ever played together. They performed in an unsurpassably virtuosic and invigorated way. After the performance, the audience applauded wildly, cheered and waved to show their extreme appreciation of both the piece and their performance."
- Anton Rovner, Musica Ukranica Online Magazine, Odessa, Ukraine July 31, 2004

"A fair degree of froth, as the title implies, never did anyone any harm, and this is a pleasant disc to have on ó surprising how after a while one takes the solo pianist's virtuosity for granted. Joshua Pierce's playing is stylish, squeaky-clean with showers of notes pouring from the whole range of the keyboard. This spans from Addinsell's concerto, which was used as a basis for the soundtrack on that highly unmemorable film 'Dangerous Moonlight,' on to Chopin's fairly unsubtle but tuneful variations on a theme from the duet between Giovanni and Zerlina from Don Giovanni, and then the inevitable Gershwin. The version here of his Rhapsody in Blue is billed as "complete and restored." It gets an uninhibited performance from Bratislava's players, who wouldn't have been allowed anywhere near its decadence 15 years ago. Listening to it, one wonders why Gershwin was so keen to study others when he was so brilliant himself. Ravel, when he got an answer to his questions asking how much Gershwin earned, responded 'I should be studying with you,' while Schoenberg refused him with this priceless comment, 'you write such fine Gershwin; if you worked with me you'd just write bad Schoenberg.'

Saint Saëns was himself no mean pianist as this cheery waltz demonstrates. It was a wedding present for his duo-pianist partner Caroline Montigne-Rémaury and sparkles from beginning to its very fast end ó a good waltz tune too. Another Caprice follows, this time worlds apart from the sophistication of the 19th century Parisians society. This is a sexy ragtime by the American composer Paul Turok, whose pedigree is impressive in a range of compositions from music for unaccompanied violin to an opera on Richard III. This Caprice may owe much to Scott Joplin but it also show considerable skills in its colorful orchestration. Even the cartoon music preceding its final strip show-like section and mad dash to the finishing line will impress. Liszt's paraphrase on Weber's music takes a while to get going after its moody orchestral introduction, but finally erupts into a whirling waltz making huge demands on the soloist. A selection like this would not be complete without the famous scherzo from the fourth of Litolff's symphonic piano concertos, and it makes a fitting conclusion to this hugely enjoyable disc with its infectiously familiar tune. It may sound easy but Pierce is a fine pianist with both prodigious technique and stylish skill.
- Christopher Fifield, UK Music Web, July 2003 Recording of the Month

"Joshua Pierce meets the challenge of a virtuosic disc entitled "For The Fun Of It All" with his usual brilliant pianism (KL 5124). Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto, Chopin's La ci Darem ... Variations, Op. 2, Gershwin's fully restored Rhapsody In Blue, Saint-Saens's Wedding Cake, Liszt's great arrangement of Weber's Polacca Brilliant for piano and orchestra, Litolff's Scherzo and Paul Turok's Ragtime Caprice (a first recording) are indeed fun to listen to when played with such ease and bravura. Warsaw is an audience favorite,the restored Gershwin a more substantial version of another favorite. The Saint-Saens and Litolff are played with scintillating dexterity they demand. Young Chopin's garrulous but delightful variations are not often heard; their difficulty outpaces their ultimate quality. TC refrains from comment on the Turok, but can testify that Pierce's performance is a composer's dream. Strong accompanients by Kirk Trevor and the Slovak Radio Symphony (Bratislava). TC would have recommended this superb disc even if it had not included the Turok."
- Turok's Choice, Issue No.145, June, 2003

"Joshua Pierce, an eloquent new-music pianist..."
- Alan Kozinn, New York Times, May 2, 2003

"Johnny Reinhard's American Festival of Microtonal Music presented three performances of Michael Harrison's Revelation: Music for the Harmonically Tuned Piano in late April and early May, with Joshua Pierce as the formidable piano soloist. I had heard an early incarnation of this work in a private recital a couple of years ago, with the composer at the keyboard. Harrison's approach, which grew partly from his work with composer La Monte Young, exploits the overtones generated naturally by vibrating strings - the series of pitches that resonates softly above every "fundamental" tone. For acoustical reasons these are obscured in the modern piano's usual equal-tempered tuning. The results here are often surprising and wondrous.

For example, in the midst of clouds of dense clusters rapidly drummed in the bass end of the instrument, an astute listener can perceive high ghost tones-sometimes bell-like, at other times vaporous-as if a choir of angels were singing along. The piece can run as long as 90 minutes, and its sections build toward a climax during which I would have sworn that Brazilian singer Milton Nasciemento had entered the room and begun chanting around a high B Flat. Joshua Pierce's rendering of the score was virtuosic in the best sense: technically accomplished and emotionally committed in every moment. When the piece was pensive, he was tender and thoughtful; when it wanted to soar, he unleashed a torrent of energy.

The intricate textures and remarkable effects of Revelation are the result of Harrison's desire to "emancipate the comma." This re-working of Schoenberg's famous phrase about the emancipation of dissonance registers the seriousness of his goal. A "comma" is the difference between two intervals with same name-a third, for example, or an octave-arrived at through different tunings systems. For example, a major third produced in equal temperament is wider than one produced by a naturally vibrating string. Play these two versions of the same third together and the result is a jarring dissonance. For centuries, musicians sought to avoid these clashes; Harrison incorporates them into the texture of his music.

In some ways, Harrison's vision represents the philosophical flip side of Schoenberg's. Schoenberg's revolution in Western music, through which he broke down conventional harmonic models, was by its nature horizontal: everything built from rows of tones scrupulously ordered, with no one tone more important than another. Harrison's approach is vertical: harmony built on subtle harmony, overtones wrestling or reinforcing each other-producing a concoction of sound filled with other worldly resonances. The difference between these approaches brings to mind an age-old argument, voiced in the eighteenth century between Rameau and Rousseau, over whether music attains expressivity through harmony or melody.

Schoenberg dissolved the distinction between consonance and dissonance. In similar fashion, Harrison rehabilitates the comma into a newly welcome constituent of the harmonic universe. This gives rise to an exciting and often moving musical dimension-one that may well be the path toward music's future."
- Stuart Isacoff, Sequenza 21, May 12, 2003

"With an intellect as complex as it is daring, and a heart as warm as God's green earth, Joshua Pierce is a pianist for the ages. With seemingly casual ease, he moves from Cage to Liszt to Richard Rodgers as if he grew up in their very households. This is an artist who knows no boundaries. Joshua, you inspire me!"
- Kirk Nurock, Composer, May 29, 2003

"Revelations is still haunting me in unexpected sonic daydreams. It seems to have affected the way I'm hearing equal-temp. music as well. Also, I think Joshua's passionate interpretation found even more layers in this extraordinary work. An unforgettable concert."
- Kirk Nurock, Composer, April 28, 2003

"This weekends performance of Michael Harrison's "Revelation" marks the first time that this piece will be performed with a soloist other than Harrison himself. Grammy-nominated pianist Joshua Pierce will certainly bring a whole other level of personal inspiration into this work, which seems to be in a constant state of transformation."
- Amanda MacBlane, New York Press, April 23, 2003

"Joshua Pierce, from New York, performed John Cage's Daughters of the Lonesome Isle, written in 1945. This piece features a brief, steady rhythmic pattern resembling gamelan music. It was performed by Pierce in a very expressive and musical manner, bringing out both the experimental, modernistic and the traditional expressive qualities of the piece in a most successful manner."
- Anton Rovner, Musica Ukranica Online Magazine, Odessa, Ukraine, July 31, 2004

LIVE AT THE DOM / ALTERNATIVA FESTIVAL / MOSCOW, RUSSIA. ... "SoLyd Records (SLR-0303) has finally released the long promised CD with the recording of the recital, which American pianist Joshua Pierce gave on April 22, 2000 at the Moscow "Alternativa" Festival. For the first time in Post-Soviet Russia a recording has come out by a foreign guest artist with world-wide fame: it suffices to say that prior to "Alternativa" Pierce had several performances together with our symphony orchestras as a performer of classical music. In the mid-1970's Pierce became acquainted with the leading conceptualist composer, John Cage. During the course of a quarter of a century, he had made about fifteen authorized recordings of Cage's piano music. As a pianist, Pierce reminds our academic audience of the popular Shura Cherkassky: he never deviates from the composer's original musical text, and at the same time he makes even the most difficult music accessible. For example, the "Three-Page Sonata" of the American classic Charles Ives is interpreted without the excessive "jazziness," inherent in the renditions of many performers, though still entirely out of context in a composition written in 1905. The central place on the disc is occupied by John Cage's cycle "Sonatas and Interludes" for prepared piano. It is a sort of introduction into the world of the contemporary piano, which is "prepared" in a special way prior to the performance, which transforms it into an entirely new instrument, which sounds more like a chromatic harp or an entire orchestra of percussion, similar to the Indonesian gamelan. Together with New York based bassoonist and composer Johnny Reinhard, Pierce also returns to its homeland the musical legacy of the experimentator in the field of microtonal music, the Russian emigre Ivan Wyschnegradsky, who died in France in 1979. An additional surprise turned out to be the participation in the concert of jazz saxophonist Mike Ellis, not planned earlier. He was able to literally draw Reinhard and Pierce into a joint improvisation, which, much better than dozens of other recordings, provides an impression of the informal atmosphere of "Alternativa". ... In all respects, the CD deserves an A+. "
- Dmitri Oukhov, "Zhurnal" (or "Yezhenedel'ny Zhurnal") Magazine (weekly), N.01/52, January 14, 2003, Moscow

ASTOUNDING! "This is a tremendous album. Joshua Pierce plays with a lot of passion and tremendous tone. His technique is a given, but he also goes beyond the notes and supplies an individuality and brilliance that you do not hear too often. As far as I am concerned, this recording is on par with the old Kapell/Koussevitzky RCA Victor recording. In a way, it goes much deeper. Simply astounding!"
- Amazon.com, on-line review (Russian Piano Concertos, Phoenix 117/Hallmark 350722) Feb. 20, 2003

On speaking of the new Cage/Ives/Wyschnegradsky on the contemporary Russian label Solyd Records (SLR-0303) issued in December of 2002 Carol Baron writes: "With virtuosity and verve, Joshua Pierce's performance of the Three Page Sonata is matchless in communicating the feisty humor in Charles Ives parody of the classical sonata."
- Carol Baron, One of the leading American scholars on the music of Charles Ives. December 2002

"Co-performing American artists Mariusz Smolij (resident conductor/Houston Symphony) and Joshua Pierce (piano) have met with a very favorable response in Kocise, Slovakia. The program of the concert by the Slovak State Philharmonic (March 7, 2002) provided an opportunity for classical jazz (Bernstein: Camdide Overture, Gershwin: Lullaby For Strings, Rhapsody In Blue for piano and orchestra) and one of the leading representatives of Czech national music (Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 in e minor op. 95 "From The New World"). All the compositions were rehearsed and performed with a great attention to detail thus giving evidence to one of the more enriching programs of the season. The Rhapsody In Blue with Joshua Pierce as the soloist was an absolute triumph! The pianist, who had great rapport with the conductor and orchestra, brought and displayed a shimmering sound texture, poetry and technique. His performance, while gaining momentum, was absolutely perfect as it was quite apparent that his part of the composition is extremely well interpreted. I watched with complete enjoyment his technically and expressively superb performance with the orchestra."
- Stefan Curilla, Music Life, Slovak Republic, Stefan Curilla, April 20, 2002

"Pierce/Synergy ... the creativity of the dialogue between European classicism and jazz in this CD (Jazz Alchemy - Labor Records 7024-2) is truly inspiring."
- Jazz Indie

"Most of these abstract pieces by Heiner Stadler were originally recorded and released back in the 1970s. Stadler doesn't play on them, leaving that task to some of the finest avant-garde jazzers ... "Three Problems," a single composition presented in five different versions, is played twice by the duo of bassist Reggie Workman and pianist Marilyn Crispell and three times by the solo pianist Joshua Pierce.

Stadler combines "Jazz Alchemy" and "Three Problems" to form a sort of meta-suite. Devoid of harmonic structure, the music is an encounter between free jazz and serialist composition. It's all rather ingenious: the changing ensemble formats, the two works telescoped together, and the subtle intervallic relationships that Stadler uses as a basis for each movement. There's a point, however, where Stadler's ingenuity ends and that of the players begins. These instrumental masters of the avant-garde are the real attraction here."
- David R. Adler, All Music Guide

"Louie Lortie is a ... lilting but limp Lisztian. A generous disc on Chandos offers some of the composer's lesser known, but very impressive works ... works for piano and orchestra: De Profundis, Malédiction, Totentanz, along with the playful Fantasy on Hungarian Folk-Tunes....If a single word might apply to the solo part of all these pieces, it would be "assertive" and assertiveness is precisely what Lortie's playing here lacks... These four works have appeared on several more convincingly performed sets fairly recently. Leslie Howard is stronger than Lortie in De Profundis, although neither is a match for Joshua Pierce (Carleton Classics) in the Totentanz, Fantasy ... and especially, Malédiction."
- Turok's Choice, Issue 125, Sept, 2001

"Here, the music: the Li Po Songs, Dark Brother and Incident at Drake's Bay was by Harry Partch, sometime hobo and recluse ... a rare opportunity to hear this composer's bitter, lyrical, idiosyncratically tuned music (performed by Reinhard, Pierce, Eggar and LaPlante) was much appreciated."
- Keith Potte, Independent, Outsider Art/Music, Barbican, London, March 27, 2001

"In the first half we had the American Festival of Microtonal Music Ensemble (Reinhard, Pierce, Eggar and LaPlante) ó themselves a pretty certifiable bunch ó playing the wild, howling music of the maverick American composer Harry Partch."
- Richard Morrison,, The Guardian, Outsider, Barbican, London, March 26, 2001

"Joshua Pierce took a more rational and cerebral approach to interpreting Charles Ives' Three Page Sonata, while maintaining all the brilliance of his technique."
- Anton Rovner, 21st Century Music, (Europe-Asia Festival/April 17, 2000, Nizhekimsk, Russia), August, 2002

A MUST FOR YOUR COLLECTION! "This is without a doubt one of the best recordings of Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 around. I have never heard the concerto played with such fire and passion, especially interpretation of both the malediction and the Dies Irae were astounding. I have the Sviatoslav Richter recording on vinyl and I have to agree with the American record Guide's assessment, that the recording is right up there."
- Amazon.com, on-line review (Carlton Classics, IMP 30367-02147) September 10, 2002

"Breathtakenly Passionate!...Without a doubt, this is one of the great all-time recordings of Liszt...The Piano Concertos are not to be believed. The passion and brilliance of the Totentanz and the Malaciction (far outclasses George Bolet!!!) with amazing individuality, yet never loses sight of the Lisztian component...all this from a pianist who has been primarily associated with the contemporary repertoire and the music of John Cage for the last 15+ years! I have never heard a better performance of the Schubert-Liszt Wanderer Fantasie...Should be reissued. This CD set is too good to be a "Lost Classic."
- Amazon.com, on-line review, (Carlton Classics, IMP 30367-02147) June 8. 2001

"The pianist, the American Joshua Pierce, held our attention with his unique pianistic grasp and aroused our interest not only by his similarity to Shura Cherkassky, but also by his convincing performance of compositions by Cage and Ives (being especially well-known for his many recordings of the latter's piano compositions). It would have been very interesting to become acquainted with his performances of classical repertoire, given the fact that the artist shares his attention between the music of the past and of the present."
- Marina Raku, Muzkal'naya Akademiya, Moscow, Russia, February 16, 2001