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"The performance was first-class. Andri Björn sang magnificently, immensely powerfully, but always with a sensitive feeling for the poetry. Ástríður Alda played with perfect skillfulness and taste. Together they created a musical spell, kept in our minds for a long time to come." Jónas Sen - Fréttablaðið
Release concert for Thorsteinson & Schumann at Harpa Concert Hall, Reykjavík "The performers on this very beautiful recording to be listened to all winter long, and again, quite differently, in the spring, are remarkably natural. Because that's the tone. Andri Bjorn Robertsson’s diction is never overrated or affected as one hears too often and which makes one flee. Nothing is forced, confidence is at the base of the sound... These two performers show us that, regardless of status or importance, this is a composer whom Schumann would have welcomed with open arms." André Hirt - Muzibao (https://poezibao.typepad.com/)
Thorsteinson & Schumann, an album released by Outhere Music label Fuga Libera in 2021 "...remarkable recording debut...impeccable readings of Schumann's two Liederkreis…Opus 24 opens the recital with an urgent and detailed reading, Opus 39 closes it with an exquisite, highly personal version that proves how many corners remain to be illuminated of this wonderful Schumann from 1840. Two versions of the highest level with a voice that navigates confidently, attentive to every nuance, generous means and superlative naturalness…Three circles magnificently set by the performance of a rising baritone… who leaves an indelible mark" Sebastian Spreng - Miamiclasica.com
Thorsteinson & Schumann, an album released by Outhere Music label Fuga Libera in 2021 "For the first cantata, the show was stolen by bass, Andri Björn Róbertsson, who sang with authority, wonderfully clear German diction and pronunciation, and a beautifully warm tone." Julia Phillips - Musica Antiqua
Royal Academy of Music/Kohn Foundation Bach Cantata series "The Icelandic bass-baritone Andri Björn Róbertsson showed exceptional quality in legato singing, diction, phrasing. There is a name to remember, because of the sound, very warm, very velvety, and because of the technique and skill." Le blog du Wanderer
Bass in J.S. Bach's Trauernacht at Festival d'Aix en Provence "Andri Björn Róbertsson's Superintendent Budd was another brilliantly drawn characterization, finely sung and funny without descending into ridicule." Melanie Eskenazi - Music OMH
Superintendent Budd in Britten's Albert Herring at The Grange Festival "All this superbly sung: rich opera voice skilfully lightened for the intimacy of the lied, perfect German (and certainly Icelandic) diction, sense of color and delicately suggested moods…A great discovery." Francois Lafon - Musikzen.fr
Thorsteinson & Schumann, an album released by Outhere Music label Fuga Libera in 2021 "Andri Björn Róbertsson's Gremin was exquisitely sung" Capriccio
Gremin in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at the Royal Academy Opera "Andri Björn Róbertsson was a handsome, tall and vocally impressive Figaro." Neil Jones - Opera Now
Figaro in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the Icelandic Opera "The quality of the concert was enhanced by the presence of a magnificent Icelandic bass. His sumptuous timbre, his expert phrasing with great sense of the texts, as well as the famous "Ich habe genug", were ideally blended in the acoustic string carpet, enriched with Emmanueal Laporte's oboe." www.journalzibeline.fr - Jacques Freschel
Concert of Bach and Telemann with the Café Zimmermann baroque ensemble in Marseille "As Sprecher and first priest one experiences the beautiful voice of Andri Björn Róbertsson." Oper-Aktuell - Kaspar Sannemann
Sprecher/First priest in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at Opernhaus Zürich "The Icelandic bass-baritone Andri Björn Róbertsson was outstanding as the Craftsman and Gracchus." Hugo Shirley - The Spectator
Craftsman in Elspeth Brooke's The Commission & Barman/Gracchus/Policeman in Francisco Coll's Café Kafka at the Royal Opera House "...the eloquent Icelandic baritone Andri Björn Róbertsson...Róbertsson chills the blood as he moves from barman to mythic Hunter." Hilary Finch - The Times Craftsman in Elspeth Brooke's The Commission & Barman/Gracchus/Policeman in Francisco Coll's Café Kafka at the Royal Opera House "Andri Björn Róbertsson' dark-toned - and dark of character Craftsman was well matched by his scene-stealing transformation from barman into mysterious Gracchus." Mark Berry - Boulezian Craftsman in Elspeth Brooke's The Commission & Barman/Gracchus/Policeman in Francisco Coll's Café Kafka at the Royal Opera House "Andri Björn Róbertsson led the four-strong cast with his elocutionary bass-baritone" The Sunday Times - Paul Driver Craftsman in Elspeth Brooke's The Commission & Barman/Gracchus/Policeman in Francisco Coll's Café Kafka at the Royal Opera House |
"Robertsson’s readings of the Schumann cycles are sensitive and beautifully nuanced. He captures poignantly the forlorn sense of separation and anguish. I would put his readings of these two cycles among the best of the dozens of recordings I’ve reviewed...I would call him a lyric bass with a rugged and steely voice, a fine balance of grit and sweetness, cavernous low notes, and transcendent tenderness especially in his upper range...I wish these two would record all of Thorsteinson's songs and songs of other Icelandic composers"
Robert Moore - American Record Guide Thorsteinson & Schumann, an album released by Outhere Music label Fuga Libera in 2021 "Andri Björn Róbertsson was a delightfully slime-ball Don Basilio. Björn Róbertsson used his height and physical flexibility to maximum comic effect, which only served to heighten his contributions to the various ensemble and make his calumny aria a masterpiece of comic timing, combined with Björn Róbertsson's fabulously dark bass-baritone voice." Robert Hugill - www.planethugill.com
Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville at Nevill Holt Opera "Andri Björn Róbertsson has just the right level of creepiness as Don Basilio, and, with his firm and assertive bass-baritone, delivers his ode to calumny, during which newspaper headlines such as ‘Count Alma-Sleezer’ fall across the auditorium, extremely well." Sam Smith - MusicOMH
Don Basillio in The Barber of Seville at Nevill Holt Opera "Icelandic bass-baritone Andri Björn Róbertsson’s bible-bashing Arthur was a masterpiece of aggression and paranoia." Peter Reed - Classical Source
Arthur in Peter Maxwell Davies's The Lighthouse at the Royal Academy Opera "Andri Björn Róbertsson struck Calvinistic terror into the heart as the hypocritical fundamentalist, Arthur. From the moment of saying grace, his sonorous deep bass, combined with charismatic stage presence, had one thinking of a perverted (anti-)Christ figure. His physical excitement during Blazes’ song, offered attempted release in more than one sense." Mark Berry - Boulezian Arthur in Peter Maxwell Davies's The Lighthouse at the Royal Academy Opera Throughout the cycle we have a sense of Róbertsson's thoughtful intelligence, his mellow, dark voice complemented by a poetically communicative manner and an imaginative use of colours and timbres. This is a highly poetic reading, stemming from the words…The next three songs move between lyric beauty, where we can appreciate Róbertsson's burnished tone, and dramatic vigour...again we enjoy the combination of the lyric beauty of Róbertsson's voice and his attention to text and poetry." Robert Hugill - planethugill.com
Thorsteinson & Schumann, an album released by Outhere Music label Fuga Libera in 2021 "The voice is deep without being dark, supple, beautiful timbre, without artifice with a youthful character corresponding well to the romantic impulse of the music of Schumann, but naturally little turned towards the dramatic element...…the singer has a good mastery of form, a spontaneous sense of melody, excellent German diction, a sense of phrasing and poetry that he can usefully highlight here…" Claude Jottrand - ForumOpera
Thorsteinson & Schumann, an album released by Outhere Music label Fuga Libera in 2021 "The best creation is that made by the Icelandic bass of a Shakespearian Madman in the fifth scene, unfortunate protagonist of the lesson that the future and young king receives." Luis Gago - El Pais
Witness 3 / Madman in Sir George Benjamin's Lessons in Love and Violence at the Royal Opera House "Remarkable interpretation of Schumann, a voice with beautiful deep shimmer." David Le Marrec - Operacritiques.free.fr
Thorsteinson & Schumann, an album released by Outhere Music label Fuga Libera in 2021 "Andri Björn Róbertsson was magnificent, his singing full of life and majestic." Jónas Sen - Fréttablaðið
Figaro in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the Icelandic Opera "A lower voice unfolds as a Witness, that emerges from the outlaws, and in scene 5 becomes the Madman, who claims to be the legitimate king, a proof of how absurd power has become. In these two roles, bass-baritone Andri Björn Róbertsson is excellent." Santiago Martín Bermudez - Scherzo
Witness 3/Madman in Sir George Benjamin's Lessons in Love and Violence - a DVD recording from the Royal Opera House |