"With impish charm, he performed this ­grandest of Mozart concertos with light-hearted ­irreverence. Each note sounded fresh and alive, as if thought through anew…"

"An artist you want to hear no matter what he performs."

“In Bach’s English Suite No. 3, his jazzy ­tempos and crisp articulation brought fresh ­perspectives to the Prelude, Courante and ­Gavotte.”

"One measure of how fully he is able to draw the listener into his own ­feeling of ­renewed discovery when playing the “Goldbergs” was how quietly and ­attentively the audience took in all 70 minutes of this opening recital of the Symphony ­Center Presents Piano Series, ­before breaking into sustained applause."

"The most viscerally ­exciting, ­emotionally ­absorbing and ­intellectually rich ­account of Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto that I have ever heard in ­concert."

"As the antihero keyboard soloist, Denk’s poised luminous touch in the spare solo part was an ideal partner for the scrupulously detailed and laser-like orchestral playing led by Tilson Thomas."

“What caught the ear most was the sensitive, spontaneous phrasing and the pearly quality of his tone when spinning out melodic lines.”

"An unerring sense of the music’s dramatic ­structure and a great actor’s intuition for ­timing, Denk was the provocateur who urged his ­colleagues to dare all, to unleash every calorie of emotional heat."