Frankfurter Rundschau
July 20, 1989
"Russian stampede"
“With a skilfully selected chronological programme spanning two centuries, Ulrich Murtfeld demonstrated his soundly-based versatility. The recital had to begin with Johann Sebastian Bach; the Prélude and Fugue in G minor BWV 861 was the right choice to prove beyond doubt his mastery of technique, the art of analyzing the musical material. And then on in search of his own musical interpretations, particularly in the following piece, Beethoven’s Waldstein Sonata No. 21 opus 53. What a daring enterprise! Tempestuously, vigorously, with fine shades of dynamic, he played with the famous rising and falling themes. And so he continued. Liszt’s Fantasy and Fugue with the theme B-A-C-H (B flat) and – to close the short excursion into the history of music – Sergei Prokofiev’s Toccata Opus 11. And what you would never have expected from this tall young man’s modest, almost shy, manner: at the keyboard he exploded in the rhythm of this stroke of genius by Prokofiev into an ecstatic frenzy. A Russian stampede at the America House.”