John Noel Roberts performs the Wilder pieces with the utmost sensitivity. This is a charming and beguiling disc. 

 This project comes across as a labor of love for pianist John Noel Roberts. His playing is richly colored and relaxed, although he manages the tricky sounding contrapuntal sections with precision and grace. 

 Roberts’ attention to detail is laudatory and he makes what could be simply nice-sounding background piano music into truly interesting piano music worth repeated hearings. 

 Roberts’ strongly characterized performances strike just the right note. They are robust without losing any of the vital details in the music. His grasp of the rhythmical profiles of these three early works, in which romantic feeling finds its perfect correlative in classical sonata-form as reinterpreted by Brahms, is particularly striking. 

 Roberts’ Chopin Third Sonata captures all the poetry, the variety and the pure depth of feeling that the composer invested in this work. And that is something. In the opening movement, with its contrasts in sonority and mood, the rich, beautiful tone Roberts coaxes from the piano serves the purpose of the music to perfection. 

 John Noel Roberts plays with classical elegance and jazzy rhythmic freedom, ideal for this composer (Alec Wilder); the recorded sound is plush and inviting. 

 IVES Piano Sonata No. 1  John Noel Roberts (pn)  ALBANY 1981 (41:00) Ives considered that he had two “orphans,” pieces that he was never satisfied with and eventually left alone. One was the dense and difficult Robert Browning Overture, the other his early, exploratory Piano Sonata No. 1. The sonata is a five-movement narrative that follows ... 

 Marked by an absolutely fluid technique and laser-like precision, Roberts is a case study not only in economy of motion, but in musical scholarship. While other pianists might bring a post-modern “edge” to this work, Roberts graces it with a patina – a depth of understanding and obeisance to the composer’s intentions that has to be experienced. 

 What was rarest about his playing was the attention to ensemble details. He hears what else is happening while playing; there is no competition between piano and orchestra – there is the best kind of musical teamwork, the music simply bubbled over with the sheer joy and fun of music-making. All the work, all the difficulties were laid aside, and the music ... 

 Roberts’ technique is superb, and his interpretation of the music was fiery at times, tender and plaintive at times, in keeping with the spirit of the piece. 

 Roberts possesses uncommon technical facility. His rhythmic animation proved extremely apposite here (in Stravinsky’s Petrouchka); the upshot was expertly paced playing brimming with excitement. 

 What was rarest about his playing was the attention to ensemble details. He hears what else is happening while playing; there is no competition between piano and orchestra – there is the best kind of musical teamwork, the music simply bubbled over with the sheer joy and fun of music-making. All the work, all the difficulties were laid aside, and the music ... 

 A recital by John Roberts – his first since coming to Australia from Furman University, South Carolina – yielded many felicities, notably in Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. From a number of points of view, Roberts was at his admirable best here, displaying in some of the formidably difficult writing in the repertoire, accuracy at high speed, st... 

 Dr. John Roberts is among the poets of the keyboard; a master of subtle shades of color and expression. That does not preclude him from possessing a powerful technique; the distinction in any case is an artificial one, as the ability to produce a wide variety of tone color and dynamics is as much a matter of technique as playing very fast and loud. 

 The consummate artistry, musicianship and keyboard mastery of American pianist and academic John Roberts were much in evidence at this concert. The apparent effortlessness with which he deployed these qualities in Liszt’s Eb Major Piano Concerto seemed to banish any sense of the piece’s technical difficulties. The grandeur and continuity of the work’s... 

 For those whose acquaintance with American Composer Samuel Barber is limited to occasional exposure to his Adagio for Strings, his piano sonata is likely to be a startling experience. This is not music for the tentative, tinkle-fingered pianist and it is pleasing to report that Roberts gave a remarkably energetic and coherent demonstration of contrapuntal k... 

 It (Sonata No. I of Charles Ives) was given a brilliantly assured performance which conveyed both the originality and the bold vision of the music. Then came the Three Movements from Petrouchka, highly virtuosic piano arrangements from Stravinsky’s ballet music which were projected by the pianist in fine style with crisp and consummate assurance. 

 Roberts has an excellent physical command of the keyboard, but virtuosity is never used as an end in itself. Rather, this digital brilliance is invariably placed at the service of whatever he plays, and the result, more often than not, is a performance of memorable quality. 

 120 American Record Guide May/June 2023 WILDER: Piano Pieces 2 John Noel Roberts Albany 1886—62 minutes Alec Wilder (1907-80) was a largely self-taught composer who in the 1930s and on wrote popular songs for the likes of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, thanks to his gift for crafting memorable melodies. He also revered the impressionism of Debussy a... 

 IVES Piano Sonata No. 1  John Noel Roberts (pn)  ALBANY 1981 (41:00) Ives considered that he had two “orphans,” pieces that he was never satisfied with and eventually left alone. One was the dense and difficult Robert Browning Overture, the other his early, exploratory Piano Sonata No. 1. The sonata is a five-movement narrative that follows ...