“He always brings searing musicianship and big ideas — this concert had both in spades. He is a fantastically exciting violinist, as well as a conductor.”

“The Finnish violinist made a compelling case for this rarely performed work [Nielsen]…Kuusisto did not approach this music conventionally. There was grit in his tone and sharpness in his attacks, both underscoring the first movement’s profundities. The violinist brought considerable sweep to long lines, showed complete technical command and illuminated the overall architecture.”

“This is where greatness reared its head, for I have seldom if ever heard a performance as steeped in pure Sibelian sound as that by Pekka Kuusisto.”

“Pekka Kuusisto was outstanding in the New York premiere of Daniel Bjarnason’s Violin Concerto (2017). The piece and performance were both incredible works of art unlike anything I have witnessed… In the cadenza, Kuusisto demonstrated his control and understanding of the violin and pushed the instrument to its limits while maintaining an incredible level of musicality, phrasing, and beauty… He is truly a performer extraordinaire.”

“What could have been just a clever programming idea instead provided the foundation for one of the most enjoyable SPCO concerts of the season… from the sensation that the SPCO might have found its ideal artistic partner in the imaginative and extraordinarily gifted Kuusisto.”

“The Festival’s string highlight, however, was Finn Pekka Kuusisto’s bracingly fresh account of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in a triumphant concert with the Minnesota Orchesstra under Osmo Vanska (23 August)…he transformed it into a thoroughly modern, forward-looking work, fleet and glacial in its opening and disarmingly direct in its strongly defined finale, with a distinctive folk twang too.”

“[Kuusisto] executed the virtuoso work with flair and a charming chuckle, suggesting both a zest for life and musical supremacy.”

“What followed, however, upstaged all else. It was the Proms debut of Pekka Kuusisto, the maverick Finnish violinist, improbably playing the Tchaikovsky Concerto. His played-and-sung encore … brought the house down.”

“This Finnish violinist has always gone his own way, as likely to be found playing jazz, electronica or folk music as a concerto, and his Tchaikovsky last night was no different. … From the long opening melody to the Finale’s boot-stamping dance of a theme, Kuusisto was as much a fiddler as a violinist. Arms flowing loose, feet syncopating to the rhythms of his bow, mouth constantly on the edge of a grin, he took Tchaikovsky’s art music and distilled it down to its folk essence. Tempos, freed from the weight of Romantic emotion and vibrato, suddenly danced, and melodies relocated from ballroom to barn shook off maturity for lightfooted youth.”

“Then the virtuosic violinist Mr. Kuusisto gave a fearless account of Ligeti’s Violin Concerto…Mr. Kuusisto vanquished the concerto’s daunting challenges, giving a wild yet masterly performance and eliciting a tumultuous ovation. Mr. Gilbert, the proprietor of the biennial, beamed.”

“[Kuusisto]…then displayed his imagination by leading the SPCO strings in an absorbing mix of music by contemporary composers Nico Muhly, Erkki-Sven Tuur and Bryce Dessner […]Taken as a whole, it was an ideal blend of intellect and heart, tremendous technique and ebullient abandon.”

“Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto gave us a rugged and intensely intimate blow-by-blow account with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and conductor Tuomas Hannikainen. Nielsen was a folk fiddler and Kuusisto made it show in the gorgeous looseness of his rhythms and stripped-back grit of his sound. There’s not an inch of formality to his playing: he might as well have wandered the hall and whispered, crooned and stomped directly into our ears. His encore was a pair of traditional polskas, full of spry ornamentation and raucous swing. What a thrill.”

“The performances are strong, confident and poetic, and violinist Pekka Kuusisto tackles the challenges of Darkness in Light as though they were by Prokofiev or even Tchaikovsky.”

“Magnus Lindberg’s violin concerto…[was] a true technical and sonic showcase. Frankly spectacular. Kuusisto…demonstrated his full virtuoso abilities and stood up to the challenge like very few fellow violinists could possibly have done.”

“…There are passages of subtle virtuosity from Pekka Kuusisto as well as a lovely static passage where the violin hovers over a constantly shifting quiet orchestra…This is a very fine concerto indeed full of invention, colour and energy. It receives a terrific performance from Pekka Kuusisto with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu.”

“…Kuusisto stood out. He committed at every moment to Sibelius’ music, whether spinning a thread of tone in his opening bars or turning to the orchestra with a smile between solos, absorbing energy for his next entrance…Kuusisto consistently draws you in with his playing, as if he’s trying to share a secret…Everyone left for intermission with the same huge smile Kuusisto wore at the end, and a guy walking past me up the aisle told his date, ​‘I have a new favorite fiddler.’”

“If you’ve encountered an uncomfortably aristocratic air at some classical music concerts you’ve attended, be assured that violinist Pekka Kuusisto seems intent upon doing away with that. The flamboyant Finn engages audiences with a puckish playfulness, approaching the music with a palpable thirst for fun and adventure…Employing an expressive face and a loose-limbed bounciness, he clearly captured the audience’s fancy, judging from its lusty ovations. And he underlined the Bach sonatas’ foundation in dance by interspersing Finnish folk tunes from Bach’s era, climaxing in a ​“polska for the devil” that was thrillingly fiery.”