Dmitri Shostakovich, Piano Quintet in g/Gabriel Faure, Piano Quintet in d/ James Dick, piano; Eusia Quartet (RTR013)
There is practically nothing to fault in this performance. Balance and ensemble are dead on; tempi are carefully chosen and fit the music like a glove. The string playing is warm and spacious and Mr. Dick piano shines in a glow of silvery elegance. This is some of the most cooperative chamber music playing that I have ever heard, totally devoid of needless show and pretense. It is what fine music making should be playing in service to the music for the purpose of edifying the listener.
Kevin Sutton, MusicWeb, September 2006

Guest pianist James Dick, familiar to many Asheville Symphony Orchestra regulars, is a Beethoven specialist and his technique is superb, his touch seemingly faultless. Dick plays with technical virtuosity, precision and passion.
Beethoven, as always sonorous and sober, in his “G Major Concerto for Piano” is less afflicted with the frequent somber, brooding melancholy of his later work. The magnificently stirring first movement, allegro moderato, got off to a slightly pallid start, but picked up steam before long. Both the following — Andante and the Rondo: Vivace — movements were stunningly presented to a standing ovation. Jim Cavener, Asheville Citizen, September 18, 2006

The concert also featured a bravura piano performance by guest artist James Dick on Franz Liszt's "Piano Concerto No. 2 in A Major," an extraordinarily romantic piece. The solo part started off in an almost secondary position, but it grew until Dick was fully in control of the piece, with a complement of virtuosic runs.Amarillo Globe News, October 16, 2005

Liszt's First Piano Concerto is a bit more familiar to concert-goers, but the Second is deeper, more personal and altogether more beautiful. The Second's meat is its introspective, lyrical poetry. Dick's thoughtful temperament, elegant touch and understated but firm rhetoric kept the emphasis where it belonged, and he was no slouch in the dazzlement department.
Mike Greenberg San Antonio Express News, July 18, 2005

As is his wont, Dick approached the piece (Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini) with restraint and taste. He slighted none of the technical demands, and he fully exploited the playful spirit of some of the variations, but the qualities that consistently came to the fore were clarity and well-formed rhetoric. This wasn't a flashy account, but it did cogently represent the core musicality of the composer. Mike Greenberg San Antonio Express News, June 28, 2005

Dick joined Bussiki and the BVSO in a performance of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto that one could tell would be wondrous after only its first few measures. Dick’s playing of the opening chords radiated with warmth and devotion. Dick spun his special silvery sound into myriad colors and textures, but plenty of growl was there when it was needed to cut through the full orchestra. His brilliant double and triple trills made memorable decrescendos and ended right on target with Bussiki’s orchestral entries. Penelope Kosztelnyik The Eagle October 19, 2004

"James Dick to whom the work (Benjamin Lees' Etudes for piano and orchestra) is dedicated, presents a stunning performance." Walter Simmons, Fanfare, June-July 2004

“Using a deft, delicate touch and crystalline articulation, Dick explored the subtleties that belie the score's perceived simplicity. (Mozart’s Concerto No. 17 in G.) This was especially evident in the many moods of the Andante and the finale's free-wheeling variations. Kulínsky and the orchestra followed suit with precision and well-balanced sound.”
Diane Windeler, San Antonio Express News, June 8, 2004

“Festival founder James Dick joined the orchestra to open the concert with a magisterial, deeply thoughtful account of Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor”
Mike Greenberg, San Antonio Express News, June 16, 2003

‘In his outing with the Wichita Falls Symphony, he tapped tenderly, gingerly, beautifully, quietly. Then, like a master architect, he built grand halls of lyricism, pounding out, with bravura, the showy cadenzas of Tchaikovsky’s most famous piano concerto”
Times Record Review, October 6, 2002

"Dick's outing was in Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini", where everything came together gloriously. The orchestra with Boreyko pounced on every cue. Dick was every bit poetic, demonstrative and flashy where required. The sum total was that Dick was involved with the score so intimately that everything seemed second nature."
Jay Foraker, San Antonio Southside Reporter, June 27, 2002

"There followed a graceful, finely spun performance of Mozart's G-major piano concerto, K. 453, featuring James Dick. He gave an unusually expressive, ruminative interpretation of the second movement. The final holds the bright little tune that Mozart's pet starling learned to whistle. Dick's reading of that theme and variations fairly danced with brisk, crystalline passagework."
Diane Windeler, San Antonio Express News, April 14, 2002

"The elegance of Dick's finger work was a marvel. No pounding excesses or crabbed uncertainties were found here. Just poetic passagework that resulted from a technique that produces subtle shadings and musical phrases that "flowed like oil," which Mozart often said should occur in performances of his keyboard works. While Dick's playing was often delicate and caressing in the best sense, there also was an underlying strength and firmness of character always evident." (Mozart's Piano Concerto in G, K.453)
Jay J. Foraker, Southside Reporter, San Antonio, April 25, 2002

"It was a triumph of a performance by an artist in his prime." (Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1)
Penelope Kostolnyik, The Eagle, College Station, TX, October 22, 2001

(about the June 9, 2001 performance of Mozart's piano concerto No. 17)
"Dick shaded the slow movement darker still, with a pervasive sense of loss or sadness. Especially poignant was the way he held the suspension - the dissonant chord just before the cadence - at the end of a dramatic descending run at the movement's climax. In the outer movements, Dick played with crisp technique, a light touch and somewhat muted colors, though always thoughtful, finely finished phrasing."
Mike Greenberg, San Antonio Express News, TX, June 12, 2001

"He played with intensity but was not overly dramatic in his bodily movements. He brought vitality to the keyboard, technical proficiency and beauty of sound. His cadenzas were superb."
Barbara Little, Intelligencer Journal, Lancaster, PA, November 2000

"Relying on his mastery of the intimately wrought, delicately shaped pianissimo playing that is the stuff of this piece, Dick eloquently nudged the concerto into motion. He brought home the emotional impact of subtle harmonic changes throughout, always showing a keen sensitivity for how his melodies blended, contrasted, or dovetailed with the orchestra."
Tim Young, Austin American-Statesman, October 2000

"The playing of James Dick was of a caliber that one remembers as an experience of one's lifetime. It was generous and ebullient, with a dash of daredevil showmanship. He displayed his command and understanding of the subtleties of the piece (Tchaikovsky, concerto for piano and orchestra No. 1) and still gave the audience the rousing delivery that has made the composition one of classical music's greatest hits"
Abner Burnett, Midland Reporter-Telegram, September 2000

"Dick was in fine form, delivering confident, crystalline passage works and impressive ripeness of tone, even in the concluding ostinato over melodic orchestral material." (Benjamin Lees’ Etudes)
Diane Windeler, San Antonio Express-News, June 2000

"Soloist Dick, who originally premiered the piece, handed himself not just intellectually but physically in a manner that reflects his personality – not showy but passionate, dramatic and at the same time as mellow as the gorgeous Steinway that is prepared to his specifications."
Gil French, American Record Guide, Sept./Oct. 2000

"The high point of the concert was the Lees. It is a brilliant piece. As its title would suggest, it is indeed a series of etudes for both the piano and the orchestra. The soloist, James Dick, gave the first performance of the work about 25 years ago with the Houston Symphony conducted by Lawrence Foster. My tape of that performance did not really prepare me for the impact the work has in concert. Every subtle shading of the work was clearly articulated by the soloist and conductor Robert Spano. It is a virtuoso of the first order. The excitement of the performance, the impact of the work, and an almost immediate standing ovation was further enlivened when the composer appeared on stage."
Professor Karl Miller, University of Texas at Austin.

" His interpretation (Beethoven’s Bagatelles Op. 126) emphasized the music’s profundities without neglecting its surface glitter. His "Appasionata" was intense, brilliant. The same balance of thoughtfulness and technical bravura was heard in his performance of Chopin’s Polonaise No. 5."
Joseph McLellan, The Washington Post, November1999

"Dick is an affable and prodigious narrator of story."
Antoine Livio/ La Lettre du Musicien/ Paris

"Many things about Dick's musical and pianistic persona proved reminiscent of his onetime mentor, Clifford Curzon, including a patrician civility and a lucid, beautiful sonority that never becomes harsh but is never bland. There is, too, an architectural proportion that gives even Lisztian bravura passages a sense of purpose and emotional containment... The wonderful C minor Schubert impromptu unfolded with succinct clarity and purpose, its gnashing dissonances potent and poignantly appreciated but never abrasively underlined or exaggerated... The compact, pianistically difficult Beethoven sonata (No.26 in E-flat, Op.81a, "Les Adieux") got a perceptive and cultivated treatment in a shapely, soberly energetic exposition... he gave us all his insights without artifice or clutter... As for Liszt, the work made a proud and serene impression"
Harris Goldsmith, American Record Guide (Alice Tully Hall, New York, February 1998)

"It wasn't just that Dick's technical expertise and artistic savvy gave the solo element a demonstrative profile. His poetic soul infused even the most dramatic moments with a sensibility and inevitability that readily communicated."
Jay J. Foraker, Southside Reporter, San Antonio (Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 with Robert Spano, conductor, 1999)

" The performance was charming. Dick played with great care and exquisite musicianship"
Charles Ward, Houston Chronicle. (Mozart Piano Concerto in A K.488 with Christopher Hogwood, conductor, 1999)

"The sooner Mr. Dick returns to London the better; pianists of this caliber are rare on the South Bank or indeed anywhere else - an artist of such innate musical sensitivity and superlative pianistic skill, establishing an enviable and entirely understandable rapport with the audience."
Bryce Morrison, Music and Musicians, London

"There was no lack of big juicy climaxes or powerful sonorities handled masterfully and in good taste in pianist James Dick's performance at the National Gallery."
Joan Reinthaler, The Washington Post

"Dick gave a sweeping, passionate, powerful and sensitive account of Saint-Saens' demanding Piano Concerto No. 2, at the high water mark of French Romanticism. In full technical command, Dick compassed the most treacherous runs with seeming ease."
Mike Greenberg, San Antonio Express News.

"A magical musical moment... Pianist's performance of Chopin's 1st was perfection."
Arkansas Times

"Shiva's Drum is the most stimulating new concerto in years. Paired with Welcher's concerto is the Saint-Saens Concerto No. 2 in g. The two works serve as an impressive showcase for the orchestra and pianist James Dick. Dick commissioned 'Shiva's Drum' and his playing seems to encompass all the dimensions of the music. Every composer should be blessed to have a new work performed at this level."
Bradford Gowen, Piano & Keyboard Magazine (Nov. Dec. 1996)