"Son’s approach to this piano concerto was [one] of joy, but with delicacy, poise, and refinement...She handled the exposed passagework full of scales and arpeggios with clarity and control....The audience responded enthusiastically with a standing ovation..."

"...her tonal purity, her limpid elegance (evident in the pristine trills and gossamer glissandos in the first movement), her imaginative dynamics and articulation (listen to the piano jabs in the finale). And the performances are full of interpretative insight, too."

"Two elements make the performance of the flightier concerto in G major stand out from the pack: One is the irresistible sense of forward motion during the faster sections; the other, its complement, is the languid loveliness that settles in whenever Ravel’s foot is off the accelerator."

"Yeol Eum Son… played with a dazzling range of dynamics, patiently giving each musical idea a semi-improvisatory spontaneity… With the first piece [Ravel’s Valses Nobles et Sentimentales] she took the listener by the collar and never let go, ranging from wispy and mysterious to a murky haze of sound in the smoky final waltz… Her showmanship came to the fore in the final work, Liszt’s “Mephisto Waltz No. 1, played with booming power and devilish ferocity in the cackling multi-trills and gossamer right-hand runs."

“The final toccata was dazzling, a preface to a simply phenomenal performance of Stravinsky’s Three Pieces from Petrushka. Son thunders the big, roof-raising stuff but interlaces it with crisp chords and single lines that get to the heart beneath the wood of Stravinsky’s tragic puppet."

"The last was a dazzling tour de force [Stravinsky Three Movements from Petrushka], Yeol Eum finding that vital emotional connection with the music and physically embracing its raw energy and dynamic extremes with ferocious virtuosity. The encore – Moskowski’s effervescent Etincelles – was just as captivating, just as virtuosic.”

“Yeol Eum Son was all unruffled coolness, yet how beautifully she detoured her pearl-like passage work into darker terrain, or, using Andras Schiff’s first movement cadenza, modified it to sharpen its dramatic focus…Her encore, the first movement of Mozart’s most famous piano sonata, was imbued with all the musical virtues we had already enjoyed, along with some telling and immaculately articulated ornamentation.”

“On few occasions in the still short life of this auditorium has it been possible to see and hear such a display of technique, strength, temperament, and piano virtuosity. An extraordinary performance was delivered to the audience by the talented Korean concert pianist, Yeol Eum Son.”

“Performing Chopin Piano Concerto No.2, Yeol Eum Son had power and passion, fireworks and drama aplenty, but for me the true magic was in the music’s more introverted passages. The opening of the slow movement was exquisite, with both orchestra and pianist seeming to explore the inner reaches of the soul. This movement was all about the joy of the journey, with the arrival almost an afterthought.”

"Yeol Eum Son, a model of clarity and fleetness… a winning album all round.”

"She also brings an unerring taste and sense of poetry with clean lines, deft use of the pedal and tonal clarity. The late works especially are worthy company for some of the best and most respected sets.”

"The most apt description is glorious. There is lyricism everywhere, as well as an elegant, poised simplicity."