"Nakamatsu is a poet of the keyboard, a songful player who taps into the lyrical energy of a melodic line and spins it with the utmost sensitivity."
-- Phil Greenfield, The Sun

"It seems inevitable that Nakamatsu is destined to become one of the major pianists of our time."
-- Gale Bennett, News-Press

"His playing takes on a truly magical, communing ease and finesse... Nakamatsu's brilliantly engaged performance paints a portrait of a remarkably wide-ranging and stylish artist."
-- Gramophone

"His pianism strikes me as linear, colorful, idiomatic and often very exciting indeed."
-- Tim Page, The Washington Post

"He is a solid artist with great self-confidence, a clean technique, freedom from eccentricities, a strong lyric impulse and...a real dramatic flair."
-- Dallas Morning News

"A performer who understands music of our time from his heart rather than his head."
-- Salonmagazine

"Besides being an astounding technician, Nakamatsu shows impeccable taste; he puts a high gloss on anything he plays."
-- Chicago Tribune

"A pianist of substantial gifts."
-- Metro Times

Gershwin CD Reviews

"Mr. Nakamatsu's relaxed virtuosity in the concerto and the rhapsody is in contrast to the usual "wired" approach to these pieces. He lingers and ruminates where others press on."
-- Bernard Holland, New York Times

"Right away, you'll notice the rhythmic snap and crackle.... This [performance] is competitive with the best."
-- Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News

"...Nakamatsu's solo piano passages are particularly arresting. The blues tunes that make up the work's long transitional passages are very gracefully done, and the famous lyrical second theme, toward the end of the work, is taken slowly, with a lovely warmth."
-- James Manheim, All Music Guide

"Nakamatsu's quicksilver opening run promises a reading that captures the music's elegance and wit as few pianists have since Earl Wild. His rubato always sounds natural, and there isn't a trace of heaviness in the central development section, nor a single bar that sounds mechanical. The central nocturne has great poetry that never bogs down in foggy reverie, and the finale is a barn-burner--driving, exciting, with Nakamatsu technically outstanding in the repeated-note main theme."
-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Liszt CD Reviews

"Liszt's "Dante Sonata," along with all the other works on this all-Liszt program, sounds staggeringly impressive in the hands of super virtuoso Jon Nakamatsu. There is nothing in Liszt's excruciatingly difficult piano writing that Nakamatsu cannot play with panache and aplomb."
-- James Leonard, All Music Guide

You will have to go a long way to hear more masterly, prize-winning performances than these, a more immaculate white-tie-and-tails brio and pianism.... As piano-playing this enterprisingly chosen recital is the stuff of dreams."
-- Bryce Morrison, Gramophone

Brahms CD Reviews

"[Jon] demonstrates the facility and self-confidence needed to play the Brahms Sonata, a legendary finger-buster... storming through the most demanding passages and giving us gorgeous lyricism in the two slow movements."
-- Leslie Gerber, Amazon.com

Wölfl CD Reviews

"This is a wonderful release. Jon Nakamatsu's playing on this disc is superb--crisply articulated, trills so even and perfect you can count the turns, the notes in every run evenly weighted, chords justly voiced, dynamic contrasts and shading sensitive to every phrase. Moreover, the Harmonia Mundi recording captures the piano with crystalline clarity. This is music and the playing of it that you will truly relish. Absolutely the highest recommendation."
-- Fanfare

"There is a zesty blend of virtuosity and gracefulness at work here, and the music teeters intriguingly between the impulses of the Classical and Romantic periods. Nakamatsu's playing is brisk and thoughtful."
-- Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle

"Nakamatsu brings to these charming works all the elegance, lightness of touch and poetic lyricism they so richly deserve."
-- The Observer

Rachmaninov CD Reviews

"If there's anything that marks this performance (Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 3) it's the sensitivity of his (Nakamatsu's) touch throughout, in particular the way -- as in his approach to the climax of the finale -- he offers fluidity of phrasing without loss of detail."
-- Peter J. Rabinowitz, Fanfare

"His (Nakamatsu's) approach is refreshing, treating both works with a good deal of intimacy, instead of relying mainly on grand gestures. He has a keen sense of registration... and an ease of delivery that gives full effect to the virtuosic piano writing without especially drawing attention to it."
-- Paul Turok, Turok's Choice

"...clearly a mature and self-possessed artist...[This release] establishes Nakamatsu's presence as a pianist to be reckoned with...a major artist about to blossom."
-- Gramophone

"Nakamatsu's 'Rhapsody' clearly displays the structure of the variations but misses none of the lyrical effusion, passionate expression or sheer musical appeal."
-- The San Francisco Examiner

"Performances of 'Rach Three' seem to get slower and more self-indulgent by the year. So this bright, crisply chiseled account by Jon Nakamatsu, is one to refresh the ears."
-- Dallas Morning News

"From beginning to end, his interpretation is brimming with pianistic fireworks."
-- Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

Chopin CD Reviews

Brilliant, poetic, heroic and spontaneous, Nakamatsu's Chopin album establishes the emotional opposite of the clean, accurate and faceless Romantic playing of recent decades.
-- Los Angeles Times

"Nakamatsu can coax beautiful lyrical passages out of these pieces. There’s a gossamer touch at play in his surprisingly intimate approach, as if he were playing late-night reveries for himself, by candlelight."
-- The New York Times

"[Nakamatsu] displays a musicianship of integrity and finesse... His playing is ultra-refined, strong in characterisation, and with the ability to lift the music off the ground with a beautifully judged rubato."
-- BBC Music Magazine

"It was during the crystal cascades of notes in the Impromptu Op. 36 that I suddenly realized I was listening to a dazzling young pianist at his best. I refer to the new CD “Chopin: Selected Works” by American virtuoso Jon Nakamatsu...[who] proves a bold but sensitive interpreter of 12 polonaises, mazurkas and other popular works."
-- The Denver Post

"Everything in this all-Chopin program is tastefully integrated with a marvelously graceful sense of line and deft use of color that recall the Chopin recordings of Ruth Slenczynska. In Nakamatsu's hands, glistening surfaces become a virtue, not the mindless glossiness heard in so many young pianists... Nakamatsu is the sort of artist who makes you eagerly anticipate whatever he does next, whether it be Bach or Boulez."
-- Stereophile

"The music flows from him in a steady stream of stunning sound. His technical command is such that he can devote his energies to the music at hand without any fear of digital difficulties. There is a natural, unforced quality to his playing that is most seductive."
-- American Record Guide

"Nakamatsu is as characterful as he is pianistically fleet and elegant."
-- International Piano Quarterly

Van Cliburn CD Reviews

"The CD confirms the strong impression Mr. Nakamatsu made in Fort Worth. He is a solid artist with great self-confidence, a clean technique, freedom from eccentricities, a strong lyric impulse and...a real dramatic flair. There were times, listening to this, when Arthur Rubenstein came to mind. It ranks with the best."
-- Dallas Morning News

"His Brahms sonata is outstanding, meeting the extravagant technical demands head-on while making music at every moment--a fervent, youthful performance completely appropriate to the music. In the Chopin, another technical showpiece, Nakamatsu also keeps the focus on the poetry of the music."
-- Amazon.com

"Stravinsky's Four Etudes of 1908 definitely belong to Jon Nakamatsu...glittering rendition...it's just plain fun to hear Nakamatsu race through the ear-catching complexities of this music."
-- Star-Telegram

Foss CD Review

"Jon Nakamatsu brings a sunny, robust lyricism to the Concerto No.1"
-- New Yorker