What Sir Yehudi Menuhin said
“For me, you are the example of a musician of the 21st century. You represent the direction in which music should evolve; on the one hand, the patrimonial respect of the precious classical works (…); on the other hand, the discovery of contemporary [popular] music and its creative element, not only in the improvisation, but also in the interpretation."

Un moment d´ivresse

Les musiciens les plus magnifiques sont ceux qui restent connectés avec la vie. A l’instar d’un

Kremer, d’un Menuhin et d’un Gitlis à leur meilleur […] Gilles Apap fait partie de cette rare espèce d’interprète dont l’art se nourrit de l’expérience humaine et de la puissance de la nature…

Il a offert jeudi soir un de ces moments de bonheur musical que l’on recherche parfois désespérément dans les soirées classiques: naturel, joyeux, virtuose, généreux et convivial  

[…]

Regards, sourires, respirations, élans, arrêts et reprises: tout ce qui fait la vitalité de la communion, la cohésion d’un concert, Gilles Apap l’a  forgé au talent pur, à la sensibilité artistique et aussi aux bals de tous les pays.

Tzigane de Ravel? Véritable improvisation rhapsodique, respectueuse du texte et complètement libérée des canons classiques: le violoniste rend plus que quiconque son titre à l’oeuvre du Français. La Fantaisie op.31 de Schumann? Là aussi, l’ appellation n’a jamais aussi bien correspondu au jeu du musicien, original et extravagant, empreint de folie et de désir.

[…] Un moment d´ivresse.
Tribune de Genève,

Triomphant virtuosity - unexpected colors
On Apap, you can always bank:  what is labeled Apap will inevitably contain an exhilarating, lively classical music which has strongly been worked against the listening habits of classical mainstream.
 
In his field, the French violinist is still unique.
His style - at times a frankly fiddling from the bottom of his musical heart, at times a bluesy stringing the bows to his violin, at times an honest demonstration of triumphant virtuosity - is an 'ear catcher' of the highest degree.  Who doesn't get success to attend to one of his concerts, shall buy his CDs.

Most recent release: "sans orchestre" - an audio trip from Mozart to Ravel with side trips to Bulgarian and Irish folk.
The most venturous, most bold "apapification' this time:  Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin.
... out of pieces such as Saint-Saens‘ Rondo Capriccioso the quattuor gets success in drawing the most unexpected colors.
image hifi

Beauté apolinienne
Gilles Apap ne fait pas une ‘entrée en scène’, mais il ‘se faufile’ à travers l’orchestre vers le podium, incite aussitôt l’intérêt de l’audience par une sorte d’arrangement personnel d’une pièce de Bach et, par un air folklorique, oblige la salle à écouter de bonne humeur et d’un l’oreille éveillé.

Et quand le chef d’orchestre… les a joint aussi, l’on est prêt à démarrer le concerto pour violon de Mozart …  maintenant avec un Gilles Apap, qui ‘se joue’ des arrières pupitres au fond de la scène vers l’avant, et qui se met à jouer comme s’il prenait les sons du loin, de quelque part de sa mémoire.

Apap n’est pas un interprète qui, dans une pose de statue, ‘présente’ un projet d’art soigneusement travaillé ;  son interprétation donne plutôt l’impression d’être improvisée, comme si elle était née à l’instant même du jeu.
D’une main menée avec souveraineté et d’un cœur serein battant d’un rythme calme naissent, apparemment sans effort et  d’une beauté somnambule des sons avant tout doux, placides : un Mozart d’une beauté apollinienne, d’un rayonnement sonore persuasif.

Mais ensuite, dans le Rondo, il n’y a plus question de se contenir : en plein milieu des motifs musicaux  soigneusement enchaînés il ‘brise les chaînes’ pour rendre hommage à son grand amour, le sauvetage de la musique folklorique, migrant du nord au sud à travers les régions, parfois sifflant, bavardant à d’autres moments – et tout semblait être imaginé à l’instant, révoqué du mémoire, tendre et déluré, câlin et dynamique…
Weserkurier Bremen
 

Magic music
… by his devoted and dramatic interpretation, Apap succeeded to communicate with the audience and the orchestra. He held his violin in almost impossible angles, he picked, bowed and striked his instrument  at the same time.

That was ‘musitainment’ , the ultimate perfection of  music combined with elements of show, but it looked like as if it was all a child’s play.

(Apap's) magic music dominated the hall, his charm and his sovereignty didn’t fail to work on the audience….
Berner Zeitung
 

Supernova au violon étincelant
Une entrée éclatante comme une supernova qui aurait amalgamé toutes les musiques du monde. Il est ainsi Gilles Apap. Imprévisible, fantasque…

Monsieur Apap, si un jour vous repassez prés de notre galaxie, on reprendrait bien un peu du chemin de cordes de votre Voie lactée…
Le Berry Républicain

Apap enthused his audience
In the New Year’s concert, the violinist with Algerian roots….  interpreted the ‘Tzigane’ by Ravel, a real showpiece with a breakneck cadenza and flittering devils trills, without any pressure by developing his execution to become a declamatory parlando.

Especially remarkable was the way how  - in the dialogue with the harp – the Luthéal has been recalled, that modified piano for which Ravel had originally adapted his piece. ….

Likewise, Apap enthused his audience with ‘Airs Bohémiens’ by Sarasate and ‘Introd. + Rondo Capricc.’ by Saint-Saens, a music which the composer had dedicated to Sarasate whom he admired.

In a little excursion, Apap disclosed the secret how to develop from a solo sonata by Bach an ’Irish Fiddling’ and the orchestra went easily with him – even when he stretched the syncopated rhythms or allowed himself  the freedom of improvisation to savore the transitions between fast and slow parts and to make his instrument sobbing or  swinging – and sometimes even chirping…
Der Bund Bern        

Un violon dans les étoiles
Gilles Apap parvient à toucher les étoiles dans le ‘Concerto à la mémoire d’un Ange’.
Le violoniste aborde la partition avec un jeu charnel, sanguin, libre, généreux et concentré. Et sa sonorité, ronde et claire, porte loin.
« Que de bonheur ! » clamaient certains spectateurs à l’issue du concert.
La Tribune de Genève


Un rêve pour l’auditeur
" … la Sonate N°2 de Bartok - c’est le rêve pour l’auditeur que d’entendre cette œuvre que peu concertistes aborde tant elle est difficile.
Toujours sans partition, Gilles Apap révèle un langage musical inconnu, fait des rythmes insensés, d’ornementation en liberté, d’explorations mélodiques inouïes ; Éric Ferrand N’Kaoua, sans jamais couvrir le son du violon, joue en parallèle ou en course poursuite, réinventant la notion même d’accompagnement, assurant l’unité d’une œuvre en apparence déchiquetée.
Dans cette sonate d’audace prométhéenne, on se demande à quels démiurges de l’antique Thrace il a fallu que les deux artistes aillent dérober le feu de leur interprétation."
Les affiches de Grenoble

Gilles Apap – an Exceptional Talent and Ingenious Musician
His entry: beginning quietly from off stage with the “Sarabande” of Bach’s “Partita”  in B-minor, followed by the “Double” played with great austerity. Then an abrupt but rather smooth crossing into an amalgamation of Irish Folk and Country music, orientated on the Bach theme.
One thing became quite clear: it is his effervescence joy of music and his never dwindling impulse as a musician, which bring about his interpretations of stirring intensity.

Subsequently “Introduction” and “Rondo capriccioso”, op. 28 by Camille Saint-Saëns: ... one has hardly ever experienced such pure musical quality. It is astonishing how Apap achieves such a rich palette of various expressions in a most limited space. 

Finally Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”: the Georgians and Apap, who at times conducted the orchestra while playing the violin, performed Vivaldi’s music perfectly. But that did not suffice. Their joy of making music suddenly broke through: On the one hand in the tempi – which sometimes seemed to exceed the perception, on listening closer, however, revealed an elaborated correctness in every musical detail.
On the other hand with a rarely experienced tonal as well as dynamic versatility ...

In the end Apap proved again that he is a most exceptional violinist. The level of his performance of the 3. Sonata “Ballade” d-minor, op. 27 by Eugene Ysaÿe, is achieved by only a very few virtuosi.
Regensburg 07 - Apap & Georg. Chamber Orchestra

Eccentric Who Crosses Borders
Gilles Apap is an eccentric of the violin scene who crosses borders and cultivates this image. He is, however, also a virtuoso, a violinist who has a masterly command of his instrument.
One may like or dislike this ... solo programme ...: with his very personal and emotional play, Apap draws the audience’s attention...
Fono Forum, CD "Music for Solo Violin"

Passionate Intensity
Gilles Apap is a violinist who transgresses the norms: a non-conformist, brilliant, unpredictable, eclectic - he excites or disturbs - depending on one's point of view.
There is, however, no doubt that he plays the violin admirably and does so straight from the heart.
His version of the Chaconne demands respect - both for his technical skills as well as for his passionate intensity, which at times recalls the stunning emotionality of Menuhin.
Diapason, CD 'Music for Solo Violin'

Gilles Apap allies Mozart with the rest of the world
Not only bewitched the artist’s disarming openness the audience,it was formost his virtuous artistry that evoked general excitement….
His mentor (Menuhin…) would also have been impressed by the enormous musicality and the sheer unlimited skillful abilities of his today 38 years old colleague. Apap plays classical music as concentrated and authentic as Jazz, Country, Klezmer or Irish Folk. And sometimes all together and almost simultaneously.
Certainly, Apap is not the only excentric of the international music scene. What distinguishes him from Nigel Kennedy, however, is his musical sensitivity. And he stands out simply for the technical and musical quality of his violin playing. Since one thing Apap is certainly not: an artist who believes that he has to make classic music more contemporary by brisk rudeness and cheap interfering into the score.
On the contrary, Apap’s Mozart tone, his wide range of expressions, his musically „breathing“ creative power and his sensitive ability to communicate with the orchestra is to be experienced….

Apap’s performance convinces in his intuition into world music and is never limited to cheap effects. In this respect, he is in his musical performance far more related to the artistry of a Bobby McFerrin than to the one of his colleague Nigel Kennedy.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Rheingau Musikfestival,

Charisma – reminiscent of Jascha Heifetz
My heart goes out to my German colleagues here who had to miss this unforgettable event.

Surely concert music throughout the world can boast no spirit so exuberantly free as this extraordinary, probably unique violinist, who breaks almost all rules except the one applying to musical quality, and not only violates almost all concert conventions but has you loving it.

The Greek word "charisma" [is defined] as "a gift from charizesthai: to favor, gratify”, which in Christian theology traditionally means "a divinely inspired gift, grace, or talent" - and that neatly wraps up Gilles Apap, at least in the purely musical sense.
Any way you slice it, he absolutely radiates charisma - spontaneously, effortlessly.
[ Apap] did to his fiddle- and I do not exaggerate – something reminiscent of what Jasch Heifetz used to do to his.

Advance billing mentioned the orchestral suite from Zoltán Kodály's opera "Háry János" [and] both of Béla Bartók's Rhapsodies for violin and orchestra - but the actual event surprised us with a mind-boggling difference: the frisky idea… of separating the various components of the Bartók and interspersing them in performance with approximately similar segments of that delicious Kodály music.
I cannot immediately recall any other concert where I've sat through an entire half with an uninterrupted smile of sheer pleasure on my face… the audience indicated a totally unleashed central European desire to tear the house down.

Apap - with not the slightest trace of narcissism or star allure - unobtrusively strolled in from a floor-level side door, fiddle in hand, and at the proper point he joined in, as easily and naturally as he might a blue-grass session at a California highwayside diner, eventually making his exits just as unobtrusively.
Between two segments, Boreyko ended the momentary hiatus by audibly humming Kodály's next theme, which Apap picked up on his fiddle and carried it over to the wonderful violist, who then continued in faithful adherence to the printed score.

Repeatedly during the evening there popped into my head the title of a Leonard Bernstein book: "The Joy of Music." I feel only compassion for my German press colleagues who missed this unforgettable evening.
As you may have gathered, I myself had the time of my life.
P. Moor, Musical America,  Bartok Rhapsodies at Komische Oper Berlin

From another world
This is a musician from another world and another age – the yesterdays’ universe and the one of tomorrow.
… When he played A. Berg’s ‘Concerto à la mémoire d’un ange’ Gilles Apap succeeds to touch the stars in the sky.
La Tribune de Genéve

Unlike any other
Big success for Sinfonia Varsovia's concert led by Tamas Vasary, and for the violinist Gilles Apap, an unusual and fascinating personality… the major attraction of the tribute to the late master of the bow (Yehudi Menuhin), was made in the out of the ordinary testimony of Gilles Apap in the Third Concerto of the divine Amadeus.
It is difficult to pass a comparative, objective and at most, just judgment on this 36-year-old instrumentalist who is unlike any other, and whose interpretive work even the most varied or pointedly vigorous criterion would be unable to take into account.
Monsieur Apap is happy to destroy the standard images which are always associated with Mozart (or any other). That is to say to break the idols into which we have transformed these genius creators, certainly, but molded to a fault, those of life itself, like our own.
And then what a beautiful tribute to Menuhin, this citizen of the world, to have this musical melting pot, representative of the multicultural society to which we call out for a world rid of racism, of xenophobia and of ridiculous and criminal prejudices. Astonishing and praiseworthy.
La Marseillaise


Without limits
Apap is an exceptional, unique violinist who does not have any artistic or technical limits and effuses music as if it comes directly out of his inner being. Everything, however, appears so easily and playfully that one was wondering why music cannot always be like that….
Even hours later, it was difficult to come down to ‘normal’ life – without Gilles Apap’s music.
Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger

Magic moment of music
The exceptional French violinist presented to the audience a superbly magical moment of music.
Apap is blessed with an elementary musicality, and, in spite of his seemingly casual manners, he performs with masterly intonation and technique. His play was totally free and relaxed, lively and full of energy and characterized by his outmost concentration and capturing joy of making music.
Kölnische Rundschau

A true musician to drop on one's knees for
In Apap’s fingers the Mozart concerto becomes a toy which he twirls and spins around, which he makes eloquently talk, giggle and jubilate. But he also carries it into the blues or silence. Every piece is, however, performed in a highly civilized way and with outstanding technical virtuosity. At the end, the audience acclaimed a piece of sturdy musicality.
Weserkurier, Bremen

Scintillating violin play
In a ten minutes’ cadence, Apap uses his communicative skills to start a loop throughout the history of music. … He quotes jazz and rock, goes for a blues – to finally come back to Mozart by a terrific volte-face.
Der Bund, Bern

The joy of music
Apap leaps genres and mountain tops with the greatest ease…. one idea leads to the next, defying categories… communicating the joy of music to his audience.
Magazine STRINGS/USA

Most enjoyable evening in recent memory
The concert was a joy from the start to finish… with two master musicians…. The ‘blues’ movement of Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Piano was astonishing – can any other musician swing like this and also play with such pure, scrupulous mastery?! … Apap’s intensity and concentration drew the audience inside the musical experience. … with Apap as a channel, there was no barrier between the listener and the music.
Michael Smith, The reviews

Building bridges
In the framework of the Festival, Gilles Apap presented his group the Colors of Invention.  An impressive example of how bridges can be built between cultural roots, between classical and traditional music. Effortlessly, he wanders back and forth between these worlds and develops an exciting crossover which takes in the entire world, thereby proving that his musical credo “All music is created equal” is more than correct….
Just how wonderfully unpretentious classical music can be is shown by the star violinist completely when he even walks through the audience while playing a solo sonata of Bach without wobbling even once.
Serious music also gets to be fun!
Erlanger Nachrichten, 2003

Finally understood
Gilles Apap’s Vivaldi at the Indian Summer Concert
The start is easy going.  Right at the frog of the bow, Gilles Apap is giving offbeat double stops in a hot swing style.  The bass comes in, followed by accordion and cymbalum, a type of hammered dulcimer.  And before you know it, we’re in the middle of a hillbilly dance from North Carolina,
What then came was an amazing, breathtaking and astonishing musical journey through centuries and continents: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as musically fresh and authentic as we haven’t heard it for a long time.  
Apap takes the pieces and reduces them to their musical bare bones and adds back in what so often is lacking: playfulness, a smart alec attitude and humor…. It is just as well thought out as it is spontaneously improvised and more than once one has the feeling of never having up until now a good understanding of Vivaldi.
Myriam Lafar, accordion, Ludovit Kovac, cymbalum and Philippe Noharet, contrabass are the ideal ensemble for such excursions.  The three just like Apap make use of brilliant technique and musical innovation to follow the most diverse styles and they harmonize with each other in somnambulistic security.  
So it is that the virtuosic pieces of Fritz Kreisler and Pablo de Sarasate appear less as showpieces than as vehicles for shared joy and outrageous playing.  Almost frighteningly perfect is the “Flight of the Bumblebee”.  More unison playing between violin and cymbalum could not be possible.  Irish and Scottish traditional pieces reveal themselves as a complete web of sound with a cutting overtone spectrum and the otherwise rather banal Bartok duos played by Apap and Noharet are like strewn gems of effortless poignancy.  And that Ysaye's Third Solo Sonata is actually an improvisation mount in notes can probably hardly be demonstrated such impressively by anyone else than Apap.
Mainecho

One of the best recordings of the work
This is one the best recordings of the work (Enescu, Sonata no. 3). There is the necessary spontaneity in their playing, but it does not obscure a sure grasp of  form in this almost overwhelming rhapsodic music. Apap and N’Kaoua also have at their command a wealth of tone colors. Listen to Apap’s control of the natural and artificial harmonics, and sul ponticello effects in II.
The duo’s intelligence, imagination and technical mastery are also evident in the other selections. Like the Enescu, this Debussy is one of the best I’ve heard, with spontaneity the order of the day. Ravel’s delicate melodies in I. Soar. The ‘Blues’ is grotesquely jazzy in a delightful way. III. Really flies!
Apap has a soloist’s temperament. He seems incapable of playing a single note in a way that isn’t fascinating!
American Record Guide, CD ‘Sonatas’


Foretaste bursting with energy
….A truly thriving sound of the violin was produced by Apap in Ravel’s "Tzigane". The soloist also demonstrated highest virtuosity with the "Gypsy Tunes" by Pablo de Sarrasate. Besides, he commented on the wit of music by using gestures as well. After enthusiastic storms of applause Apap played Irish dance music as an encore…
Hamburger Morgenpost

                                                                 
Mozart would have had fun with it
…. He started to play with a small, but sweet sound, however tense and energetic, thus offering a style of Mozart playing which was not ‘pampering’, though extremely sensitive.
And, of course, it was he himself who created the big, widely spread cadenza.
After the second movement the enthusiasm of the masses (the hall was brilliantly sold) could no longer be hold – special applause during the piece!!
„Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung“


Gilles Apap sends Mozart on a journey
‘He’s made a botch of Mozart’ a woman grumbled. ‘No, it’s absolutely fantastic’ was the response of her counterpart. The violinist Gilles Apap certainly enthused rather than enraged his audience. Mozart himself would probably have given him the thumbs up.
Apap rejected established concert traditions in the Violin Concerto in G Major. He hummed like Glen Gould and used the folkloristic leitmotif in the Finale in his cadence, named ‘Mozart Mania’, to send the Maestro on a journey, with Amadeus traveling through Paris, Ireland and Romania, Amadeus whistling, getting us the Blues, reeling through the alleys  and having a vision of Mendelssohn.
What seems an awful idea when considered at a distance was actually rather witty and effect in practice, thanks to the sudden moments of surprise created by the violinist and his capacity to quickly incorporate into his routine new ideas which seemed to have been thought up on the spot.
….Even those who regard the violinist’s endeavors as nothing more than fancy have got to bow down to his fantastic playing ability and certainly also to the skill and evident vivacity.
Westfälische Allgemeine

Wittiness and belcanto
Gilles Apap is not an eccentric who needs the show to disguise his imperfections – just on the contrary. His intonation is varied and he articulates Mozart’s difficult concert with the right mixture of wittiness and belcanto….
Stuttgarter Zeitung


Confusing, bewildering and grandiose
….May be, the original sound is only a chimera.
At least, Gilles Apap and his group ‘The Colors of Invention’ who really pepped up innocent Antonio Vivaldi in the ‘Ordenssaal’ at Ludwigsburg, supported such a speculation.
Uncompromising ‘Rubati’ change a baroque dance into a Csardas, and the lovely melodies in the “Winter”, by means of violin ‘flageolett glissandi’ in the highest register,  mutate to a nearly unaudible hooting of sirens. And thus, especially in the terribly fast first and last movements, the ‘historical’ performance style gets to have it, too.
And all that is realised quasi without any ‘full stop’ – Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” passed through a water heater.
Who, however, thinks that all this is easily and spontaneously jot out, is wrong. Each effect has been planned carefully and even the Jazz patterns by which the bass player unscrupulously updates some too uneventful ‘ostinati’ by more than three centuries are played down to the last note out of a score.

And with Sarasate’s expressive and full-sounding “Zapateado” Apap – and Myriam Lafargue playing Wjatseslaw Semionov’s “Don Rhapsody” as well – illustrated the extremely high level of artistry on which even requirements beyond the classical are executed.

What a confounding and bewildering but grandiose evening!!
Stuttgarter Nachrichten (Ludwigsburger Festspiele)


Emphasis, virtuosity and intensity
After this prelude followed Bach’s violin concert in E major. When the music rose up to the bright  summits of E-major Apap made his violin sheerly jubilate. He insisted on rhythmical drive, baroque vitality and colourfulnes,  passionately joined in by the orchestra.
… Apap is considered to be an example of  free handling  with concert  rituals. He’s interested in improvising in different styles from Jazz to Indian music. And in his concerts he let these different musical attitudes and idioms appear side by side… and (thus) he tried with emphasis, intensity and virtuosity to present Vivaldi as a violin adventure in four acts.
Süddeusche Zeitung


Fascinating
Fascinating was, in fact,  the „rebellious seriousness“ of Gilles Apap who succeeded to change effortless from a relaxed street music atmosphere to a totally introverted playing attitude with an extremely high intensity of expression. And in doing so, the droning of the basso continuo with which he accompanied the Bach-movements was not only a “Glenn Gould gesture” but it expressed his dedication to the „primary source“ of all later music.
In the same way,  all the different kinds of Irish Jigs and Reels were not sensationally and superficially played, but rather softly, with high virtuosity, however, and very sensitive rhythmical skills.
One could, in fact, experience an international top-class violin-virtuoso who knew how to bring into action without any effort the entire range of musical expressions and who obviously enjoyed the conception that “all good music in the world is created equal” -  which could be seen and heard.
Harzkurier

Too beautiful to be true…
The violinist Gilles Apap fills the room with sound all on his own. His Bach-Chaconne, his Ysaye-sonatas and Fiddler-Jigs set the cloister of the Walkenried  monastery into sympathetic vibrating– a man, a fiddle, old ruins, a new phenomenon….
There comes again such a scale. It zooms up into the vault, refracts like light in a prism, is being reflected and shoots together with the entire echo like olde plaster from the ceiling down to tones that are more rooted to the soil.
He laughs while he plays, stamps the rhythm, accompanies his playing by droning tones just like once Jazz- pianist Oscar Petersen did. He even leaves the audience alone for 10 minutes while he goes, improvising, for a walk around the cloister. And the way the sound dies away and almost gets lost in the space far away before it gradually becomes real again on the other side, is almost to beautiful to be true.
Hannoversche Algemeine

Modern ‘maestro violino’
Well, whoever can sit cross-legged and leant back in such a relaxed way when playing Eugene Ysayes fingerbreakingly-difficult violin sonata knows a thing or two.
Gilles Apap certainly does.
Gilles Apap ‘fiddles’ wonderfully Vivaldi’s longtime bestseller ‘The Four Seasons’ – his playing as casually as his attitude on the stool. He knows nothing of technical difficulties and you soon realise that he has a solid training in classical violin. He is a real modern ‘maestro Violino’.
In the second half, there were these solo-numbers, Apap’s amazing performance of the Ysaye- thriller in which he shows his real capacities – two lovely accordion solos by Myriam Lafar and a double-bass piece with Phillipe Noharet.
Thus, this evening was not only ‘relaxed’, but also at times highly intense and much more than only a musical ‘anything goes.’      
Lörrach


Magnificent violinist – allround artist
…Right from the start of his solo recital which closed the “Bachtage” (Days of Bach) in the in Würzburg he touched the hearts of his audience, mainly young in age.
This was no surprise. For  Gilles is not only a magnificent violinist who understands J.S.Bach as much as he does his indisputably tastefully interlaced “Fiddle Pieces” from Ireland, or the “Dies irae” theme which he instantaneously improvises in the style of Stephan Grappelli, or the art of the Indian folklore which he plays alone (though as if lead by an invisible Raga-player), intuitively exploring it’s depths with equally as much earnestness and far-eastern empathy.
Gilles Apap is an all-round artist.
In the featured pieces from J.S Bach’s Partita in B Minor, and Sonatas in A Minor, C Major and G Minor he proved himself to be a stylistically outstanding concert violinist, flawless both in his finger and bow technique.
Bachtage Würzburg


Outstanding violinist
Apap is far away from alienating the music. On the contrary: the Algeria-born French musician feels himself with a sheer sacred seriousness obliged to the work – to any work without exception.
Thus, his status as a ‘border crosser’ consists in the special way he composes and presents his concert programs - which is some kind of basic-democratic statement for the equality of all musical styles.
Aside movements from Bach or Ysaye he puts seamlessly Irish fiddl tunes, swing, jigs and reels – treating every note with the same love and solicitude.
And of course, even the presentation breaks the customary frame of violin recital…
This unconventional behaviour, however, did not affect the musical quality.
Apap is an outstanding violinist affording masterly technical capacities and a brilliant intonation. Thus, he can allow himself to break with the rules of an elitist concert business. In the same time he votes for the equal treatment of all music and all audiences without prejudice, and by doing so he offers a possibility to rejuvenate the dying out audience of classical concerts.
His one – the young and the old – was enthusiastic.
Mainpost

Ce que disait Sir Yehudi Menuhin
« Pour moi, vous êtes l’exemple du musicien du 21^e siècle. Vous représentez la direction dans laquelle devrait évoluer noter musique : d’un côté le respect du patrimoine précieux des oeuvres classiques (…) ; de l’autre, la découverte des musiques contemporaines et de l’élément créateur non seulement dans l’improvisation mais aussi dans l’interprétation. »

Gilles Apap, corps et âme perdus dans la
musique
… "Concert inoubliable, en compagnie de gilles Apap, violoniste hors du commun et des sentiers battus. […] Gilles Apap a un don – outre celui d’être un violoniste hors pair – il communique avec le public, lui parle, vient le visiter pour offrir sa musique encore plus près, comme une sérénade à une bien-aimée. Cela plaît, séduit et conquiert. Impossible de rester insensible à ce charme, cette gentillesse. La conquête est complète avec la musique que Gilles Apap anime d’un enthousisme communicatif. Les yeux clos, intensément happé par son art, on le voit dans un autre monde, donnant ses tripes à sa maîtresse. Le public, lue, sent son âme lui échapper pour rejoindre le musicien dans ce pays merveilleux, qui n’existe que le temps d’une interpretation des deux dernier mouvements du concerto de Chostakovitch."
Mâcon Scène Nationale, Marie Salerno

Un violon dans les étoiles
Gilles Apap parvient à toucher les étoiles dans le ‘Concerto à la mémoire d’un Ange’. Le violoniste aborde la partition avec un jeu charnel, sanguin, libre, généreux et concentré.
Et sa sonorité, rode et claire, porte loin.
« Que de bonheur ! » clamaient certains spectateurs à l’issue du concert.
La Tribune de Genève

L'iconoclaste - étonnant et salutaire
Prestation hors du commun….difficile de porter un jugement, et a plus juste, sur cet instrumentiste qui ne ressemble à aucun autre et réalise des interprétations que les critères les plus variés ou pointus en vigueur ne peuvent prendre en compte. M. Apap se plaît à détruire les images toutes faites que nous avons d’un Mozart (ou d’un autre)… à briser les idoles en lesquelles nous avons transformé ces créateurs géniaux… Quel bel hommage à Menuhin, que ce melting-pot musical représentatif de la société pluri-culturelle… pour un monde débarrassé du racisme, de la xénophobie et des préjudices ridicules et criminels….
La Marsaillaise

Prestation électrique et enthousiaste
‘Touche à tout de génie’ – Gilles Apap, avant d’être un virtuose confirmé, est une personnalité tout en relief …doté d’un charisme étonnant…Et…a bel et bien réussi und ‘carte blanche’ aux allures improvisées dans la forme, et cependant extrêmementmaîtrisée dans le fond. … Giles Apap traverse les répertoires avec une aisance remarquable et un bonheur visible. Bonheur ressenti par le public qui accepte avec plaisir cette masse de genérosité déversée sans limites à chaque coup d’archet….
Le Havre-Presse, ‘Octobre en Normandie’

Concert superbe
Gilles Apap a l’art d’intégrer pour un subtil mélange, les fondations d’un patrimoine musical tout en l’enrichissant d’improvisation, de création et de recherche. Bref, Apap renonce à toutes les frontières de genres, pour en ressortir que le meilleur….
Cela nous donne une belle fresque musicale qui prend toute son ampleur grace à la virtuosité du musicien.
Ouest-France

Sous le charme d’un archet magique
Le public attendait un grand moment – il est reparti étonné, ravi, charmé, emballé, excessif.
Gilles Apap adonné un concert ébluissant. Virtuose, les plus grands critiques lui reconnaissant un immense talent, il n’en est pas moins le plus gai ds musiciens ce qui lui permet de réussir une incroyable performance dans le si-connu « concerto en ré majeur »….d’une simplicité rare, d’une joie de jouer lumineuse.
Tour était techniquement parfait, tout était parfaitement simple, tout était simplement époustouflant.
La Dépêche du Pays e Bray

Prix ‘Choc’ du Monde de la Musique pour :
« Vivaldis Four Seasons »

Prix ‘Choc’ pour « No piano… »
Ce qui frappe dans le jeu du musicien, c’est sa capacité à se transformer en véritable Zélig de l’instrument, passant avec une facilité déconcertante de Gluck à Rimsky-Korsakov –avec un détour par Wienawski, Fauré, Ravel, Ibert et Sarasate – doublée d’une imagination qui lui permet de trouver le ton idéal. La question du style ne l’effraie pas une seconde…. Le mot clé d’un tel violiniste est  n-a-t-u-r-e-l.  Du coup, tout semble recréé dans l’instant présent.
Le Monde de la Musique

Un violon hors convention
… il est vrai, ce Gilles Apap n’est pas monsieur Tout-le-monde. […] Calmement, simplement, presque timidement, le personnage fait son entrée sur scène, s’empare de son instrument et début sa prestation, sans prononcer un mot. Après quelques minutes d’un andante de Bach, l’artiste réalise une mystérueuse transition pour enchaîner sur une gigue irlandaise pleine de fougue. Puis comme par enchantement, le crin de l’archet reprend de nouveau un accent classique avec, cette fois, un presto en Sol mineur, du même compositeur allemand.
Après cette délicieuse entrée en matière et sous des regards déjà subjugués, Gilles Apap clame avec humour : « j’espère que vous aimez le violon ». Et il y a intérêt, car du violon, nous allons en voir, ou plutôt en entendre, de toutes les couleurs. … Gilles Apap émerveille par la sincérité des ses prestations et par l’humilité et la simplicité qui se dégagent de sa personne.  …pour satisfaire les rappels du public, Gilles Apap interprétera deux petits airs tsiganes, juste avant de laisser repartir les spectateurs sur le petit nuage sur lequel il les a hissés tout au long de la soirée.
Rémi Fessler

 
… on ne peut être que pleinement convaincu par l’extraordinaire maîtrise instrumentale, technique et musicale de l’attachant Gilles Apap. … Éric Ferrand-N’Kaoua apparaît également comme un pianiste magistral car il sait tirer magnifiquement son épingle du jeu. Là où d’autre auraient fait pâle figure face au jeu éblouissant du violoniste, Ferrand-N’Kaoua accompagne parfaitement et supporte on ne peut plus fièrement la comparaison avec l’impressionnant Apap. … On a particulièrement apprécié la Sonate d’Enescu pour le vigoureux caractère roumain qu’ose y mettre Apap, le remarquable finale de la Sonate de Debussy puis les vertigineux blues et Perpetuum mobile de la prodigieuse Sonate de Ravel.
Revues de presse, P. Guilmot,


Gilles Apap : un concert musicalement brillant
Nous pouvons employer tous les superlatifs quand bien même ils ne sont pas assez fort spour qualifier la haute tenue d’un concert qui fera date dans les annales de la Société des concerts. …Gilles Apap, c’est un tout … un passionné qui a envoûté un public qui est reste pantois devant sa prestation. Gilles Apap vit, depuis plusieurs années, une belle histoire d’amour. Celle de la musique et son violon, extraordinaire et exceptionnel.
Le Courrier-Liberté, No. 20
 

Maîtrise extraordinaire
À l’écoute de ses deux disques, on ne peut être que convaincu par l’extraordinaire maîtrise instrumentale, technique et musicale de l’attachant Gilles Apap…. Mené de bout en bout avec la même grâce, ce disque montre aux sceptiq2ues que Gilles Apap n’est pas seulement préoccupé d’improvisations débridées. On a partuculièrement apprécié la Sonate d’Énescu pour le vigoure4ux caractère roumain qu’ose y mettre Apap, le ermarquable finale de la Sonate de Debussy, puis les vertigineux ‘Blues’ et ‘Perpetuum mobile’ de la prodigieuse Sonate de Ravel.
Disques, CD ‘Sonatas’ / ‘No piano…’


Artiste hors normes
Classique ne signifie pas nécessairement guindé. Devenu pour un soir le chef d’un Orchester de Bretagne détendu, avec son archet en guise de baguette, Gilles Apap a donné un concert atypique riche en surprises et anticonformismes…. C’est d’abord une spectaculaire virtuosité qui seduit l’auditeur. Une soirée pas comme les autres - le violon en fête…
Le Télégramme


Public enthousiaste
Concert avec Sinfonia Varsovia en hommage à Menuhin
La surprise, attendue, est venu de Gilles Apap. Dès l’entrée, il bat en brèche les conventions…
a l’allure décontractée d’un musicien de noce tzigane.
Lors qu’il se met à jouer, les musiciens du Sinfonia Varsovia suiven comme un seul homme ce violiniste extravagant. Pas du tout gênés par les variations buisonnières, qui agrément la partition de Mozart déjà très riche. Étonnant.
De là-haut, au paradis des musiciens où il regardait le concert en compagnie de Mozart, Menuhin devait se féliciter de sa trouvaille, ocationnée par un public enthousiaste.
Montpellier /Spectacles