“…a master musician. A true violist, Mr. Neubauer exults in his instrument’s dark, rich, sumptuous tone. He combines an unerring sense of pitch with affecting lyrical warmth; he even proved himself unafraid of a little honest sentiment, a rarity among perfectionists.”

“He plays his instrument with the kind of poise and maturity that place him at the top of the upper crust of musicians. Neubauer balances unflinching control, fluid bowing and sure-fire intonation with extraordinary depth of vision.”

“If there has been a better violist since William Primrose was in his prime more than a half-century ago, this listener does not know of him or her.”

“The viola soloist, Paul Neubauer, with his clean, firmly focused tone, keeps the music flowing in the hauntingly lyrical first movement [of the Walton Viola Concerto]. He is brilliant and incisive in the central Scherzo, and again in the finale he keeps the music flowing, relaxing seductively for the haunting epilogue, and using the widest possible dynamic range.”

“Neubauer probed the dark nostalgia of Robert Schumann’s “Marchenbilder” for Viola and Piano with acute sensitivity, then teased two wonderful Fritz Kreisler pieces into radiant bloom. More wonderful still were pieces by Georges Boulanger that pushed the Kreisler tradition of elegant salon miniatures into the stratosphere. How composition this outrageously sly can be so vivid, touching and hilarious is Neubauer’s secret: He owns this music, and to hear it from him is to inhabit a unique playground of delights.”

“Neubauer is one of America’s finest concert artists. His intonation was flawless, and the deep, rich tone he drew from his instrument was the purest imaginable. Neubauer met its every demand with easy grace and elegance, and achieved an extraordinary ethereal serenity with the evenness of his bowing.”

“Chen’s tonal silk and Neubauer’s velvet made them complementary on a basic level, but their deep musicality, their poised, seamless way of echoing and completing each other’s melodic lines were little short of astonishing for artists who cannot have had much chance to play together, if at all. Their pinpoint intonation, finely synchronized vibrato and Neubauer’s chocolately, never nasal, sound were remarkable enough in themselves. What really made this Mozart special was the feeling of enlarged orchestral chamber music everyone, including the attentive Muti and Chen’s colleagues, brought to the piece.”

“Neubauer made his viola sing in all its ranges and timbres. The pure, distilled beauty of the slow movement produced a hush in the hall, while the dark plangence of the lower strings showcased the instrument’s distinctive contralto. Neubauer displayed his arresting virtuosity by racing easily up and down the fingerboard, demonstrating that the viola can hold its own with its more popular cousins, the violin and cello.”

“The string-playing world was heavily represented in the audience, and no wonder. His aristocratic posture offers the eye a complement to the virtues the ear perceives. Mr. Neubauer’s seamless control of the bow, his intonation, his rich and varied tonal palette, mark him as a member of the elite.”

“A bigger more beautiful viola tone or a better command of the instrument’s technical and interpretive possibilities seems inconceivable.”

“His exquisite playing and his obvious love for the Bartók Viola Concerto, the work he helped revise, made an unstoppable combination. Neubauer’s huge tone, warm yet animated, easily hit the back wall of the Eastman Theatre. You hung onto the energy of every note. He centered the work, musically and literally. The range of emotion in Neubauer’s playing compares with the expressiveness of a great singer. ”

“Mere inches from that glorious sound, many were made weak at the knees. If it were socially acceptable, I might have kneeled. And while violist Paul Neubauer’s technique was admirable, it was the introspection, the variations of tone and straightforwardness of his music-making that left me spinning.”

“The afternoon was a revelation…he is acclaimed everywhere as a string player without peer among his generation of soloists. He probed to the heart of each work he played with unerring musical perception.”

“Paul Neubauer is the Sir Yehudi Menuhin of the viola. Think of the purity, simplicity and frail beauty of Menuhin’s violin playing and transpose to an alto without any loss of clarity, purity and refinement. You will then have an idea of the sound Neubauer can draw from his viola.”

“It’s hard to imagine the solo viola part in Harold in Italy – better played than it was by Paul Neubauer. With a tone of depth as well as satin finish, he presided masterfully over ruffles and flourishes as well as lyric effusions.”

“Neubauer possesses a beautiful tone; his playing is musical and expressive and filled with some of the most compelling lyricism of any concert artist today. He also has tremendous technical acumen. Nothing is impossible for him; he can dazzle his audience with his virtuosity and thrill them with his soft-edged melodicism. Together with Kogan, Neubauer gave one of the most dramatic and at the same time subtle and nuanced performances of the Berlioz imaginable.”

“Neubauer is a pleasure to watch as well as to hear. His physical motion when performing is both economical and elegant and that elegance is also expressed in his tone – colorful without a trace of throatiness – and his phrasing. His playing was highly atmospheric and evocative.”

“For a modern reading that comes nearer than any to the original approach sanctioned by the composer (Walton), my own choice is Paul Neubauer with Andrew Litton and the Bournemouth orchestra…”

“Neubauer makes the cascade of notes positively fly off the page with brilliant panache. That he is a multi-linguistic musical stylist is made equally evident in his thoroughly Iberian-flavored “Rapsodie” from the Suite Hebraïque, as well as plenty of heartfelt but never flamboyant lyricism in the other movements. On every page of each score, Neubauer evinces sovereign interpretive and technical majesty. ”

“Here were scoops and slides, an amazing array of tone colors, and pyrotechnics tossed off with mischievous humor. The extraordinary thing was that it all seemed absolutely right, natural, and in good taste. Neubauer’s tone is invariably beautiful, at the service of mood and expression, his bowing smooth, his phrasing elegant.”

“There are not enough superlatives to express how fine these performances are. Throw away all those tired old viola jokes. This is some of the finest string playing I have ever heard. Maestro Neubauer is a phenomenal musician of great artistry combined with impeccable, effortless technique...Neubauer exhibits a magnificent tone with an infinite palette of colours. ”

“Neubauer is one of the finest violists alive. His intonation and technical claims are faultless, and his bow arm seems to be seamless. He is able to inflect the usually timid viola with a warmth and expressiveness that command the hall. Neubauer played superbly. ”

“Next came the viola transcription of Schumann’s Five Pieces in Folk Style, in such a ravishing account by Paul Neubauer that you were left never wanting to hear them performed on cello again.”

“Surely the best violist I have ever heard…virtuoso playing caused no difficulty for Neubauer whose faultless intonation, lack of technical problems and artistic playing place him among the foremost artists of the world.”