Jeffrey Biegel with Keith Emerson and Mari Kawaguchi.

The News-Gazette, Champaign, IL
April 15, 2008

Leroy Anderson's Piano Concerto is like everything by this great composer of light music, full of glorious tunes and wonderful twists of orchestration. Biegel clearly loves this piece and played its stormy and tender passages from the heart.

"[Keith Emerson's Concerto no. 1] is refreshingly bold and saucy. Emerson is impatient with transitions, and there are many clashes of keys and moods, as well as wild endings to the first and last movements. The ghost of composer Paul Hindemith, of all people, turns up near the beginning, and the propulsive start of the finale owes something to the Khachaturian concerto.

"Biegel played with his usual brilliance, and during curtain calls, Emerson loped onstage to embrace Biegel and [Steve] Larsen."