“The young cellist Iris Azquinezer equally exhibits enormous courage and a deep poetic spirit. Whether live or recorded, Iris plays the cello from the inside, from the soul of both the instrument and her being. Leaning on a fabulous technique, this cellist raised in Arenas de San Pedro and musically educated in Germany, makes her instrument speak in a voice that evenly moves, captivates and excites. Gifted with a great power of communication, Azquinezer belongs to that breed of musicians incapable of leaving anyone indifferent. We are undoubtedly facing a figure that will give the music world plenty to talk about for the coming years”.
Juan Lucas (El arte de la fuga)

“From time to time, there are records that come out of nowhere and surprise for their beautiful daring” Azul y Jade”, Iris Azquinezer’s first record complies with these two aspects..
Stefano Russomanno (ABC cultural)

“Iris Azquinezer’s interpretation touches the listener, away from exaggerations or dramatic effects. The fascination Iris feels for Bach suites offers an interpretation of great sensitivity. An excellent technique and extensive study merge together at the service of music as a language of the soul. The warmth of her sound “slips under the skin”. Iris Azquinezer’s compositions, some of them with soundscapes of nature, become appropriate interludes of Bach suites. Her works are magical flashes of personal emotions, images and feelings, expressed through the language of the cello, as in her interpretations of Bach”.
Prof. Diemut Poppen

Precious is the form and content of this White and Gold by the talented Madrilene cellist Iris Azquinezer. This is a sober album presented as the second part of a trilogy in which the narrative lines of the first album, Blue and Jade, are reappraised: Bach’s 3rd and 4th Suites are intertwined with works of her own creation which show an intelligent and sincere language. One can say that these works of the Leipzig genius are the first great proposal for cello solo in the entire history, and from their pulp Azquinezer takes out the perfect juice to serve it with her particular sweetness, along a most depurated technique. She has commented that “Bach is her author, The Author”, and that the suites are “her home, for she plays them since she was 9 years old”. This is confirmed by José Ramón Ripoll in the booklet of the CD when he says “when she plays Bach she makes him her own…”. It is an authentic passion that comes out to the surface in the passionate contrasts of the Preludes, the jocose rythm of the Alllemande in the 3rd Suite, the lyrism of both Sarabande–the peak of the album–, the merriment of the Bourrée I and II in which she seems to invite us to fully relish the dancing, or the ahtletic succession of notes, almost exhausting, in the Gigue of the 4th Suite. These are clear examples of what this White and Gold aims to express, or, in other words, this dreamy vision in the form of a diary of youth and maturity. Along this polarity the particular homage of the pentagams written by Azquinezer for her bow and her fingerboard are ensambled…  Silky and emotive visions are tansfered from the soundpost to our senses at an exponential speed, circulating arund the “colour tones” in order to reach white (C Major) and gold (E flat Major). She penetrates these notes with touches of percusion and dodecaphonic flavour (Bereshit), lyrism and femininity (Three dances to the moon), and reminiscences of Rennaissance essence and of St. Theresa’s mysticism, which would well help us to listen, in our current times, her “Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you, everything passes…”

Por Alessandro Pierozzi – Melómano

When one is convinced there is no foreign music, there is only the music that flows from the inner fountain, such prodigies happen. Blanco y Oro (White and Gold) is an example of this constant flow, where the water sounds tame and impetuous at the same time. Several compositions of Iris Azquinezer are added to Bach’s Suites No 3 and 4, acting as driving force and parenthesis, reminding us of the circularity of time as a perpetuum mobile in whose centre each of us find ourselves. They are pieces written through the author’s commitment with the time acting as mirror of all ages, voiced in a powerful, expressive, poetic and evocative language, from her initial Bereshit or genesis, at once percussive and melodious, like the beginning of the aimless voyage we mentioned before, paradoxically marking the author´s journey, to Nada te turbe (Let nothing disquiet you), as a tribute to Santa Teresa and a metaphor of the worm transforming into a butterfly through silk. A brilliant album where Bach, Iris and the listener merge into a single sound.

José Ramón Ripoll

“classical background as well as different influences between contempary and traditional (reaching from Early Music to Jazz, Folk and Pop) enrich this minimalistic, still wide-opened approach to the ancient songs of the spanish jews”.

Katrin Wilke, Folker Magazine (Germany)

¨Azquinezer y Seiferth share out the melodies, acing them, glossing them, reinventing them, playing or crying with them and praising the world.¨

Pierre Élie Mamou, Scherzo.

¨Agua is a beautiful and intimate recording in which the delicate dialogue between the guitar and cello stands out. That together with the well chosen collaborations make time fly while you listen to it and make it totally recommendable.¨

Pedro Téllez. Melómano.

¨ …the best thing you can do is listen to Agua. You’ll thank me for the recommendation.¨

Eduardo Torrico, Scherzo.