EVENING POST, Nottingham: April 2008
"So strongly does Clare Hammond identify herself with her composers that the music seemed to come from within her, rather than from the piano. This performer unites unflawed elegance with the ability to gauge every work's emotional measure. She opened with a selection of Schubert Impromptus, miniatures full of charm, but not all sweetness and light. Writing a century later, Olivier Messiaen liberally supplied those qualities in La Colombe (The Dove). This was effectively contrasted with Nombre léger (Light Number) and a dramatically conceived Reflet dans le Vent (Reflection in the Wind). Alexander Scriabin's Fantasy Sonata in G sharp minor lifted the poetry of a Chopin into mystical realms - realms which were charted with energetic conviction. The second half of the recital showed imaginative powers of a similar order. After an alfresco Bartok suite, Brahms' Two Rhapsodies (Opus 79) returned us to the Romantic mainstream. Vallée d'Obermann, from the "Swiss" volume of Liszt's Years of Pilgrimage, yielded an epic climax. The pianist's encore underlined the sheer agility of her mind and fingers."
LOCAL SECRETS, Cambridge: Endellion Quartet, May 2006
"And then came Clare Hammond. Her performance of Mozart's E flat piano quartet K493 was exemplary. She was absolutely confident from the very first, decisive notes of the Allegro, which she projected boldly, sacrificing none of its youthful joyfulness. There was lovely shaping of phrases... in the slow movement, Miss Hammond's playing was expressive but always with a strong sense of direction. Here... there were some winning question and answer passages between soloist and strings and a genuine intensity developed towards the end of the movement which came all too soon. The concerto-like finale was pure delight. The pianist was in full command, her playing by turns lyrically elegant and masterfully assured. Clare Hammond has a bright future. My only regret was that we couldn't have Mozart's other piano quartet after the interval."
EVENING POST, Nottingham: July 2005
"Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody can suffer from over-exposure so there has to be something special about its performance to set the pulse racing. Luckily Clare Hammond had just the right combination of pianistic poetry and brilliance to make this a Rhapsody to remember. There was a jazzy, improvisatory feel about so much of it."
EVENING POST, Nottingham: March 2003
"Clare Hammond was the soloist in Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto. It received technical brilliance, emotional depth and physical strength in a performance that brought her a huge ovation."