«The pianist Karola Theill, on the other hand, was a real new discovery; after her sensitive and focussed performance of the extremely demanding piano part, she too […​] deserved at least a bouquet of flowers.»

«A ‘Winterreise’ is as good as the piano accompaniment — tenor Benjamin Bruns and Karola Theill form a good team. The pianist summons up high spirits with cheerily jingling bells and the terror of death with icy trillls. She accompanies with flexible tempi and leads through the loneliness.»

«…and the accomplished playing of collaborative pianist Karola Theill…Because her accompaniments also brought the significant moments into clear focus and, in particular, offered an interpretive freshness to the music composed for these mainly difficult texts, this was an extraordinarily successful recital … At every moment, one sensed that the two musicians on stage were equal partners, encountering the Lied with exacting high standards… The singer’s lovely voice and the pianist’s elegant playing combined to produce an unusually concentrated overall impression, interweaving melancholy, restrained joy and noble anticipation.”

«The dialogue between piano and voice exhibits an ideal collaboration between the singer and the superb pianist Karola Theill, whose perfectly synchronized playing marvellouslly traces the vocalist’s every breath.”

«Discreetly but with meticulous control, Theill endows the piano’s voice with great warmth in the opening Brahms… This fragility – conjured at first with touching tenderness on the piano in Mahler’s ‘Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft’, then beautifully and recurringly taken up by the soloist – is sure to haunt listeners’ memories.”

«The woman at the keyboard is gracing the 1876 Steinway with the most subtle shadings, and is breathing and singing along with the singer. She treats the piano with respect – and with a clarity that creates space for the most beautiful nuances. Under Karola Theill’s hands it sounds simply magnificent. Thus and only thus, opines this reviewer, should late 19th-century Lied be presented: with colours and noble, Romantic dark tones that no modern concert grand any longer possesses. It is, when ideally handled, suited perfectly to the nights and garden scenes of a Debussy or Fauré, in which we can hear the gentle breezes and rustling of nature and the sound of the unfettered mandolin whose object is always love.”

«The greater fascination came from the playing of pianist Karola Theill. Possessing an exceptionally refined touch, she conjured up arresting musical shapes, eliciting constantly shifting moods and compellingly contoured gestures. With the piano lid open, she fully explored the instrument’s vibrant sonorities.”

«… accompanied by the pianist Karola Theill, a master of Lied accompaniment.
[…] Benjamin Bruns and Karola Theill achieved musical symbiosis on the concert platform. «

«… moreover this is a fabulous recording of his lieder and piano pieces by soprano Silvia Weiss and pianist Karola Theill.”

” The singer attracts with her fresh, clear voice and good articulation. Karola Theill turns out to be an excellent accompanist.”

” exemplary is the beautiful iridescence of the piano pieces that Theill plays with great joy at the promise of self-absorption in normal everyday: music at the blue hour. «

«…the gifted Karola Theill was undaunted by all these difficulties. Her playing of the piano accompaniment was strikingly lithe and lively.”

«From [Zemlinsky’s] Fantasy on Poems of Richard Dehmel…Karola Theill performed two pieces with the utmost refinement of touch. In the lieder by Zemlinsky and Schoenberg that followed, the Cologne pianist again brought a high degree of subtlety: she can turn an ordinary forte into a real event.”

«…Schumann’s Piano Quintet was the concluding high point. With remarkable ensemble playing, Karola Theill and the Mandelring Quartet ignited a virtual fireworks display of Romantic passion, giving expression both to Schumann’s tempestuous and dramatic side and to his intimate and sensitive side.”

«The small vocal form, an intimate venue, splendid voices and an excellent accompanist made for a most pleasurable combination… Karola Theill at the piano played her due part in ensuring the concert’s reception with powerful applause.”

«For this and other insights into the art of the Romantic Lied, we owe a debt of gratitude to Scot Weir and the discreet accompaniment of his piano partner, Karola Theill, who supported the singer’s intentions with structural clarity.”

«The pianist Karola Theill unfolded a panorama of tonal colours ranging all the way from percussive high-register strokes to refined arabesques.”

«The sole outstanding accompanist was pianist Karola Theill, who not only performed her part with authority but also distinguished herself by an impressively cultivated touch and technical mastery, particularly in French Lied.”

«Mohr was sympathetically accompanied by Karola Theill. The pianist’s playing was discreetly restrained during the vocal passages, giving the tenor the basis to unfold the full potential of his interpretations upon the carpet of sound she wove for him. Her solo playing captivated the listener with its clear voicing and interpretative intelligence.”

«The lieder pianist Karola Theill was a fabulous interpreter – and, after playing the ironically over-the-top accelerandi in one of the Heine Lied, received a special and well-deserved round of applause.”

«…the singing was raised to virtual perfection by the piano accompaniment of Karola Theill. With her gentle touch, the technically brilliant pianist managed never to dominate – although the piano lid was opened wide. Instead the piano part wonderfully supported the vocal part and augmented it.”

«Outstanding performed his accompanist Karola Theill, who worked already with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and who is Professor at the «Hanns Eisler Hochschule”, Berlin, and in Rostock; a highest ranking Lied-Pianist.”