Few pianists can equal Charles Rosen for sheer lucidity of thought... the playing is big and confident (nothing frail about Rosen's vision of Chopin). Then,...

Few pianists can equal Charles Rosen for sheer lucidity of thought... the playing is big and confident (nothing frail about Rosen's vision of Chopin). Then, too, his fastidious attention to detail—especially his rhythmic acuity and his scrupulous inner lines—often lights up the music in revealing ways (note how he puts into relief the dotted gestures in the Polonaise-fantaisie). And his sympathy for the avant-garde carries over to the finale of the Second Sonata, which has rarely had its modernistic spirit so persuasively conveyed.

-- Peter J. Rabinowitz, FANFARE [1/1991]