Silverman has enjoyed a lifetime of admiring critical notices. After a 1984
London recital, the critic Bryce Morrison described him as 'a player of formidable strength and mastery... his tonal resources are wonderfully rich and full... Silverman's magisterial command of both technique and idiom could hardly have been more convincing... here is a powerful, highly skilled orator of the keyboard, attributes not to be taken lightly in an age of so much impersonal expertise' ). After a New York City recital in 1984 New York Times critic
Bernard Holland wrote 'Robert Silverman, the Canadian pianist, evidently likes to do things in a big way.' his program...offered continuous opportunities for pianism on a grand scale, and he was careful to take advantage of them all. A selection of later reviews can be found at Silverman's website. 'Many aspects of Silverman's playing are frequently noted: a polished technique, an extraordinary range of tonal palette, an uncanny ability to sing his way into the heart of a phrase, and probing interpretations of the most complex works in the repertoire.' Silverman has a wide-ranging repertoire which includes 40 concertos. He has favoured the keyboard works of
Beethoven,
Brahms,
Liszt and
Mozart. He has performed complete cycles of the piano sonatas of Beethoven (beginning in 1996), and the Piano sonatas of Mozart (2006). He has performed and recorded Beethoven's
Diabelli Variations. He has performed with every major Canadian orchestra and also with the
BBC Symphony,
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and
Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the
Boston Pops, and the
Leningrad Philharmonic, among others. He has toured throughout Europe, North America, Australia, the Far East and the Soviet Union. He has played under the batons of
Seiji Ozawa,
John Eliot Gardiner,
Zdenek Macal,
Gerard Schwarz,
Neeme Järvi, the late
Kiril Kondrashin and
Sergiu Comissiona. Summer festivals at which he has appeared include in Canada: Music at the Sharon,
Courtenay,
Elora and Vancouver Chamber Music festivals; and in the United States the
Chautauqua, Peninsula and
Ravinia festivals. He has played with the St. Lawrence, Curtis, Fine Arts, Lafayette, Orford, and Purcell string quartets. He has made a strong commitment to Canadian composers throughout his career. He premiered
Jacques Hétu's
Concerto in 1970 with the
Quebec Symphony Orchestra and both performed and recorded it with the BBC Symphony Orchestra during Musicanada in 1977. With the Toronto Symphony he gave the first concert performances of Somers's
Second Piano Concerto (5, 6 Dec 1978). He premiered
Michael Conway Baker 's
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1976) with the
CBC Vancouver Orchestra, a performance which earned the composer a Juno Award, Jean Coulthard’s Piano Concerto ((1963, rev. 1967)),
Alexina Louie’s
Piano Concerto (1985) with the
Manitoba Chamber Orchestra,
Hétu's
Sonata (1986) and
Keith Hamel's
Thrust. Silverman's discography includes over 30 CDs and a dozen LPs. His recording of Liszt's piano music received a Grand Prix du Disque from the Liszt Society of Budapest in 1977. His 7-CD album of all the Mozart Sonatas was released in 2010. Silverman recently began performing and recording works by Chopin His recording ''Chopin's Last Waltz''was Stereophile Magazine's *Best of the Month* album for February, 2018. As Music Editor Robert Baird wrote in his review: "Silverman's Chopin is an unqualified success...[his] conceptions...delve deeply into the composer's inherent passions for his music and his love of melody. The overall architecture of Silverman's playing is solid and sure... The well-known Fantasie in f, Op.49, particularly its placid Adagio, benefits from Silverman's deft, lingering touch." He has recorded for
EMI,
Stereophile,
Marquis Classics, Orpheum Masters, Isomike, and
CBC Records. Silverman is a Steinway Artist. == Academic and teaching career ==