"Mr. Phillips gave his account a distinctly Mozartean accent, with a light touch, a tone that alternated between crystalline and gentle singing, as needed, with currents of courtly elegance and playful subversion intertwined. Mr. Phillips has thought long and hard and cares deeply about what he plays, and he has much to say that is provocative and moving....Perhaps his most important gift is a clarity and soundness of expression, which compels a listener to re-think familiar pieces in new ways."

"One of the most exciting and satisfying piano recitals in recent memory. David Phillips is among the most persuasive Beethoven interpreters of our time. But his brilliant Berkeley recital Monday night was a reminder that he is also that rarer and perhaps more marvelous creature: a great Schubert Performer."

"...the music flowed through him with such mellow insights, deep emotional involvement and self-effacing pianism that you felt as though you were confronting the composers' thought processes directly rather than through an interpreter."

"...Phillips is among the best Mozart players of his generation, one who has the depth to understand this hardest of all music and who puts his considerable gifts purely to its service."

"This performance was truly cherishable -- he played with a lucent, buoyant tone, impeccable taste, imagination, style, humor and originality." (Beethoven's Concerto No. 4 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Kurt Sanderling conducting.)

"One would have to search far and wide for a more substantial or satisfying recital than the one David Phillips presented on Sunday as part of Lincoln Center's 'Great Performers' Series."

"This was playing that wrapped the listener in its spell for two hours, playing that made no concessions to fad or fancy, playing that approached the status of revelation." (San Francisco)