Vasily Petrenko

“The RLPO and their Leningrad-born conductor Vasily Petrenko bring out the work's lyricism, as well as its austerity, with formidable woodwind playing throughout. These forces won a Gramophone award for their recording of the Tenth in 2011. They could be in line for another.” The Observer, 28th April 2013

“The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Vasily Petrenko plays with great purity” Financial Times, 27th April 2013

“for sheer volume, Petrenko and his forces can stand up to anyone...[he] will keep you riveted from first note to last - and while the reading is never aggressively controversial, it does consistently reveal new aspects along the way. The orchestra plays brilliantly throughout, with superlative work from the soloists (special praise due to the first oboe)... A high point in an already exceptional cycle.” International Record Review, May 2013

“The miracle of this performance is the thoughtfulness and sense of inner repose that Petrenko hears in the quieter music...the depth and rawness of unison string sound that Petrenko encourages in the searing adagio expose Shostakovich’s battered nerve ends to devastating effect...Petrenko presides over a golden age of music-making in Liverpool.” Sunday Times, 5th May 2013

“This is a big-boned, satisfying blast of a performance....Petrenko is so adept at grasping the bigger picture...There’s so much to admire here - the playing is excellent, the engineering magnificent. You’ll believe that this is one of the greatest symphonies of the last century.” The Arts Desk, 4th May 2013

“Petrenko’s performance is sharp and alert once the allegro has emerged from the shadowy transition passage. He generates excellent momentum and bit” MusicWeb International, 13th May 2013

“Petrenko draws our attention to how much of the Symphony is marked pianissimo. No one has rendered more hauntingly the hushed writing for bass clarinet and flutes...Fresh, beautifully phrased and vividly recorded - if with a touch of the cathedral about the acoustics - Petrenko's Symphony No. 7 clamours to be heard.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2013 *****

“admirers of this gifted young artist will need no second bidding to acquire this latest recording of hers, for she plays all three works with love and affection...my main criticism is the absence of any clearly defined musical leadership from either soloist or conductor” International Record Review, December 2012

“Steinbacher shapes the glorious melody in the opening movement [of the First] with great tenderness and affection and throughout the work there is a real sense of her interaction with conductor Vasily Petrenko and the highly responsive Russian National Orchestra. However the overall effect seems a little calculated...Steinbacher and Petrenko seem much more closely attuned to the emotionally ambiguous wolrd of the Second Violin Concerto” BBC Music Magazine, February 2013 ****

“There is fibre to the playing and theatrical highlights” The Strad

“Steinbacher sounds determined to rethink these repertoire staples. Eschewing the settled eloquence of a David Oistrakh, she varies her tonal projection to highlight Prokofiev's tendency to step on the throat of his own song. The verdict? Better try before you buy, although audiophiles and surround sound aficionados should not hesitate.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2013

“essential listening. Beginning modestly, melodies sweet and relaxed, the first movement then erupts into volcanic fury. The Allegro molto has biting precision, with crisp strings also relishing the passages of silky lyricism...The gypsy-inspired dances from Aleko provide a voluptuous companion piece.” The Observer, 14th October 2012

“Petrenko captures the full romantic flavour of this glorious symphony” Financial Times, 13th October 2012

“The RLPO can rarely have played with such rhythmic elan and tonal glamour than they do in this repertoire for their young Russian maestro, a Rachmaninovian to rank with the finest on disc...The scherzo and finale are played with exhilarating panache. Outstanding.” Sunday Times, 4th November 2012

“What a clever idea it was to launch this CD with the super-subtle Liverpool woodwind in the spotlight, lilting in the 'Women's Dance' [from Aleko]...there's a dash of bitters [in the Symphony] to leaven the sweetness and reveal what a lavish feast of counterpoint this epic work has to offer.” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2012 *****

“much to enjoy – the sonorous tuba entry a few minutes into the first movement’s Largo introduction, and the hair-raising climax in the Allegro moderato...Petrenko’s dynamic last movement is a success, though I would have welcomed a bit more indulgence in the closing minutes.” The Arts Desk, 24th November 2012

“Petrenko has instilled a sound that makes [the RLPO] a persuasive voice for the Russian Romantics. It is good to hear him devote so much interpretative attention to the Aleko extracts...But the chief attraction is the compelling interpretation of the Second Symphony...a performance that has a true feel for the organic manner in which the symphony is conceived.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2012

“Petrenko, generally speaking, appears to have the measure of this great work, but time and again he betrays his lack of control over the vast structure with a seeming inability to let the music move forward...[The Dances from Aleko are] far less demanding than the challenges of the Symphony, and Petrenko and the RLPO respond with delight to this rarely heard but eminently fresh and attractive music.” International Record Review, December 2012

“In the Third Symphony, which finds Rachmaninov wistfully recalling the Russia he left after the October Revolution, Petrenko and the RLPO also identify the zest, the orchestral lucidity and the rhythmic thrust that marked the composer’s later years. An exhilarating performance.” The Telegraph, 5th January 2012 *****

“Perhaps the most impressive feature of this new recording is the quicksilver dynamic fluidity of the orchestra - they are able to move from the boldest of fortissimos to the most tender of pianissimos in a heartbeat. There is an overwhelming sense that the musicians are moving as one with the same telepathic unity of a murmuring of starlings. It is mesmerising....This music - and these recordings - will last for a very long time.” Classic FM Magazine, February 2012

“The RLPO strings sound leaner, perhaps, than those of Stokowski’s Philadelphia Orchestra, which inspired the composer, but they have never seemed more sumptuous than in the long melodies of the central adagio, and their brilliant articulation of virtuoso allegro passages at Petrenko’s fast tempi brings exhilarating dividends. In this magnificently played account, the stature of the music is never in doubt.” Sunday Times, 15th January 2012

“The RLPO play magnificently...There is surging energy here allied to lucidity of orchestration and rhythmic impetus, together with that infallible sense of instrumental timbre that Rachmaninov possessed. The lyrical elements...are conveyed with heartfelt affection without resorting to any heart-on-sleeve excess.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2012

“Simon Trpceski, Vasily Petrenko and the RLPO bring understanding and instinct to their performances, and take to heart the different temperaments that each of the three works on this recording manifests...the judicious variety of touch and colour, and ability to reveal important details of the music, combine with an expressive maturity to make these performances utterly compelling.” The Telegraph, 16th June 2011 *****

“The virtuosi Macedonian Simon Trpčeski and St Petersburg-born Vasily Petrenko combine in taut, poetic performances with notably coruscating brass playing from an RLPO on impressive and expressive form.” The Observer, 26th June 2011

“Trpceski captures the music’s protean mood switches to perfection, his mercurial fingers dashing off the vivace flourishes of the outer movements and the most brilliant Paganini variations with insouciant bravura and brio...These performances are a meeting of dazzling musical minds, offering an untraditional approach that never sounds wilful, attention-seeking or eccentric.” Sunday Times, 3rd July 2011 *****

“Trpceski relishes Rachmaninov, thrilling his audience with virtuosic passages which easily demonstrate why these pieces in particular were important vehicles for Rachmaninov the exiled pianist. Petrenko maintains timing and tension, whilst never allowing lush lyricism to become stodgy or overwhelming...this is a musical combination which works superbly.” Classic FM Magazine, August 2011 *****

“[Nos 1 & 4] have never been such sure-fire crowd-pleasers, but Trpceski certainly plays them with fire and passion. No. 1 emerges as big-boned and compelling, while he plays up the leanly modernist aspects of No. 4...Trpceski is aided throughout by the unanimity of feeling produced by Vassily Petrenko's direction of the orchestra, conductor and pianist working hand in glove.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2011 ****

“Expectations are fully realised in performances of the highest order...Trpceski was put on this earth to play this music and Petrenko to conduct it...This is a riveting disc, another major landmark for Trpceski and one on which Rachmaninov finds interpreters thoroughly attuned to his emotional world.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2011

“Now there’s no need to cower behind the sofa. Higdon’s no ogre like Schoenberg...She's an audience-friendly composer who almost writes tunes and orchestrates with great finesse...Yet there’s nothing lightweight about the piece’s technical demands...Ever dextrous, rhythmically alert, unwavering in pitch, Hahn survives them with ease.” The Times, 7th January 2011 ***

“[Hahn] plays [the Higdon] with such astonishing ease and assurance that its coruscatingly brilliant writing, especially during the whistle-stop 'Fly Forward' finale, appears to float effortlessly off the fingerboard...For sheer poise and control there are few recordings [of the Tchaikovsky] to match this.” Classic FM Magazine, March 2011 ****

“The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic rises to the demands of Higdon's writing with ease...[Hahn's] reading is technically and musically completely assured...Hahn's account of the Tchaikovsky is a distinctly classical version, presenting the work uncut and without any of its traditional embellishments, privileging the work's 'pure' structure over heart-on-sleeve histrionics.” International Record Review, March 2011

“Following [the first-movement theme's] transformations is easy, thanks to Higdon's exquisite ear for orchestral balance and the supremely violinistic solo part, played with consummate conviction and accuracy by Hahn...In both works Vasily Petrenko and the RLPO stick to Hahn like glue, a fact brilliantly revealed by the close, detailed recording.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2011 ****

“Tailor-made for Hilary Hahn's cool, brilliant sound, Jennifer Higdon's 2008 Violin Concerto has the swagger of an established favourite...There's a strong Russian influence in the artless piccolo solo of the first movement and big-boned lyricism in the second. This is a vivid, well-crafted work, and Hahn is outstanding in Higdon's quasi-Baroque laser-cut figurations.” The Independent on Sunday, 20th February 2011

“Hilary Hahn's Tchaikovsky is no warhorse. Her tone remains unforced even in the most strenuous passages...Hahn's more subtle way with Tchaikovsky's melodies gives them a different kind of life, more integrated into the flow of the music...The performance of the [Higdon] concerto is splendid - confident and refined.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2011

“Both musicians are bursting with fire and seem joined at the hip in these accounts of Rachmaninov’s second and third piano concertos. Rhythmic momentum, glittering flourishes and plaintive musings: all the right boxes are ticked.” The Times, 6th March 2010 ***

“There is nothing overstated in these performances, and yet there is nothing that goes unnoticed either: the interpretative balance is precise and inspired, the thrill of experiencing the concertos played in this way immeasurable. Trpceski was born to perform this music, and Petrenko to conduct it.” The Telegraph, 5th March 2010 *****

“Both performances show an exemplary clarity and taste, a recreation, as it were, of musical utterances rather than virtuoso warhorses...The Second Concerto's opening is naturally paced, neither perversely fast nor affectedly slow” Gramophone Magazine, April 2010

“A performance of integrity and imagination, and one that reveals unexpected subtleties in music that too often seems simply to tumble from climax to climax.” The Independent on Sunday, 18th April 2010

“Simon Trpceski and Vasily Petrenko present a completely integrated conception of each work...[they] know exactly when to push the musical argument forward and where it requires a bit more poise and reflection. The results are invariably compelling” BBC Music Magazine, June 2010 *****

“Trpceski's playing combines dazzling brilliance with warmly natural phrasing with the natural ebb and flow so characteristic of the composer's richly romantic melodic lines. Petrenko's tempos are not dissimilar to Previn's and his partnership with his soloist is all-embracing...Both works close thrillingly and the listener is left thoroughly satisfied.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“Petrenko and the RLPO bring freshness to all three [works], responding sensitively and shrewdly to the romantic and dark-hued undertows of the earlier works and to the piquancy of the later one. Petrenko instinctively conveys the essential quality of soul that the interpretation of Rachmaninoff requires.” The Telegraph, 18th February 2010 *****

“Petrenko’s galvanising effect on the Royal Philapudlians continues to be documented rewardingly on disc...He achieves a wonderfully integrated blend of orchestral sound, yet his attention to details of instrumentation and dynamic is achieved without artificial highlighting.” Sunday Times, 21st February 2010 ****

“Petrenko master… of encouraging expressive phrasing in counterpoint; the woodwind rockings around the heartaching saxophone melody at the centre of the first dance are as important as the main event, and the flurries which accompany a very slowly kindled reprise of the second-movement Valse triste... make the hair stand on end.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2010

“Vasily Petrenko conducts the RPO on tremendous form in a precise and dramatic performance of both pieces, plus the tone poem "The Isle of the Dead". Worth it for the woodwind alone.” The Independent on Sunday, 28th March 2010

“The Symphonic Dances, The Isle of the Dead and The Rock all have a distinctive Rachmaninov stamp, for which Petrenko has a sure ear, coupled with a stylistic acuity that enables him to point out the differences between the later and the earlier music” Gramophone Magazine, May 2010

“the arresting performances by Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra provide a truly unforgettable triptych, marvellously played and given full-blooded, demonstration-quality recording...The Liverpool performance is tremendously compelling, and this is one of the finest non-concertante Rachmaninov CDs in the catalogue.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition