Frédéric François Chopin

“Of three Slazberg recitals, pride of place must go to the last recital there of the great Hungarian pianist Géza Anda, given in 1976. This is a great occasion immortalised.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2008 *****

“Helen Callus, a viola-player with exceptionally warm tone and perfect intonation, here offers a miscellany of transcriptions. A fine collection, superbly performed, very well recorded and sensitively accompanied.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2007

“This great artist was notoriously nervous, but these last recordings, of favourite works by Chopin and Mendelssohn, capture perfectly a Romantic atmosphere which was shortly to disappear, and are most valuable and loveable.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2007 *****

“…few if any pianists have recreated Chopin's troubled spirit, his alternating joy and melancholy, so vividly or compulsively.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2007

“One could hardly call this a disc of novel Rubinstein repertoire. All the works are familiar from his studio recordings and had been under his fingers for many years. Yet there is no better way of hearing this great artist than in front of an audience.
All except the Villa-Lobos items and Chopin Etude come from performances in the Royal Festival Hall. We can overlook the less than glamorous sound and forgive the odd clinker here and there (what Rubinstein appearance would be complete without them?), for here is a pianist at the height of his considerable powers.
This performance of Beethoven's Fourth is imbued with a lifetime's experience. The Saint-Saëns, a work Rubinstein had played to the composer nearly 60 years earlier, could hardly be bettered (his second and preferred studio recording with Alfred Wallenstein was made just two months later). As a friend of Villa- Lobos we have authoritative versions of pieces he first recorded in 1931. The E minor Etude, too, was a special favourite, while the Scherzo, interrupted by applause from those who did not know the piece, is all patrician elegance.
Altogether marvellous – except for the printing of Jeremy Siepmann's thoughtful notes where the typesetter, who enjoys using the smallest possible font, is clearly a stranger to the convention of leaving a space after full stops.
Why does this label insist on such unnecessary and irritating practices?” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“…there is no better way of hearing this great artist than in front of an audience. …here is a pianist at the height of his considerable powers.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2007

“Arthur Rubinstein never failed to please. And so it is with these superb performances of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 and Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto No. 2, recorded in the 50s and 60s in the Royal Festival Hall. Well worthwhile.” Gavin Engelbrecht, Northern Echo

“This Silesian pianist, who spent most of the his life in England, made a speciality of unusual virtuoso works, such as Balakirev's Sonata. His playing sounds dated and not as spectacular as it needs to be.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2008 ***

“…this fascinating programme is an invaluable reminder of a pianist who in his heyday (1938-51, the time of these performances, and still earlier in 1928) was a luxuriant stylist who could touch off much of is vast repertoire with dazzling musical and technical aplomb.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2007