Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor, Op. 40

“it’s a delight to report that much, though not all, of the music making captured here is terrific...Tempi are swift, with pianist and orchestra perfectly synchronised...Lisitsa refuses to wallow, accentuating Rachmaninov’s jazzy boldness and dark humour...Both works [Nos. 1 & 4] need this sort of advocacy.” The Arts Desk, 13th April 2013

“Ogawa never forces the tone. She ensures that beauty, clarity and richness of sound are sustained at all costs, even in the most thunderous passages...Yet to suggest that her playing is cool, detached and uninvolving would be utterly misleading...By any standards, this is an outstanding release.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2012 *****

“the first movement cadenza, following pages of insouciant athleticism, conveys more vividly than most the image of someone trapped at the bottom of a dark well clawing their way up its side into the sunlight...The Malmo players under Owain Arwel Hughes offer acutely observed support throughout, with the important wind and brass solo writing subtly highlighted to gratifying effect.” Gramophone Magazine, October 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

“If judicious sensuality is indeed on vital quality that manifests itself in [Andsnes's] new recording with the LSO and Pappano, another is the impressive physicality of the performance...He, Pappano and the orchestra breathe together...If Andsnes's playing is arresting for the quantity of relevant detail that he conveys, so too is the orchestra's.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2010

“...together with his lustrous tone and physical power he brings to the Third Concerto a compelling poetic sensibility. He and Pappano are entirely as one in finding the music’s pulse, its fluxes of pace and its blend of grandeur, mellowness and bravura...This is a disc of terrific stature.” The Telegraph, 5th October 2010 *****

“emotionally subtle music-making, light and beckoning one minute, steely with tension the next...the orchestra’s lyrical flow is the first thing you notice as the Third Concerto begins. Pappano might not be conducting opera here, but he can’t help bringing out the music’s song or revealing its heart.” The Times, 15th October 2010 ****

“There's no disputing the high standard of Leif Ove Andsnes's pianism in both these concertos, among the most technically demanding in the repertoire – nor the equal brilliance with which Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra partner his performances.” The Guardian, 21st October 2010 ****

“[Andsnes] manages to make the first movement sound more sinister and wayward than most of his rivals, yet he's in his element in etching the filigree and fioriture of the highly-decorated solo part in the slow movement” BBC Music Magazine, December 2010 ****

“The passion burns from within in this incendiary account...The amplitude of his melodies, the rich scoring and the insistent Russian melancholy are most potent when kept under control. The poetic, muscular Andsnes, sensitively and glitteringly accompanied by Pappano and the LSO, does just that.” The Observer, 31st October 2010

“You don't really get indulgences and histrionics from Andsnes - he leaves much of that to conductor Antonio Pappano...What Pappano and Andsnes do so well together is pace both pieces and tell the musical stories...In few other recordings does the opening to the Fourth's Allegro sound so hypnotically tight and magical” Classic FM Magazine, December 2010 *****

“Technical challenges are shaken off like rainwater, subtler sections are given the requisite grace and poise, and everything else in between is a joyous blur.” Daniel Ross, bbc.co.uk, 2nd November 2010

“just as rippling and brilliant as his 1995 live recording with the Oslo Philharmonic but even more rhapsodic and searching.” New York Times, 26th November 2010

“From the start [of the Fourth Concerto], they pace things superbly: the opening piano theme...has a sweeping nobility that is hugely impressive, and the detail Pappano finds in the orchestral writing is no less remarkable. Best of all is the clear-sighted sense of direction that soloist and conductor project throughout this work - making a formidable case for it.” International Record Review, December 2010

“Sudbin's playing is vivacious” The Guardian, 27th November 2009 ***

“It is a huge asset to have a pianist of Sudbin’s stature and sensitivity championing music that can lie unpardonably overlooked by the wayside... Sudbin’s compelling performance... gives new life to a version [of the Rachmaninov] that has a breadth and passionate dynamism all its own.” The Telegraph, 23rd November 2009 *****

“…exhilarating, barnstorming, spine-tingling performance [of the Rachmaninov]… Sudbin… stresses the work's connection to… Medtner's… Second Concerto… Sudbin… sets his individual stamp on this rhythmically vital and superbly constructed score. BIS's recording is absolutely outstanding. The North Carolina Symphony play as if possessed...” BBC Music Magazine, January 2010 *****

“…Sudbin's relatively low-key playing, never leaves you in doubt of his musicianship and dexterity.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2010

“A superb recording in an excellent acoustic and with the absolute top-flight of orchestral conductors. Buy it and enjoy - you won't regret it.” MusicWeb International