Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30

“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

“Moog’s is a talent worth watching” Daily Telegraph, 18th February 2012

“this 24-year-old German pianist may occasionally sound more relentless than giving, though the chill wind he blows through even the most lyrically assuaging passages will seem authentic to some...Less generally, Moog is at his most interesting in the mercurial twists and turns he gives the cadenzas...There may be more affecting Rachmaninov Third Concertos on record...but it is certainly among the most formidable.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2012

“Moog makes easy sense of it all, his light, glittering touch deftly partnered by Nicholas Milton and his Ludwigshafen-based orchestra...it comes as no surpise that he chooses the more mercurial of the two cadenzas options, though he can pull out the big guns at the the central climax of the Intermezzo...Moog is a pianist of transcendental technique whose future should be well worth following.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2012 ****

“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

“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

“Here, for once, is the level of artistry that the work needs...for all his seemingly endless reserves of technical power [Matsuev] never makes an ugly sound...Gergiev and his Marinsky Orchestra, too, contribute here on a level so far beyond routine that you would think none of them had played the work before” BBC Music Magazine, April 2010 *****

“...Matsuev holds that most titanic of piano concertos in a passionate embrace, lavish with his rubato, devastatingly certain in his articulation, sensitive to colour and balance, aware of how to pace and thus make coherent the architecture of this massive work.” Sunday Times, 17th January 2010 ****

“As one might expect from someone hailed as Horowitz’s successor, Matsuev holds that most titanic of piano concertos in a passionate embrace, Importantly, for all his physical power and energy, he never makes a hard sound. There’s commensurately sympathetic playing from the Mariinsky, who also match Matsuev’s deft, vibrant musicianship in the brittler Rhapsody.” The Times