Liszt: Valse oubliée No. 1, S.215/1

“Richter in his prime and at his best, excelling in music not central to his repertoire. Could even Liszt play better? It seems unlikely. Superb booklet notes.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2012 *****

“The Fantasy is a bravura specimen of Richter’s digital sophistication, a glittering colour-conscious exposé of Liszt’s brilliant vapidity...Bravura, élan, introspection and poetic refinement coalesce in a performance of real power...The whole programme is a feast, in fact, of Richter’s Liszt caught in live performance.” MusicWeb International, January 2013

“Lugansky's exceptional command of tremolo figuration really does have Liszt's keyboard figuration shimmering as it should.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2012 ***

“Once you have settled to Lugansky's sometimes glossy tone, it is hard not to be seduced by the playing of a natural Lisztian, as alive to textual detail as conveying a work's drama and poetry. Look no further than his bravura handling of Vallee d'Oberman, surely on of the composer's most inspired masterpieces, rising to ecstatic heights in the final pages.” Classic FM Magazine, March 2012 *****

“Lugansky's approach is a musicianly, 'contained' and modern reaction to the worst excesses and extravagances of the past. Occasionally cool-headed to the point of detachment, he is clearly intent of celebrating Liszt as above all a great musician rather than a meretricious showman. You will not easily locate a more poetic view of three of the Transcendent Etudes” Gramophone Magazine, February 2012

“The positioning of each piece maximises its unique qualities and expression, meanwhile fulfilling an intrinsic role in the overall succession of vivid impressions. Lugansky's immense palette of colour, dynamics and varities of touch are exploited to the fullest. Studiously avoiding and tendency to overplay, he creates instead thoughtful and poetic interpretations and textures that shimmer rather than dazzle.” International Record Review, February 2012

“Lugansky is a fine – if occasionally cool – interpreter of [Liszt's] work, blending lyricism with panache and just the right sense of daring, so that you're often conscious of huge technical challenges braved, then overcome...Just occasionally – in the Liebestod, and in Petrarch Sonnet 123 – you wish he'd let rip a bit more...A flawed disc, though the best of it is an absolute knockout.” The Guardian, 10th November 2011 ****

“Lugansky favours fantasy over whimsy. Liszt's ticklish arrangement of Paganini's "La Campanella" is the only rhinestone twinkler in a handsome programme. Throughout, there is a feeling of extemporisation, most clearly in the "Transcendent Etude in F minor".” The Independent, 4th December 2011

“Rubinstein's rounded tone and spacious firepower confirm his legendary reputation, and then some: Liebestraum has an unaffected depth. Unforgettable.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2011 *****

“Listening to these recordings is like eavesdropping on a gracefully ageing veteran, delighted that his fingers are still capable of coming up with the goods...[The Sonata] is played here with a freewheeling grace and humanity. The last few seconds are a highlight - here a miraculous, poetic unwinding.” The Arts Desk, 9th July 2011

“Liszt is not a composer one instantly associates with Rubinstein...This blistering account of the E flat Concerto, recorded in Carnegie Hall when Rubinstein was in his late sixties, might change that perception...the playing crackles with the drama and energy of a live performance.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2011

“For sheer virtuosic panache and the ability to translate Liszt's ever-changing moods, Leslie Howard must be heard” Hi-Fi News

“This richly varied recital shows Liszt in many guises: as religious visionary, prophet, lyricist and epic teller of tales. And Lilya Zilberstein, an imperious virtuoso to say the least, is fully equal to the many and various challenges. Her all-Russian command can be properly engulfing in the rhetorical storms of the Fantasia and Fugue on the name B-A-C-H , particularly when, as John Ogdon so aptly put it, the music appears capable of carrying the very heavens on its back” Gramophone Magazine