Shostakovich: Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok, Op. 127

“Gritton cop[es] with the turbulent high-lying opening verses [of Gamayun] before shading her voice to deliver the chilling final lines...The Florestan judges its performances extremely well...The players maintain a raw, nervy quality - this is playing close to the edge...Highly recommended.” International Record Review, April 2011

“Usually heard in 19th-century repertoire, the Trio close their recording career with typical panache...There is nothing Russian about Susan Gritton’s soprano but her English colouring still lets in plenty of heat. Superb playing throughout; they will be missed.” The Times, 30th April 2011 ****

“The Florestan Trio performs with terrific presence, precision, immediacy and palpable atmosphere. They delve beneath the surface to find and project the nuances of expression that lend these works their special flavour of soul searching.” The Telegraph, 28th April 2011 *****

“Gritton sings [the Romances] beautifully, and the Florestans dig deep to reveal the secrets of this bleak and deeply moving music.” Sunday Times, 8th May 2011 ****

“perhaps the most striking aspect of their beautifully engineered performance of the Second Trio is the surprisingly fast speeds that they adopt for the outer movements and the Passacaglia...The Florestans fully capture the youthful ardour and impetuosity of the First Trio. They are in equally inspired form in the Seven Blok Romances providig mesmerising and powerfully etched accompaniments to Susan Gritton's achingly beautiful singing.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2011 ****/*

“In the Romances, Susan Gritton is very much part of the ensemble. The command of a constantly modulated dynamic and expressive life [sic] is admirable: and I like her singing for its true, centred tone, coloured by the Russian words and impeccably controlled.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2011

“this is a disc we're going to be talking about for a long time. The Florestans make a watertight case that the Piano Trio No. 1 was alive already to the possibilities of abrupt jump-cuts between sincere lyricism and savage distortions, while the Second Piano Trio seems to hallucinate on its past lives...an intriguing choice of repertoire is played with meticulous cre for structural balance, the music's expressive soul and its timbral suppleness.” Classic FM Magazine, July 2011 *****

“Eschenbach's live recording of Shostakovich Five with the Philadelphia is a monumental reading, seeking drama in the work's gaunt architecture rather than its moment-to-moment events.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2008 ****

“formidable Ondine/Eschenbach/Philadelphia partnership” Gramophone Magazine

“The two Russian singers deliver very expressive accounts of the vocal works, Nadja Smirnov in particular effecting a beautiful lyricism in the Blok cycle. Of the two extended instrumental works, the performance of the Violin Sonata by Graf Mourja and Schoonderwoerd is especially convincing. The Second Piano Trio also receives a thoughtful rendition, with a surprising lightness of touch in the scherzo and a strongly delineated Passacaglia...” BBC Music Magazine, September 2004 ****

“Here are two CDs dedicated to some of the finest and most under-recorded song repertoire of the 20th century. Yury Serov is the presiding spirit; his sharply characterised piano playing radiating musical and cultural understanding, and his singers are first-rate.
The first volume is dedicated to the 1950s and contains several first recordings; few, if any, of the songs have ever appeared on CD before.
Much of his music from this time is marked by various nuances of cheerfulness (tentative, determined, over-stated, but never as brattish as in his first maturity). Often these seem rather to belie his true nature. Indeed, only the four Pushkin Monologues, with their topics of suffering, sorrow, imprisonment and resistance, are easily recognisable as the voice of Shostakovich, the Chronicler and Conscience of his Times. Fyodor Kuznetsov is slightly unsteady of voice here, but he still manages to convey a quality of wise, noble weariness that rings absolutely true.
It's to the enormous credit of all four singers that most of the remaining songs come across not as mere sops to authority but as genuine attempts to take on new artistic challenges.
Was it still possible to do something worthwhile with the homespun, soft-centred verses of Yevgeny Dolmatovsky? Many of Shostakovich's countrymen certainly thought he had done so, at least in respect of 'The Homeland is Listening' (first of the Op 86 Songs), since this was taken up as a signature tune for All-Union Radio and was actually sung by Yuri Gagarin during the first manned space-flight. Seemingly looking back to the tradition of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Rachmaninov, Shostakovich's two Lermontov Romances are gorgeously atmospheric and tender. By contrast his earthier Greek and Spanish Songs reflect his long-standing interest in poetry from other national traditions. Was his heart in them? Again you wouldn't find it hard to think so after hearing these fine performances.
Volume 2 gathers together the cycles from the last decade of Shostakovich's life, with the exception of his massive Suite on Verses byMichelangelo. While this repertoire isn't quite so rare as that on Volume 1, the performances are just as fine. In the Blok cycle – surely the finest songs on the disc – Evtodieva may not be the last word in subtlety, but she's still far preferable to the crude hectoring of Natalia Gerasimova on Chant du Monde. Given that the Four Verses ofCaptain Lebyadkin are otherwise unavailable, and the extraordinarily elusive Six Marina TsvetayevaPoems can currently be obtained only in the composer's orchestrated version, this disc is again pretty well self-recommending.
Altogether this enterprise is a winner. The recording quality is good, though there's a slight 'pinginess' to the piano sound.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010