“The power this performance accumulates at the climaxes of the second and third movement is lacerating; the men’s choruses may not sound totally Russian, but Alexander Vinogradov is a superb bass soloist, and Vasily Petrenko is as good at gloomy introspection as he is at brittle confrontation” The Observer, 5th Observer 2014 *****

“Petrenko’s nose for characterisation and his often startling attention to the dynamics of the piece make it feel not counterfeit at all but rather something he made earlier in his home city of St Petersburg…[Vinogradov] deploys his haunting head voice to poignant, almost unearthly effect.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2014

“Choral shortcomings apart, this makes a fine epilogue to Vasily Petrenko’s magnificent Liverpool Shostakovich cycle…Alexander Vinogradov is the finest bass interpreter here since Sergey Alexashkin, with a lithe freshness all his own…do investigate Petrenko’s unexpected subtlety and lightness.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2014 ****

“With Petrenko’s ear for detail and his instincts for symphonic shape and dramatic flux, this is a disc that stands comparison with the generally acknowledged classic 1962 recording by Kirill Kondrashin (recently re-released on Praga), and it does so with pungent emotional force.” The Telegraph, 10th November 2014 ****