Daniel Barenboim

“[...] quite wonderfully played by the Berlin Staatskapelle, one of the great German orchestras which obviously has this music in its blood.”(Hugh Canning, International Record Review, March 2000)

“The orchestra plays with wonderful energy and unanimity to create a meaty, vivid sound. Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony was conveyed as an almost unbroken arc of music, the tension steadily rising, and the shamelessly brassy climax of the finale delivered with no apologies.” (The Guardian)

“As the Symphony progresses … refining or shaping gestures in often revelatory ways, you become aware of Barenboim’s skill in maintaining the large-scale tension he has created. … Improvisatory, impulsive and full of extreme contrasts, [his] Dante Sonata is vividly pictorial - with almost orchestral colourings … in a word, riveting.” (Gramophone)