Rachmaninov: Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 19

“Mischa Maisky's has been waiting for the right pianist to record the Cello Sonata… and it is easy to see why he chose Sergio Tiempo… Tiempo's easy grace and crystalline spring to the playing provide a magic carpet on which Maisky billows and soars, and the surrounding airiness of the live Lugano recording certainly helps to make this a new benchmark.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2008 *****

“Some glorious playing from Masiky… With the outer movements, in which Rachmaninov indulges not only his lyrical outpourings but the elaborate piano textures that came naturally to him, Tiempo does well to keep the touch light so as to give Maisky freer rain.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2008

“…Kniazev is an artist who possesses great musicality, an original turn of mind and a formidably accomplished technique.” ***/**** BBC Music Magazine

“…I enjoyed the performance immensely for its sheer panache…a wonderfully warm sound.” The Strad

"superbly played" Gramophone

“Rarely can [Rachmaninov's Cello Sonata] have been recorded in a performance of such potent and poetic intensity, intelligence and clarity as that which the Scottish cellist Robert Irvine and his responsive, vital pianist, Graeme McNaught, give here. Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata is equally well done: poised, subtle and controlled where it needs to be, but appositely pugnacious, brittle and pointed in the scherzo. Rachmaninov’s Vocalise, an apt vehicle for Irvine’s gloriously seductive singing tone, appealingly separates the two works.” Sunday Times, 27th July 2008 ****

“[In the] Shostakovich Robert Irvine… and his excellent pianist, Graeme McNaught, keep the textures light… It is highly intelligent playing of an emotionally complex work. Rachmaninov's textures are also kept light, even when the keyboard writing is at its most abundant. This is a performance that says more about the heart of the work than when that heart is placed on the performers' sleeves.” Gramophone Magazine, 2008 Awards Issue