The Times

'Shostakovich's prodigious, youthful satire—composed when he was only 21—has been assiduously championed by Gergiev&nsbp;… Recorded under studio conditions in the Mariinsky's brand new concert hall, this version is notable for the brilliance of the orchestra's playing and the idiomatic delivery of the Gogol-based text by a new generation of Mariinsky voices. Both Vladislav Sulimsky as the noseless collegiate assessor, Kovalev, and Sergei Semishkur as his errant appendage perform with panache