‘Always a fastidious pianist, Stephen Hough conjures subtle sonorities in these tender aquarelles … Hough's elegance minimises the music's vulgarity, while he is in his element in the dreamy fantasies on themes from Roméo et Juliette and the rare La Reine de Saba’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘Even were Hough's technique less secure and Hyperion's engineering less realistic, this would be a major addition to the catalogue. As it stands, this recording of the first book of Années is the top choice’ (International Record Review)

‘It's clear that Stephen Hough has technically and spiritually digested the first book of Années de pèlerinage to the extent that he can risk personalising certain pieces without sounding the least bit mannered’ (Gramophone)

‘Stephen Hough has once again excelled himself … the impression conveyed throughout the main work is one of immense musicianship and subtlety, in which the pianist shapes every phrase to make its point, allowing distillations of shade and nuance, a performance in which the composer is allowed to speak on his own terms without any intervening eccentricities or rhetorical extravagances’ (International Piano)

‘Pianist Stephen Hough beautifully captures the requisite sense of Liszt's absorption in his self-created Romantic universe, as well as the heart-tugging emotions of his music … it's an exceptionally fine disc’ (The Guardian)

‘To play Liszt easily, you need at least three hands, but Hough, so brilliant in his recent Rachmaninov set, gets by magnificently with two … a valuable and highly enjoyable disc’ (The Times)

‘Stephen Hough handles this more intimate side of Liszt admirably, with playing of great expressive warmth … as a bonus, Hough throws in Liszt's three operatic paraphrases from Gounod, playing the fine reverie after Romeo and Juliet quite beautifully, and tossing off the virtuoso transcription of the waltz from Faust with appropriate panache’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘An ideal Liszt Sonata performance requires transcendental virtuosity, prodigious colouristic resources, a sense of drama and narrative flow and a gift for fusing both architecture and passion. Benjamin Grosvenor embodies these qualities and then some’ (Gramophone)

‘Benjamin Grosvenor conjures a brand of full and rounded keyboard sonority different from that of many of his contemporaries, and recalls the giants of an earlier generation’ (BBC Music Magazine)

'This 99 CD box, from the hands of a master, is without question the main event of Liszt's centenary year' (The Independent)

'Leslie Howard, with his gigantic 99-CD box set on Hyperion, has surely served up the biggest birthday cake any composer could wish for. Of all the Liszt performers … Howard often offers the most musical version of any given Liszt piece … do treat yourself to this monumental offering' (Pianist)

'La somme est inestimable … on ne pourra nulle part prendre Leslie Howard en défaut de technique ou de goût … sa constance, son intelligence, son brio souple cimentent un monument vertigineux, qui contribuera peut-être à évincer une bonne partie des idées reçues' (Diapason, France)