«Il faut louer Marc-André Hamelin pour la finesse de ces exécutions très virtuoses, et surtout le remercier de permettre cette plongée au cœur de ce jeu de références et emprunts musicaux qui avait cours parmi les plus grands compositeurs romantiques» (Répertoire, France)

‘No need to worry about technical issues when Marc-André Hamelin attacks these Liszt transfigurations with all the brilliance in the world’ (Pianist)

‘It would be superfluous to recommend this – each new album by Marc-André Hamelin is a self-commending event’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘Dexterity here to make ears flap; but then, we are used to this from Hamelin’ (Gramophone)

‘More unbelievable pianism from Hamelin’ (Classic FM Magazine)

‘Marc-André Hamelin’s technical mastery is legendary … all in all a remarkable disc and certainly not to be missed’ (International Piano)

‘A brilliantly successful recital’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘A technique that leaves one open-mouthed with wonderment … the delicate filigree of his rapid chromatic scales is as witty as his scales in tenths and double octaves are awesome’ (The Sunday Times)

‘Hamelin is a musician of intellectual rigour, for whom playing all the notes better than almost anyone else is just the start. The Liszt Sonata is a veritable Becher's Brook for pianists but he sails over it with ease, showing that this music has depth as well as superficial glitter … this is one of the most penetrating Liszt recitals to have emerged in several years’ (The Mail on Sunday)

‘The world isn't short of pianists with an ultra-fluent technique. Even so, Marc-André Hamelin is a phenomenon: such rippling evenness of tone, flawless clarity, and rapid-fire precision together suggest something of what contemporary accounts tell us Liszt's own playing was like’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Even amidst the plethora of fine pianists currently performing, Marc-André Hamelin has established a formidable reputation at so many levels, in terms of musicianship, of virtuosity and technical prowess … needless to say, Hamelin's performance of Liszt's Piano Sonata yields nothing in transcendental virtuosity, even by comparison with the likes of Argerich's barn-storming account for DG … Hamelin's double octave passagework is almost clinical in its brilliance, in tone and evenness, while the right-hand octave passagework that precedes the coda is truly tumultuous in effect … a very formidable release which I can wholeheartedly recommend’ (International Record Review)

‘Hamelin gives a cogent, dramatic account of the B minor Sonata, drawing on Liszt’s virtuosity in terms of tonal variety and technique to capitalise on the sonata’s shifts of mood. Liszt’s expressive spectrum is cleverly explored in the companion pieces as well, Hamelin using both power and poetry to underline his gifts as a Liszt exponent’ (The Daily Telegraph)