‘Schnittke is Shostakovich’s successor in life, art and on this CD. Gerhardt and Osborne play the finale of the older composer’s sonata with a beautiful fluency, highlighting the cello’s running semiquavers and the piano’s pinging scales, which then reappear in the thrilling presto of the younger’s homage-filled work. There could have been more grit in Schnittke’s whirlwind, but the heart-clenching sorrow the duo depicts elsewhere, particularly in the Madrigal for Oleg Kagan, is a compensation. The programme ends lightly with Shostakovich’s Eight Pieces for Cello and Piano, which are short, catchy, childish and fun’ (The Times)

‘It's on the basis of interpretation that Hamelin earns a top recommendation here, and he's sympathetically supported by Litton and the excellent Scottish ensemble … those looking for their first recordings of the Shostakovich concertos won't go wrong with Hamelin’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘Marc-André Hamelin is a superb advocate for all three pieces—the zip and zest of much of the writing presenting no difficulty to this extraordinary virtuoso’ (Gramophone)

'A riveting performance by Jamie Walton and Daniel Grimwood … highly cultured playing, rich in enjoyment' (The Daily Telegraph)» More

„Where this work is concerned, as in her playing of much else, she has rightly been called his High Priestess“ (Piano, Germany)

‘Performances which are at once gripping through their pianistic brilliancs and illuminating through their unflinching perception. Amazing’ (Classic CD)

‘This magnificent set courageously undertaken by Hyperion, a timely document of an interpretation fashioned from Nikolayeva's collaboration with the composer at the time of composition’ (BBC Music Magazine Top 1000 CDs Guide)

‘The recording is clear and atmospheric, and the playing has power, grandeur, character, intellectual clarity and unforced intensity’ (Gramophone)

‘A performing document of inestimable importance … Hyperion should be congratulated for masterminding this important issue’ (CDReview)

‘The record that has given me greater pleasure than any other this year’ (The Sunday Times)

'Walton is a superb and unflashy exponent—there's no ego here, just consummate musicianship, excellently backed by the Philharmonia under Alex Briger, sensitive and biting in the Shostakovich, formidable and powerful in the Britten' (The Times)

'A grandmaster of his instrument is coming to maturity here, and this CD, with its technically faultless recording quality, should have a place in any collection. It deserves it' (Pizzicato, Luxembourg)