“...a magnificent, penetrating performance...Petrenko inspires the RLPO to a manner of playing and a level of emotional involvement of extraordinarily potent atmosphere, strength and poignancy...The performance is gripping and has all the hallmarks of a best-seller.” --The Telegraph, 2010 *****
“There are the makings of a great interpretation here, and at bargain price the disc is clearly recommendable…excellently recorded.” --Gramophone Magazine, 2010
"Vasily Petrenko’s Shostakovich Eighth Symphony immediately makes the rest of his ongoing cycle something to be anticipated and reckoned with. Rather than being an unremitting exercise in doom and gloom as many Russian conductors play it, Petrenko shows a remarkable sense of the architectural ebb and flow of this masterpiece. The sound from top to bottom presents the massive climaxes like no other recording does. The third movement, with a closely miked trumpet solo that almost rivals André Previn’s recording with the London Symphony Orchestra (EMI), reaches a brutally forceful climax before the music collapses into the uneasy stillness of the fourth movement. Petrenko’s ending is delicate and ethereal rather than hinting at lushness, thus emphasizing the fragile nature of Shostakovich’s faint glimmer of hope." --Fanfare, November 2010
"This may not be the most harrowing version of the Eighth, but of its type it’s unquestionably a great performance. Often this symphony consists of hair-raising climaxes interspersed between acres of nothingness. Not here. This symphony also is one of Shostakovich’s most formally masterly and imaginative, and this performance reminds us in the most compelling way. Petrenko’s flowing tempos in the first movement and passacaglia keep the music moving, not lurching, forward at all times. The 25 minutes of the first movement seem to pass by in half that time. Its opening threnody in particular has even more expressive power than usual for being phrased in long melodic arcs that never turn static.
After an aptly gawky scherzo, the toccata is as brilliant and menacing as any (with a dashingly militant central section), but it’s the finale that really sets the seal on this performance. The Eighth always is a tough piece to project convincingly, but Petrenko is at his absolute best here, pacing the music perfectly and timing the climax in such a way that (for once) it doesn’t sound like a less impressive recapitulation of the first movement—and this isn’t because its previous occurrence is underplayed in any way. Excellent playing from all departments of the orchestra plus vividly natural engineering complete what is easily the best installment of this ongoing cycle to date." --ClassicsToday.com, June 2010
After an aptly gawky scherzo, the toccata is as brilliant and menacing as any (with a dashingly militant central section), but it’s the finale that really sets the seal on this performance. The Eighth always is a tough piece to project convincingly, but Petrenko is at his absolute best here, pacing the music perfectly and timing the climax in such a way that (for once) it doesn’t sound like a less impressive recapitulation of the first movement—and this isn’t because its previous occurrence is underplayed in any way. Excellent playing from all departments of the orchestra plus vividly natural engineering complete what is easily the best installment of this ongoing cycle to date." --ClassicsToday.com, June 2010
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