DVD Video, Staatskapelle Berlin (orchestra)

The camerawork here is strong, bringing the viewer into the most interesting sections of the orchestra at any given moment and doing so in a particularly musical fashion. For Barenboim and Boulez,... — Gramophone Magazine, September 2011 More…

a reading entirely without frills or artificial drama: as well as its innate Romanticism Barenboim allows the underlying elemental nature of the music to emerge, and at times seems almost to... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2013, 5 out of 5 stars More…

The work, the conductor, the orchestra are all shown in the best light. It is the kind of experience that has you sitting afterwards, for a long time, wondering at the greatness of what you... — BBC Music Magazine, April 2015, 5 out of 5 stars More…

the Berlin Staatskapelle rises to the challenge magnificently. Quite simply the playing is awesome, not just in terms of its technical excellence, but also in the great subtlety of nuance and... — BBC Music Magazine, Christmas Issue 2013, 5 out of 5 stars More…

The performance is grand without being portentous, impassioned but never febrile, and is distinguished by a poised musicianship in the finest classical tradition. The DVD filming, like the playing,... — Financial Times, 18th April 2015, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Barenboim's approach to both concertos deals in the monumental rather than in quicksilver Romantic scintillation. The Second Concerto's broader idiom duly comes off best, with moments of impressive... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2012, 4 out of 5 stars More…

An impulsive first movement with forensic attention to the grim reapers of the wind section…and a series of scarifying climaxes, the last and biggest of which is truly a ride to the abyss…[this]... — Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2016 More…