"The Latvian mezzo leaves a most alluring impression, even if her delivery of the text falls fractionally short of the idiomatic, intuitively illuminating ideal. Both 'Sabbath Morning at Sea' and 'The Swimmer' in particular are endowed with an imposing, scena-like grandeur, the mood almost Wagnerian in its brooding intensity. Daniel Barenboim and his excellent Staatskapelle Berlin provide consistently poised, affectionate and flexible support ... Fallstaff launches with a playful swagger and snapping vigour that really make you sit up ... An urgently expressive, strongly characterful and agreeably compassionate Falstaff".