"Spätestens beim "Marsch aus den drei Orangen" von Sergei Prokofjew bekommt man einen Eindruck von der virtuosen Spielfreude dieser beiden jungen Musiker ... Mit Rachmaninows Sonate op. 19 beginnt das Album ... Leidenschaft, Zartheit, das tiefe Gefühl - alles hat in diesem Wunderwerk russischer Kammermusik seinen Platz ... [mit] eine beeindruckende Klavierstimme, die Alexander Panfilov temperamentvoll ausführt ... Die Sonate op. 40 von Dmitri Schostakowitsch ... Die beiden Musiker sind auch bei dieser intellektuellen Musik bestens aufeinander abgestimmt".
BBC music magazine
2020 February
By
By
David Nice
2020 February
"In Alexander Panfilov, cellist Christoph Croisé has a pianist who can match him for soulful, scrupulous introspection but who also guides the big outbursts and then turn to a darker cast of thought. They're in perfect balance ... The Rachmaninov is more of a curate's egg ... Sound is full and vivid, though the pianist briefly overpowers the cellist in Rachmaninov's second movement ... The high jinks offered [in the shorter tracks] are delicious".
The gramophone
2020 February
By
By
Richard Bratby
2020 February
"Christoph Croisé and Alexander Panfilov's 'Russian album' is rounded off with three absolute zingers ... Croisé and Panfilov are by turns deadpan and suave ... Pairings of the Rachmaninov and Shostakovich cello sonatas are a growth area ... In these circumstances, the appeal of Panfilov's extrovert oldschool virtuosity and Croisé's big, warm tone and sensitively applied portamentos has to be set against the fact that the recorded balance between the two instruments in the Rachmaninov is so intractable. It's less of an issue in the Shostakovich; the sepulchral cortège ... is just one of many moments in a searching, tender and atmospheric overall performance".
