Vasily Petrenko

this second half of his Tchaikovsky symphonies cycles thrusts home for me a singular skill of his: the ability to build a long line over a substantial period of time. It happens to the generous... — BBC Music Magazine, April 2017, 4 out of 5 stars More…

The Tenth is a symphony into which many have been tempted to read parallels with Shostakovich's life...The refreshing thing is that Petrenko treats it as a great symphony in its own right...All... — BBC Music Magazine, December 2010, 5 out of 5 stars More…

This warmly recorded version not only goes to the top of the tree as the most satisfying account of Zemlinsky’s score in the current catalogue, but also trumps its closest rivals in offering... — BBC Music Magazine, July 2021, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Alive and articulate, these three performances remind us that it’s just as possible to be stunned by an original interpretation of a familiar symphony (the Fifth) as it is to be refreshed by... — BBC Music Magazine, October 2016, 5 out of 5 stars More…

This is top-quality sound and playing - at bargain price, too. — BBC Music Magazine, November 2008, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Petrenko’s preference for slow tempos over flexible drama might make for fidgety audiences in the concert hall…It just about works on CD, and then all hell’s let loose in perfectly-balanced... — BBC Music Magazine, February 2019 More…

Petrenko draws our attention to how much of the Symphony is marked pianissimo. No one has rendered more hauntingly the hushed writing for bass clarinet and flutes...Fresh, beautifully phrased... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2013, 5 out of 5 stars More…

[In the Rossini/Respighi] Petrenko has the idiosyncratic fun of a true ballet master...Petrushka, though, remains the selling-point. If not quite the most vivid throughout, it too has original... — BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2020, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Curiously, perhaps, it’s the interpretation of the less well-known and distinctive symphony which wins this disc its five stars...Although the bittersweet bucolics of Myaskovsky’s 27th could... — BBC Music Magazine, August 2021, 5 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 4 out of 5 stars (Recording) More…

Petrenko is the ideal interpreter for this ripe overheated music…The Oslo Philharmonic responds with brilliantly incisive ensemble…Gerstein makes the most of Scriabin’s poetic writing with some... — BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2017, 4 out of 5 stars More…