Petrenko brings to it the charisma, the intensity, and cardinal virtues of fluent but absolute control over both line and detail that distinguished his performances of Schoenberg's tonal contemporaries...Taken on its own terms, the set sets a modern standard for performance of this music. If it converts a few sceptics, so much the better.

The Variations for Orchestra have rarely sounded so alive and multifaceted, while Patricia Kopatchinskaja brings her boundless imagination to the Violin Concerto — a work that Jascha Heifetz reportedly quipped was written ‘for a violinist with six fingers’…A release that confirms Petrenko as one of today’s leading Schoenberg interpreters, and has given me a welcome opportunity to rediscover the great man’s music. Long live Arnold!

It’s the recording of Die Jakobsleiter (Jacob’s Ladder), the first new version of the oratorio fragment in more than 20 years, that makes this release so compelling...as Petrenko’s magnificent performance shows, the score contains some of Schoenberg’s most powerful and impressive music...It helps that Petrenko has a first-rate octet of soloists, led by the baritone Wolfgang Koch as Gabriel, but the sense he believes in the quality of every bar is inescapable.