“The ‘War and Peace symphonic suite’ was arranged by Christopher Palmer who also wrote the notes for this disc. It serves as a compact epitome of this grandest of epic operas. One is somehow more aware of the psychological element here which adds sobriety and tragic colour to the dances.Away from the epic we move to Summer Night – the suite from the Rossinian Opera The Duenna. This music moves across five movements between a range of Romeo and Juliet-style classical dances to evocations of warm Ukraine summer midnights. The final scudding Dance (allegretto) is delectable and delectably recorded. The Russian Overture is from the years of the composer’s return to the Soviet Union. This is a canvas constantly in motion. Luxury recording too and ending in a blaze of gong and percussion.” 

"... This fine reissue celebrates one of the composer’s most cherished scores, his 1941 operatic setting of Leo Tolstoy’s massive novel. Jarvi meets the vigour of the writing with a verve that acknowledges the virtuoso calibre of the Philharmonia Orchestra. The Prokofiev hard lines and steely vivacity meet a national folk idiom head-on, resulting in iconoclastic magic.” 

“I wouldn’t be without this unless I didn’t like Prokofiev – and that is unthinkable.”