“… The transcriptions are all well crafted … Lugansky plays extremely well, as always …”

Editor’s Choice – Instrumental Section

Recording of the Month

Performance ****      Sonics *****

“…This labor of love from Nikolai Lugansky, straying from his customary blockbuster repertoire, is certainly welcome…  I found Lugansky's playing alert, stylish, and assured throughout, with an expansive resonance in the bass octaves… “

Editor’s Choice – May 2024

“… the eminent Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky has taken some of his own arrangements into the recording studio. And with stunning results.  Forget the soaring horns, shimmering strings and crashing brass and restore your ears to factory settings. These eight tracks of excerpts from five operas are not a reduction, more a resurrection of the glorious music as it came to the composer’s ears and fingers…” ****½

“This is magnificent… The Russian pianist brings out every nuance and colour in these richly Romantic scores, alongside a display of technical prowess that is often thrilling.” *****

International Piano Choice

“… Pianistically, recreatively and interpretatively. Lugansky takes us on an eternal journey, metamorphosing his Steinway into a larger-than-life orchestra intricate in texture, colour and associative imagery – wordless maybe, yet with every strand and sonority, melody and motif engrossingly suggestive and consuming …”