Chamber, Sonatas, Ustvolskaya (composer)

Here is an excellent introduction to Galina Ustvolskaya, whose direct and uncompromising style amazingly reached maturity under Stalin…Only the earliest recording really shows its age with a... — BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2017, 5 out of 5 starsMore…

Ustvolskaya's choice of dissonance and evocative chords have a precision of aural imagination which seem to bloom in ECM's empty hall acoustic. — BBC Music Magazine, January 2015, 5 out of 5 starsMore…

Schleiermacher aptly describes the most percussive sections of the compellingly performed Fifth Sonata as ‘a bloodbath on the keys’. There are also some moments of repose, but in Schleiermacher’s... — BBC Music Magazine, August 2018, 3 out of 5 stars/5 out of 5 starsMore…

These are all magnificent performances, as one might expect from these three musicians, who regularly perform together as a trio, and their sound is superbly and rawly caught by ECM's recording. — BBC Music Magazine, October 2006, 5 out of 5 starsMore…

The passion for this music is evident in the performances of the sonata and duet, the former seemingly a fist raised in defiance of the state, the latter seemingly reeling. — BBC Music Magazine, August 2019, 3 out of 5 starsMore…