“Never have I heard lovelier tone from any viola,” wrote Gramophone of the programme of Schubert, Schumann, Bruch and Enescu heard in this extraordinary 9-CD compilation of Yuri Bashmet’s complete RCA recordings. “As an artist he breathes life into every note. This is immediately apparent in Schubert’s ‘Arpeggione’ Sonata … In Bruch’s Kol nidrei, no cello could sing out the old synagogue melody with more plangency than Bashmet’s viola.” In a later issue, Gramophone, referring this time to his Walton-Bruch coupling, exclaimed, “With Bashmet at his finest, and the LSO playing beautifully for both Järvi and Previn, this is a disc for anyone with a taste for romantic viola music.