"The album marks a couple of lasts in Coltrane's career. It's the last time he used the soprano on a studio recording, allegedly; and with 'The Last Blues' is the last time he recorded… well, a blues."

dailyjazz

"Zimerman is after all a truly remarkable pianist, and in Rattle he has a fabulously responsive partner. The Berlin Philharmonic? Still the Berlin Phil, no matter what
you may have read about their relationship with Rattle, and this is music-making at the very highest level."

Andrew McGregor
BBC Review

Amazon.com essential recording
Schnittke (b. 1934) has been called a "magician" for his nearly magical evocation of this century's most advanced musical styles. As a polystylist, he employs any mode that suits the music. He can have stretches of atonality and harsh serialism, then launch into passages of utter tonal beauty. This is a good disc that contains those features. The Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra 2 (1990) is a tense, difficult work, very demanding for the soloist (it was written for Mstislav Rostropovich). In Memoriam (1979) was originally a piano quintet, but Gennady Rozhdestvensky wanted it orchestrated. It is one of Schnittke's greatest compositions. –Paul Cook