NAX 8573666; NAXOS - Germania; Classica Orchestrale per Piano Review Always under the shadow of a regime he had to support but privately feared, Shostakovich in Russia took refuge both in tortured private music and ironic public music. The two come together in this ingenious disc, which couples the two extrovert piano concertos with new transcriptions for solo piano of string quartets, including the whole of the Eighth Quartet. This introverted, depressive meditation perhaps transfers less well than the eerie Waltz from the String Quartet No 2. Pianist and arranger Boris Giltburg gives sharp-edged accounts of the two concertos: the strident First more successful than the jokey Second. Excellent support from trumpeter Rhys Owens and the Liverpool Philharmonic.**** --Observer, 22/1/17 Petrenko matches Giltburg's dashing virtuosity and subtlety. Performance ***** Recording ***** BBC MUSIC CONCERTO CHOICE --BBC Music Magazine,Feb'17 Boris Giltburg has all the fierce humour the music demands and has made his own arrangement of the String Quartet No.8 .Ft, Feb'17 /// Snap this up! Giltburg and Petrenko work superbly together. Great value for money.RECORDING OF THE MONTH /// 4* Boris Giltburg's transcription of Shostakovich's desolate and searing Eighth String Quartet comes off well, the music's numbness and rage conveyed convincingly from the hands of the arranger himself...Giltburg has also arranged the third-movement Waltz of Quartet No 2, a clandestine, then erupting, affair. Of the two piano concertos, the First, with trumpet and string orchestra, offers a fund of ideas, from intense lyricism to comic chase music, quick-change music here given a volatile and spiky outing, Rhys Owens the nimble trumpeter and Vasily Petrenko relishing the parodistic elements, Liverpool strings excelling. Giltburg also aims his sympathy and virtuosity at the light-hearted and bittersweet Second Concerto, music of toyshop delight and (in the slow movement) ravishing and eloquent melody./// In the gentler Second Concerto, written for the composer's son, Maxim, the rapport between soloist and orchestra is a joy to hear./// --MusicWeb,Feb'17 /// Classical Ear, Mar'17/// International Piano, July'17