All the Press

"Ludmila Berlinskaya and Arthur Ancelle choose the Second Suite and play it very Russian, deep into the keyboards, savouring the popular hues of the Alla Marcia, singing with a somewhat nostalgic fantasy the cantabile sections of the Waltz (which they play swift like Vronsky and Babin, but with a darker sound, a matter of touch), and leading the Romance like a ballet number."

This exceptional wife-husband team made a strong impression with a Saint-Saëns/Liszt program earlier this year and they’re even more impressive on this new release, titled Russian Last Romantics. Vitality is the key ingredient here—a vitality created through sharp articulation, crisp rhythms (with especially punchy treatment of syncopations), lucid textures, confident technical dexterity, a clear sense of the music’s throughline, and (most of all) an evident delight in both the music and the act of performance. (...)
Conclusion? You’re unlikely to come across a more committed reading of the Glazunov than this one; and the Medtner makes a significant contribution to its still-sparse representation in the catalog. As for the Rachmaninoff: This is much more contested repertoire, and Berlinskaya and Ancelle doesn’t manage to wrest first place from Argerich/Freire and Ashkenazy/Previn; still, they hold their own against the rest of the competition. (...) Worth your attention.

"This is a great collection of Russian two-piano music, expertly played. (...) Berlinskaya and Ancelle have impressed me before, here their abilities shine even brighter. Booklet notes are good, sound is great, and the performance are first class"

"Following on from their previous recordings, Arthur Ancelle and Ludmila Berlinskaya approach these works with clarity and panache, doing justice to the slightest changes in climate, avoiding both the pitfalls of thick pathos as much as those of unambiguous brilliance."

"Nikolai Medtner's Two Pieces Op. 58, composed in exile in London during the Second World War, find here their reference version (...) Under the duo's expert fingers, the finesse of the polyphonic work unravels the most complex sound strings with an exacerbation of the colours of both keyboards. (...) to be acquired as a priority."

"Arthur Ancelle and Ludmila Berlinskaya are on fire once again (...) These two complement each other perfectly and find step by step a common path where they flourish in mirror. »