03-01-2022 Luister
"10/10 This shot is full of adrenaline and deserves the highest praise
"
06-12-2021 Music Frames
"The presentation and diction of these musicians is phenomenal, self-assured and has a convincing expressiveness"
20-07-2020 Music Emotion
"Everything that makes a collector happy. Artistically and technically speaking, this is a very nice production. The vinyl version sounds great. Especially the Stradivarius 'Dancla' on which Roth plays is convincing."
26-06-2017 Classical Ear
"It may be stark and unsparing, and darkly humorous, but Roth believes in every note and finds utmost support from the LSO and Thomas Sanderling."
29-05-2017 OpusHD
"Backed by the fine direction of Thomas Sanderling at the head of the London Symphony Orchestra, the young violinist thus offers us an SACD that contains many beauties."
25-02-2017 theartsdesk.com
"Roth does the work full justice, ably partnered by a conductor who knew Shostakovich personally. Tremendous!"
11-01-2017 Music Web International
"Roth is an impressive interpreter of Weinberg’s music, but of the three solo works, I’d prefer Kilnits in No.1 and, clearly, Kremer in No.3 – although Roth’s tight focus is a collector’s wish and the SACD sound impressive.
"
09-01-2017 Infodad.com
"The personal nature of Linus Roth’s approach to the music of Mieczyslaw Weinberg is evident as well, in a new Challenge Classics release featuring Weinberg’s three solo-violin sonatas interspersed with violin-and-piano versions of the Three Fantastic Dances by Weinberg’s friend, colleague and longtime supporter, Shostakovich."
01-11-2016 Luister
""That the mildness never becomes a weakness, is to be thankend to the violist by whom the toneforming and rythmic precision are always well balanced.""
31-10-2016 Radio 4 Diskotabel
"Diskotabel review on Radio 4 by the critical panel in De Vergelijking:
"This recording has a classical approach and a clear sound. The violinist plays very well!"
"
17-10-2016 HR Audio
""The result is a very affectionate and inspired orchestral support, turning this concerto into an emotional and memorable event, not to be missed by anyone!""
23-09-2016 The Strad
""On paper, this is far from easy music to assimilate, yet here it sounds radiantly compelling. An outstanding achievement.""
23-08-2016 The Arts Desk
"Whimsy, wistful melancholy and dry wit coexist. And, it’s beautifully held together by Roth, playing the work as if he’s delivering a series of soliloquies."
16-08-2016 WDR3 Musik
"His Music is distraught and fascinated at once; it testifies a artistic strengt, that a human also can keep the worst thing alive."
12-08-2016 Platomania
"Given that Weinberg knew his father had been murdered in the Holocaust, the sonata isn’t easy listening but it’s hugely rewarding."
19-07-2016 voix-des-arts.com
"For both violinists and listeners, even those with special appreciation for Twentieth-Century music, Mieczysław Weinberg’s Sonatas for solo violin are not easy going. This is music in which unspeakable atrocities are confronted unflinchingly, music in which one man sought answers to questions that ravage all of mankind. Perhaps these are questions with which each man must contend on his own, but few men can contend with Weinberg’s music as authoritatively as Linus Roth does in his performances of the three Sonatas for solo violin. This is not solely music making: what Roth achieves on this disc is the recreation of a solitary voice, now made intelligible to every pair of ears willing to listen.
13-07-2016 Nieuwe Noten
"Roth did great by making this beautiful pieces of Weinberg unlock for the western world, he did this with a great powerfull play that touches the listener.
"
08-07-2016 Planet Hugill
"" [...] This disc provides us with further insight into a remarkable voice in 20th century music. [...] ""
08-07-2016 Planet Hugill
"In all three his sense of the architecture his finely sustained, especially in the last sonata."
07-07-2016 The Guardian
"" [...] the poise and intensity of Roth’s performance; the Third Sonata, from 1978, unfolds in an unbroken, nearly half-hour stretch, and Roth’s achievement in maintaining its tension is considerable. [...] ""
30-06-2016 Pizzicato
"Linus Roth, a proven advocate of Weinberg’s music, invites the listener in the fascinating sound world of the composer, where he carefully mingles emotion and intellect, so that the three sonatas become every bit as rewarding as solo sonatas from much better known composers. The recorded sound is silky-smooth as well as clearly defined.
"
15-03-2016 HRAudio
"5 star***** rating
"I could not find any weakness. Highly recommended without any reservation."
"
09-12-2015 Forbes
"Forbes Top 10 Best Classical Recordings 2015
" [...] the soloist finds just the right balance between dark and light, sorrow and twisted joy.""
14-11-2015 Het Parool
""The German violinist Linus Roth and the Argentine pianist José Gallardo bring his complete works for violin and piano.""
02-11-2015 BBC Music Magazine
"''Roth and ruben Gazarin make more of the flickers of hope than any previous performance I've heard, but the ending still feels poised on an existential knife-edge''"
01-10-2015 theartsdesk.com
""Roth is superb – his tone suitably dessicated during Hartmann's stark introduction, though there's no lack of expressive warmth when the Adagio unfolds.""
19-09-2015 The Art Desk
"["].. It's a wonderful piece, and this performance boasts stunning orchestral playing from Ruben Gazarian's Würtemberg forces.""
01-09-2015 Luister
"Luister 10 !
["].. A wonderful program, sublimely performed and provided with the best explanation I've read in a long time.""
01-09-2015 GRAMOPHONE
"['']...The accompaniments are excellent, ant it all makes for an eminently collectable disc...['']"
23-08-2015 Financial Times
"3 stars***
["].. To coincide with the 70th anniversary of VJ Day, violinist Linus Roth and the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn put together this imaginitive disc of music composed in the Second World War and its immediate aftermath.""
19-08-2015 Planet Hugill
"Intense yet relatively unknown works which deserve to be heard
The music on this disc deserves far wider currency and in Linus Roth's performances the works have a powerful advocate. Possessed of a fine-grained singing tone with a real inner strength, Roth also has the requisite technique in addition. His is superbly supported by Ruben Gazarian and the Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn.
Star rating: 5.0
"
03-08-2015 Music Web International
"" Musical history is full of magnificent torsos; works by major composers from Mozart (Requiem), via Bruckner (Ninth Symphony) to Bartók (Viola Concerto) that have been left incomplete. Nevertheless, it is a substantial coup to be able to present it here, performed by the brilliant young German violinist Linus Roth, with José Gallardo at the piano. It is quite a shock when the piece suddenly evaporates in the middle of a piano phrase. That said, it is emphatically worth hearing, both for its great inherent beauty, and because some of the themes and motifs that were later to be used in the Tenth Symphony.So this disc is an important and absorbing issue; terrific music played with total conviction by an outstanding soloist and fine supporting orchestra but that ‘headline’ quality is supplied by the tantalising Shostakovich fragment." "
29-07-2015 De Volkskrant
"""With a world premier debut on record of the newly found opening of a violin sonata that Dmitri Shostakovich started in 1945, Linus Roth has crowned his work. After a mild start of this piece, some disturbing sounds enter.""
25-07-2015 The Independent
"["].. The album opens with "Concerto funebre" by Karl Amadeus Hartmann, a mournful work in which he sought to present "truth that spreads joy and is connected to grief.""
