Shostakovich: Music for viola & piano

"Power's performance is particularly engaging in the witty, sardonic middle movement...if not the very last word on the Sonata, this is still a finely played programme that can be recommended with confidence." (Gramophone)

"Such is the extraordinary nature of this sonata that it does not respond to any kind of superficial treatment, and Power's performance is, on balance, the most penetrating I have heard...in the Op. 147 Sonata Power is to be preferred above his rivals: there is an 'inner' feeling to his playing (and to that of his partner) which his competitors do not quite equal" (International Record Review)

"Lawrence Power and Simon Crawford-Phillips find a much greater variety of resonances in the score than is often the case. They embark on a musical narrative of epic proportions...For the most part, however, Power and Crawford-Phillips place most emphasis on the more grotesque elements of the writing, as if to suggest the composer recapturing the energetic satirical style of his earlier career." (BBC Music)