REVIEW:

While Spartacus will probably never replace Gayane in the affection of the general public, it remains a colorful and exciting score in the composer’s characteristic style. In reviewing the complete score played by the Bolshoi under Algis Zhuraitis (IMP), Lawrence Hansen was pleasantly surprised how much good music the complete ballet has...Zhuraitis’s familiarity with the score gives the music a coherence, drama, and compactness most recordings of the suite lack. On Capriccio Michail Jurowski’s Berlin players lack the sheer Russian character of the Bolshoi, but his smoothly blended strings and healthy vigor have much to recommend them.

-- American Record Guide

Pianist Tzimon Barto’s international breakthrough came when he appeared at the Vienna Musikverein and the Salzberg Festival in the mid 1980’s. Since then, he has performed with nearly every major international orchestra, and here performs J.S. Bach’s “Goldberg Variations”, one of the most important examples of variation form.