“…Puritans, prigs, and prudes need not apply, but for all those not ashamed to leave their inhibitions at the door and to acknowledge their pleasure-seeking impulses, listening to Lyapunov is like taking a bath in Russian chocolate. And Shorena Tsintsabadze is the lady of the banya . Even if you already acquired the Milne as part of the Hyperion collection, I’d urge you to acquire this new Naxos. Timings-wise, Tsintsabadze and Milne are so close to each other that the few seconds’ differences between them in all three works are so slight they’re negligible. But in the crucial areas of interpretation, orchestral playing, and impact of recording, Tsintsabadze, Yablonsky, the Russian Philharmonic, and Naxos are the clear winners.
Shorena Tsintsabadze, in contrast, is Russian through and through. She was born in Moscow, studied at the Moscow Conservatory, and then in the U.S. with Oxana Yablonskaya. Lyapunov is in her blood, and you can hear it in the way she brings out the Russian idioms in this music derived indirectly from native folk melody sources. One has the feeling that these works have special meaning for her…”