“Recorded in collaboration with Polyhymnia that specialises in high-end recordings of acoustic music, the Pentatone Classics team has produced yet again a disc that captured both artistic and acoustic excellence. But the selling point here is a soloist who offers her unpretentious coloring to Russian gems.”

Patrick P.L. Lam

“What a relief it was to come to Sa Chen’s intensely felt but textually respectful performance on this disc. Far from diminishing the effect of the music, her sensitive approach enhances it…. Sa Chen presents a powerful counter to Horowitz’s declaration that Pictures was “ineffectually written.” She makes Pictures much more than a vehicle for virtuoso display.
The other pieces are equally fine. Sa Chen creates a pleasing suite out of six of Rachmaninoff’s opp. 33 and 39 Etudes-Tableaux, emphasizing a lyricism, wistfulness, and humor in these works that I have not heard so clearly before.”

Ronald E. Grames
 

“Sa Chen, the native of Chungking, China who is now the sensation of concert halls in three continents, shows why in her latest PentaTone release as she works her way through repertoire that plays to her strengths: namely, her sense of rhythm and, especially, her feeling for all the bold, sonorous qualities that a piano is capable of producing.”

Dr Phil Muse

“Her performance is simply outstanding. I can not imagine a significantly better, more appropriate or powerful performance than that vividly presented here. At the same time she beautifully gives full measure to the lyrical passages. To top it all off, PentaTone’s recording team gives us a nearly perfect audio presentation and performance. It does not matter where it was recorded, the SACD layer places listeners about a third of the way back from the piano in a relatively small orchestral hall with excellent acoustics.”

Karl Lozier

"...What a relief it was to come to Sa Chen’s intensely felt but textually respectful performance on this disc. Far from diminishing the effect of the music, her sensitive approach enhances it."

Robert Carl