certainly plenty to intrigue and enthral." – Rob Barnett (MusicWeb) "Gentle Emanation is in 28 continuous episodes and three sections. The music flickers and pounds like a huge metal stamping machine. There's more than a touch of Messiaen's wildness about this and those shivering Scriabinisms, already commented on in the symphony On the Threshold of a Bright World, are also present. Tristia II was written to mark the sixtieth birthday of Vladimir Ashkenazy. It's highly unconventional and the first and last tracks incorporate Nikolai Gogol's supplicatory prayer to some angel-custodian, here voiced at quarters close and warm by Mikhail Philippov. Very knowledgeable notes." – Rob Barnett (MusicWeb) "With Currentzis the [Symphony] is interpreted by a conductor who sees Artyomov as the 21 st century's Bruckner. Correspondingly he develops the piece with intensity and effectiveness for its whole duration. The emphasis of this composition {Tristia II] however, is on the piano part, which blends naturally in the orchestral movement. The Russian national orchestra is an established, successful body which devotes itself expertly to Artyomov's work. With Ponkin and even more so with Currentzis they found conductors, who are able to shape the large forms and create tension which persists. Pianist Kopachevsky mastered the piano part with excellence." (awarded 5 stars) – Uwe Krusch (Pizzicato) "Impressively annotated, impeccably produced, neatly packaged.. The music in both these CD's and the composer deserve wider exposure outside Russia. Artyomov's music is mystical, Russian at the core. He is a master of orchestral writing and of unusual instrumentation. Many of his melodies have their roots in old Slavonic chant. A most unusual talent whose day has yet to come insofar as the American concert-going audience is concerned." – Rafael de Acha (Rafael Music Notes) "This large-scale work—with its huge dynamic range, its bouts of gnarled Bergian harmonies, its vehement percussion outbursts, its anguished strivings, its Messiaenic bird-chattering in the woodwinds, its Schoenbergian flutter-tonguing—is far closer to neo-Expressionism than it is to anything by the so-called New Spiritualists. Tristia II ... is shorter, gentler, and more hypnotic, a piece that's apt to whisper as often as Gentle Emanations is to scream. Both works get what sound like committed performances—and the sound is no obstacle." – Peter J. Rabinowitz (Fanfare) "This symphony (Gentle Emanation) is unmistakably serious and spiritual, and its many colorful or even exotic details (for example, the almost Middle Eastern wind writing in Episode 5,