they make a compelling duo. Grigorian’s singing is pristine, athletic, strong, less formidably impassioned than the never-to-be-replicated Galina Vishnevskaya, but she has delicacy and tenderness, too...As Grigorian’s last phrase hangs in the air, the heart stands still.

Grigorian is utterly compelling throughout. Even on disc, without the visuals, you can hear how Grigorian lives and breathes each song...Pianist Lukas Geniušas is an equal partner dramatically.

The white-hot charisma which the Lithuanian soprano brings to roles like Salome and Jenůfa registers just as forcefully in the studio as it does on stage, to the extent that every one of these songs really does feel like an opera in miniature - and Geniušas matches her for sheer magnetism at every turn (check out the postlude of 'What Happiness' for a taster).

Her selection...brings out the visceral quality and dramatic expressiveness of her singing. Geniusas is equally transported by this most pianistic of composers. Some have questioned whether Grigorian is apt to sacrifice purity of tone for emotional attack, but that seems overly nitpicky when you witness the power she displays here

Her tone at its fullest, all velvet-wrapped steel, gleams with enough edge to cut through anything a full-throttle Rachmaninov piano part can throw at it, and Geniušas does not give the impression of holding back...Quieter passages bring hints of vulnerability and a more convincing tenderness than most singers of Grigorian’s power can summon without the voice losing its poise.