"The world was in turmoil in 1942, with much of Europe under Nazi occupation. All three works on this remarkable album were begun that year, and two of them are products of this dark time ... New Zealand-born violinist Benjamin Baker and Hungarian pianist Daniel Lebhardt are superb partners with a rare passion and energy"

"The New Zealand-born violinist is joined by his regular recital-partner for his Delphian debut, which features three works whose gestation began in the same turbulent year: Copland’s Violin Sonata (described by Virgil Thomson as ‘one of its author's most satisfying pieces’ after its 1944 premiere), Poulenc’s sonata in memory of Federico García Lorca, and Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata No. 2, reworked from his Flute Sonata at the behest of David Oistrakh"

"We expect oracles from composers in ominous times. Here are three composers who preferred to bury their heads in scores. It is the interpreters, Benjamin Baker and Daniel Lebhardt, who bring out the terrors and anxieties that rumble beneath these works. Both are brilliant artists of independent mind and prodigious technique, one a New Zealander, the other Hungarian. Their Edinburgh recital was recorded last summer in the thick of the Covid pandemic. Different time, different crisis. This is a wonderfully timely album"

NORMAN LEBRECHT - La Scena Musicale

★ ★ ★ ★

"Taken on its own terms, this is an extremely good programme: three significant sonatas, all of them born in 1942 and all reflecting, in one way or another, a world at war ... a useful, stimulating and well-recorded means of learning some fine chamber music from a difficult period"

"Baker’s playing is agile and unforced, giving rein to the music’s lean lyricism ... Poulenc’s sonata, written at the behest of the violinist Ginette Neveu, who gave the premiere, is expansive and dramatic in comparison. The central Intermezzo is characterised by extended double-stopping, perfectly placed by Baker. In the presto finale, Lebhardt gracefully lets rip, while the violinist skitters fearlessly in rapid trills, runs and pizzicato ... This young duo’s first recording on Delphian deserves every success"