"Orchestral choice: In this performance, magnificently delivered by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and captured in clear yet opulent sound, Bychkov's attention to inner detail effectively enhances the work's emotional intensity ... Particularly illuminating is his approach to the much-maligned fugue which is shorn of its customary academic propriety, and instead manifests a kind of hell-for-leather drive akin to Berlioz"

"The epic expansiveness of the Manfred Symphony suits Bychkov's operatic tendencies perfectly. He clearly relishes the music's moments of grandeur, over-the-top rhetoric and dramatic coups, and the Czech orchestra responds with playing of tremendous character"

"There is, of course, the abiding warmth and humanity of the Czech Philharmonic where expressivity always trumps spectacle, where phrasing relates to sound in ear-catching ways and the reasons the notes are these in the first place rightfully take precedence over their cosmetic effect ... Bychkov has his finger on the pulse of this music in a way I haven't heard since the likes of Mravinsky ... and Markevitch"