PRESS REVIEWS (selected)
2008
June – July, 2008: Australian-New Zealand Tour as cellist and conductor, including performance of Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto.
When Alexander Ivashkin was at the University of Canterbury he generated considerable local, national and intemational interest in the cello, such is his standing as a performer, academic and teacher. It is always a treat to have him return and perform here…
Ivashkin made the most of the lyricism of the first and last movements in Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante for cello and orchestra, creating lengthy, intense phrases full of rich tone…
Ivashkin's interpretation showed this work in its best light. Patrick Shepherd. The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand. July 21, 2008
2007
SCHNITTKE: Cello Concertos and Sonatas
'Chandos', CHAN 24139. England, 2007
 GRAMOPHONE recommends… It would be difficult to imagine a more physically committed performance than Alexander Ivashkin's – here's the definite document of Schnittke's relashionship with the celloPhilip Clark. Gramophone, February 2008
A disc that critic Philip Clark calls in his review “the definitive document of Schnittke’s relationship with the cello” can make for uncomfortable listening. Properly so, as the First Concerto was composed around Schnittke’s dreadful stroke in 1985. Welcome to his uncompromising world.
Premiere of Brahms Cello Concerto in St.Petersburg (Russia)
2006
An audience with the ghost of Shostakovich
Ivan Hewett reviews Shostakovich 100 at Queen Elizabeth Hall
There have been many musical tributes to Shostakovich in his centenary year, but this two-day event was something special.
It was a series of concerts that traversed the whole of his chamber music, minus the 15 string quartets. There were also pre-concert talks and a showing of some rare documentary footage of the composer (how moving it was to see again that sensitive, pained face with the frightened and intelligent eyes).
The artistic director, Alexander Ivashkin, had assembled a fine roster of performers, almost all Russian, several of them old enough to have known or at least seen Shostakovich…
Read a full text…
Shostakovich 100
Hilary Finch at Queen Elizabeth Hall
At last, the birthday itself, and partying to celebrate Shostakovich’s centenary.
The two concerts presented two song cycles: the mighty Michelangelo Suite, sung with stentorian authority by the young Moscow-trained baritone Alexei Mochalov, and accompanied exquisitely by Dmitri Alexeev — and one cycle we had never heard before. On Sunday another young Muscovite, Marina Poplavskaya, gave the UK premiere of Shostakovich’s 1941 War Songs — arrangements of popular songs and arias originally to be played on the back of a lorry for soldiers at the front line. Violin and cello accompanied the voice — and Dmitri Sitkovetsky and Alexander Ivashkin (initiator and deviser of Shostakovich 100) brought to life the composer’s deft, evocative pen strokes as they plucked and pirouetted round Poplavskaya’s disarmingly fresh and radiant soprano.
Read a full text…
2005
Premieres of Brahms Cello Concerto in Moscow (Russia) and Auckland (New Zeland)
2004
Rakhmaninov. Complete Cello/piano Music
With R. Hayroudinoff.
'Chandos', CHAN 10095, England, 2004
Alexander Ivashkin and Rustem Hayroudinoff are both players in the great Russian virtuoso tradition, and in the Sonata the piano flourishes all come over with the necessary brilliance, while Ivashkin's tone is strong enough to sail above the most elaborate accompaniments. They're helped by excellent recorded sound, full and well defined. It's obvious, too, that both players are strongly committed to the music.Dunkan Druce. Gramophone Magazine. May 2004
World Premiere of Brahms Cello Concerto (with Hamburg SO, Hamburg, Musikhalle, 2004)
'Has cello, will travel',
By Julian Haylock. The Strad
 Read in Strad format…
Read in text only…
2003
Myaskovsky. Cello Concerto (+ Symphony No 27).
With Russian State SO.
'Chandos', CHAN 10025, England, 2002
 […] superbly played and recorded […]Calum MacDonald. BBC Music Magazine, January 2003
2002
Gubaidulina and Cello
In croce, Quaternion, Ten Preludes
'Chandos', CHAN 9958, 2001
 Ivashkin and colleagues prove persuasiveadvocates of Gubaidulina's evocative music.
[…]
Alexander Ivashkin is a fine player, unsurpassedin Gubaidulina's music.Arnold Whittall. Gramophone, January 2002
Prokofiev – Sinfonia-Concertante, op. 125
(+ Symphony No 2)
'Chandos', CHAN 9989. England, 2002
Ivashkin's purposeful account of the Symphony-Concerto matches formidable competition… his linear way with the music is compelling throughoutDavid Gutman, Gramophone Award special issue 2002
2001
 Unknown PROKOFIEV
'Chandos', CHAN 9890. England, 2001
Unerringly masterly performances from Alexander Ivashkin. Best of all is Ivashkin's gift of eloquent understatement, brushing over the strings as if he were confiding secrets to the listener in an eerie whisper. This is wonderful playingRoderic Dunnett. The Strad, August 2001
 Nikolai Roslavets.
Complete Music for cello & piano
Alexander Ivashkin, Tatyana Lazareva.
'Chandos', CHAN 9881, 2001.
The gradually expanding discography of NikolaiRoslavets has tended to suggest that this refined, sensitiveand exploratory figure, suppressed under Stalin, was in fact one of the major creative artists of the early Soviet era. These discs, concentratng on his most radical period in theearly Twenties, vividly confirm that impression... First - rate playing and recording... a must-buy for enthusiasts of the 20th-century music. Calum Macdonald. BBC Music Magazine. April 2001
2000
 Unknown Shostakovich:
Schumann – Shostakovich. Cello Concerto, op.129/126;
Tishchenko-Shostakovich. Cello Concerto No.1
With Russian State SO.
World premiere recording.
'Chandos', CHAN 9792, England.
The great Russian cellist, who makes light of the enormous technical hurdies in the Tishchenko, takes a spacious view of the Schumann, savouring at length every note in the second movement, the unfailing beauty of his tone a constant joy…David Denton. The Strad. April 2000
1999
SCHNITTKE. Complete Music for Cello and Piano
Chandos, CHAN 9705. England, 1998
Alexander Ivashkin is a first rate cellist as well as Schnittke's biographer; he is partnered here by the composer's wife in interpretations that may fairly be described as definitive.Calum MacDonald.
Hi-Fi News & Record Review, March 1999
1998
 Under the Southern Cross
New music for solo cello from Australia and New Zealand
BMG, 1999
 In every work it seems nothing less than total commitment is given, with a keen awareness of dynamic contrasts, phrase characterisation and mood.Joanne Talbot. Classic CD, June 1998
ARTICLES in Russian:
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