"Out of the Bulgarian blue comes Hristo Kazakov to throughly upset the Goldberg Variations landscape… You often hear about how significant the spaces between the music are; here is a rare example from an unexpected source, a combination of incandescent thinking and very cool playing that demonstrates the role that silence can play. The superbly clear and colorful sound, recorded in Sofia’s Bulgaria Hall, completes an unexpectedly illuminating and inspiring experience that teaches us much about what it means to play Bach."

- Laurence Vittes, Audiophile Audition

"Kazakov is preceded by many masterful piano recordings of this music [Goldberg Variations], but the marvel of his version is a crisp freshness that seems both spontaneous and thoughtful, as paradoxical as that may sound… Kazakov often surprised me with inner lines pulled out of the notes with flair and imagination."

– Peter Burwasser, Fanfare

"…pianist Hristo Kazakov is a true artist and…his performance of the Goldberg Variations — easily one of the most recorded works in the pianistic repertoire — stands alongside the finest I have heard."

– Radu A. Lelutiu, Fanfare

"Kazakov formed a great arc over the thirty pieces which never collapsed because the pianist drew forth the characteristic element of each variation and thereby placed each piece in a tension to the others. So it was that he released the huge, ironclad, repetitively ascending and descending chords of the eighth variation wonderfully into the singing lyrical ninth variation. And before the rather cramped 26th variation he upheld the calm of the minor variation Nr 25, relishing a simple accented passing note fully."

– Sigfried Schibli, Basler Zeitung, 9. März 2009 (Translated by Bevis Stevens)
[Johann Sebastian Bach "The Goldberg Variations"]

"Hristo beautifully conveyed the sombre mood of the well know first movement and the lighter, happier mood of the second. The tumultuous final movement, evocative of a storm, provided a complete contrast and an exiting finish to the first half of the concert."

– Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, January 12, 2012
[Beethoven Moonlight Sonata]