Denis Kozhukhin "is clearly a formidable pianist with strong interpretative ideas to match his fine technique", said the Guardian of his debut recording of Prokofiev’s three ‘War Sonatas’. "A stunning tour de force" said the BBC Music Magazine reviewing the same CD, "I’ve never heard so much revelatory detail in Prokofiev’s triptych of dark and painful masterpieces. Kozhukhin has a way of bring out the details of the inner parts, or even a usually inconsequential – seeming bass line, that highlights the drama instead of detracting from it…"

For his second Onyx CD, Kozhukhin turns to Joseph Haydn, whose piano sonatas have been unjustly neglected and yet contain some of his most forward-looking music. In the selection here, the worlds of gallant classical style rub shoulders with sturm und drang, and in the D major work the influence Haydn had upon his wayward and headstrong young pupil Beethoven is clear.