Franz Peter Schubert

“A spacious performance, enthralling and poetic: it leaves behind the world of happy Viennese music-making. Instead, we have a view of the Octet as one of Schubert's major achievments, sharing much common ground with the other great chamber works of 1824, the A minor and D minor string quartets.
The Adagio is taken unusually slowly, but without any feeling of the rhythm sagging – the effect is unexpectedly profound and meditative.
The following Scherzo is unhurried, too, yet is still full of spirit; it's beautifully poised, with each phrase convincingly shaped. There's only one movement, the Minuet, where the measured approach is maybe overdone; it's marked Allegretto, after all, and here the effect is distinctly languid. However, the romantic feeling of the first movement's introductory Adagio is perfectly captured, and the corresponding slow introduction to the finale, whose melodrama can sometimes sound like a tongue-in cheek shock tactic, emerges here as one extreme of a multifaceted yet perfectly unified work.
And the thoughtful shaping of phrases isn't confined to the Scherzo; it's present throughout, keeping us constantly aware of the music's expressive power. Even when these inflections seem slightly contentious – in the finale's main theme, for example – they contribute to a constant feeling of lively communication.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“A spacious performance, enthralling and poetic… The Adagio is taken unusually slowly, but without any feeling of the rhythm sagging - the effect is unexpectedly profound and meditative.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2006

“These artists find a greater depth than their predecessors in a work that we all think we know well. There is not only grace, pathos and tenderness here, but also a thoughtful attention to details of phrasing and internal balance...musically a most satisfying and revealing account - and a moving one too” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“a monumental achievement...Throughout the whole series Johnson in his inspired accompaniments consistently revels in Schubert's joyfully original piano writing...Few series of recordings so richly repay detailed study and all are a pleasure to return to, when the sound and balance too are consistently of such high quality” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ****

“This is an archive of glorious Lieder singing as much as it is a definitive treasury of the greatest Lieder ever composed. Those who have collected the discs as they appeared individually need not worry that they are missing anything, but anyone else with the remotest interest in Schubert's songs shouldn't hesitate any longer” The Guardian

Review of Harnoncourt/Royal Concertgebouw Schubert Symphonies CDs in Classic CD: “The playing bristles with the energy and optimism of a youthful composer aware of the symphonic heritage (Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven are regularly alluded to in passing), but already speaking in a clear, individual language of his own. [The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s] playing throughout the cycle is extraordinarily sensitive to Harnoncourt’s direction. … Dramatic performances of the two ‘mature’ symphonies … set the seal on what is undoubtedly the Schubert symphony cycle of the 1990s.”

“They look beyond the printed page...and gift all listeners with illuminating interpretations.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2012

“‘In this well-chosen selection of Kreisler playing his own pieces and arrangements, the performances are as magical as ever and the original sound quality is very well brought out in the excellent transfers.” Gramophone Magazine

“Few discs of favourite Schubert songs match this for sheer beauty...[Bostridge] offers fresh revelation in even the best-known songs” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ****

“A voice more for Schöne Müllerin than Winterreise, Bostridge's fresh, buoyant, beautifully articulated tenor suits these Lieder perfectly. The literary and musical impulses are in perfect equilibrium, and Drake's rapport is absorbing.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2006 ****

“Klemperer always declared that the Vienna Philharmonic was his favourite orchestra. On the strength of these performances, most of them recorded on his last visit to the Austrian capital, the feeling seems to have been mutual. The Jupiter… is a reading as fully integrated, alert and sensitively contoured as one could ever want with - as in the Bruckner - control of structure of the essence. The two Beethoven symphonies enjoy the same faithful and open recording and benefit from superb playing. Schubert's Unfinished receives...a searing interpretation, as is - in a lighter vein - the fully energised, impassioned Don Juan (amazing from an 83-year-old) in the same programme, again wonderfully recorded.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2005