Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice

“Queyras's honeyed tone is breathtaking, while Tharaud's accompaniment is a model of delicacy and thoughtfulness. A ravishing recital.” The Independent on Sunday *****

“a masterstroke of programme planning” Gramophone Magazine

“The aristocratic duo of Queyras and Tharaud give a subtle, serious performance, unusually wide in its range of expression and colour… enjoy the duo's wonderfully imaginative performances, whether in the eerie, evanescent Webern miniatures or Berg's unique mix of yearning Romanticism and Expressionist violence.” The Telegraph

“This is Matthew Wadsworth’s finest release to date … a gem of an album, which exudes intelligence, sensitivity and sheer class … A richly painted recital that really shouldn’t be missed.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2006

“Once again, I’m impressed by the ardour and sheen displayed by the NZSO, to say nothing of James Judd’s elegant and purposeful direction. The engineering is beguilingly warm, rich and truthful.” Gramophone

“An unpretentious but original voice, natural lyricism, a language that savours of fresh air, exhilarating heights and awe-inspiring lonely spaces - it's an appealing recipe, and the New Zealand Orchestra and James Judd bring if off with ripe understanding and audible affection.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2006 *****

“The ardour and sheen displayed by the NZSO, to say nothing of James Judd's elegant and purposeful direction, is deeply impressive. The engineering is beguilingly warm, rich and truthful.
Certainly, readers with a fondness for, say, Sibelius, Barber or Vaughan Williams should find plenty to savour.
Both the captivating 1940 overture Aotearoa (the Maori name for New Zealand) and 1946 tone-poem A Song of Islands pave the way for the first two symphonies (if you like what you hear, make haste to the gloriously lyrical and bighearted Second). The other stand-out item is ABirthday Offering. Written in 1956 for the 10th anniversary of the NZSO, this score explores more astringent expression and affords each section of the orchestra ample opportunity for display.
The music combines a whiff of Tippett with the open-air manner of Copland – and there are even intriguing pre-echoes of James MacMillan's 'keening' string writing.
Sibelius's kindly presence looms over the tonepoem Forest (an apprentice effort from 1936) and the following year's infinitely more assured Drysdale Overture, whose idyllic beauty reflects the unspoilt North Island landscape in and around the hill farm where Lilburn was raised.
This well-filled disc concludes with the bracing 1939 Festival Overture and Processional Fanfare, a 1961 arrangement for three trumpets and organ of the student song Gaudeamus igitur, which the composer reworked 24 years later for small orchestra. Lovely stuff – and a bargain of the first order.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“a Beethoven Ninth of our times” BBC Music Magazine

“Vänskä offers a radical re-think of Beethoven's Choral Symphony, a youthful, brave statement, free of iconic influences. Considered in purely musical terms, his version would better fit the idea of revolution through renewal.
The opening of Vänskä's Choral, though deathly quiet, is chiselled and precise, the first tutti like a fireball from the heavens, much aided by a hugely dynamic recording. Within a mere minute or two, one quality has made its mark with maximum force, namely rhythm, tight as a drum – that, and an astonishing power of projection.
But what is really striking is the muscularity of the playing, its clipped, propulsive phrasing, quite unlike any other modern-instrument version of the Ninth. Suddenly this quirky first movement sounds like tough-grained middleperiod Beethoven, the fugal writing at its centre granitic and purposeful, the music's many calculated repetitions unnervingly obsessive. The contrast with the Bacchanalian Scherzo is more marked than usual, Vänskä again focusing the music's rhythmic profile with unwavering control. The Adagio's quiet opening is breathtaking and although the variations that follow are seamlessly interwoven, the effect is anything but rigid.
Vänskä's finale returns us to the shock and awe of his first moment, with a decisive, tight-lipped opening (the fast tempo held absolutely firm), warmly phrased counterpoint surrounding the 'Ode to Joy' build-up and then, with the unleashing of the voices, an excellent group of soloists and a well drilled chorus who sing as if they really know (and mean) what they're singing.
The tenor's March episode is fairly swift, leading to a razor-sharp fugue. And when the chorus enters, well… In a word, Vänska's finale is full of zeal.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“In the flood of Mozart recordings, this disc (…) stands out for its clarity and artistry” Sunday Telegraph

“The dialogue between keyboard and orchestra is highly developed and the quality of sound is superb” The Independent on Sunday

“Imogen Cooper's strongly projected, stylistically sensitive performance stands up even alongside such distinguished modern versions as Uchida, Brendel and Schiff. With crystalline articulation and an exhilarating range of colour and dynamics, Cooper never lets you forget that the so-called Jeunehomme (K271) is a concerto of radical extremes, both within and between movements.
In the opening Allegro especially admirable is her vocal lyricism in the 'second subject', her powerfully directed passagework and the impassioned sweep of the wonderful modulating sequences near the start of the recapitulation.
Some may feel she lingers overly in the C minor Andantino, though she always balances expressive rubato with an eloquent feeling for the long line. She conjures a new forlorn bleakness in the quasi-operatic recitatives towards the end, and rightly makes the cadenza the emotional climax of the movement. Despite odd moments of slack ensemble, the Northern Sinfonia play with style and verve.
Cooper is equally responsive to the radiant, wistful and (in the Adagio) elegiac lyricism of K488. Again she illuminates, vividly, affectionately, yet with no hint of sentimentality, the music's shifting moods and colours while maintaining a strong melodic flow. When the main theme of the Adagio returns, after the serenading grace of the brief A major episode (beautifully realised here), she enhances its pathos with delicately expressive embellishments. After this, the airborne finale keeps elegance and animal spirits in ideal balance. Anyone who wants this particular coupling will find Cooper and the Northern Sinfonia (wonderfully tangy clarinets, incidentally, in K488) among the subtlest, liveliest and most probing of Mozartians.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010