Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice

“Natalie Clein's opening statement is confident and clean: this is an Elgar with pace and portamento, but rather thin on poetry. The upside is the delightful selection of salon pieces at the end of this disc. In the impish La capricieuse and the touching Sospiri, we glimpse the mature, distinctive artist.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2007 ****

“Clein demonstrated the lyricism on which she’s building a solid reputation, her instrument … blossoming into a rich, burnished voice. Threads became soaring melodies, fragments made textural sense.” The Independent

“Clein’s playing has an especially warm tone and smooth phrasing; her cello treats each note with the same love, and these qualities make hers a particularly unique interpretation. Elgar’s sense of loss is conveyed powerfully under her fingers, but with a gentleness that du Pré’s tempestuous-to-the-point-of-rough delivery never gave.” Charlotte Gardner, bbc.co.uk, 14th September 2007

“A turning point for composer and contemporary music alike, Stimmung merges the serialist's rigour with the minimalist's empiricism. Barely tangible shifts between timbres, thythms, meters and words are core to this work's realisation. With their judgement and ingenuity, the recording engineers contrive to place us inside this remarkable sonic event.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2008

“In this new edition Hillier, who was a member of Singcircle when that group recorded its version for Hyperion in 1983 (CDA66115), has succeeded triumphantly in his aim of more accurately realising the effect of the piece in concert, rather than the sometimes disconcertingly in-your-ear close-mic immediacy of Singcircle's recording, superbly performed through it was. For once, surround-sound is more than a gimmick, since Stockhausen is one of the handful of composers in whose music placement and movement of sound is of the essence.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2007 *****

“one of the most gorgeous vocal soundscapes in all 20th century music. A thrilling and important performance - possibly the CD highlight of 2007 so far.” Gramophone Magazine, 2007

“Paul Hillier sang bass in the famous performances of Stockhausen's psychedelic Stimmung that Gregory Rose's Singcircle vocal troupe toured during the mid-1980s. Two decades on and Hillier's understanding of this unique piece might even be greater than the composer's own. He has objectivity on his side – a quality that Stockhausen himself squandered many moons ago.
Stimmung is structured around an electronically sustained drone that is sounded throughout the work's duration. Anchored around B flat, the drone contains the complex harmonic overtone series around which Stockhausen constructs his constantly generating sound world of rarefied timbres and ethereal melodies. He provides embryonic melodic cells and fragments of text, arranged in 51 'Models', leaving the singers to embellish this given material during the performance.
It's probably more accurate to say that Stimmung is 'realised' than 'performed'.
If this all sounds rather academic then the result is actually one of the most gorgeous vocal soundscapes in all 20th-century music. Hillier's Theatre of Voices operate at such a refined level of specialised technique that radically new expressive territory emerges. Standard vocal delivery feels superseded by loops of vocalised harmonics, tactile humming and, as the piece nears its conclusion, a catchy whistled refrain that calmly draws threads together. Stockhausen's flexi-notation blurs the supply and demand chain that usually defines composer and performer relationships.
The musicians are licensed to define the micro as they transform and deliberate over the material. They converse and explore, and an enigmatic piece-specific discipline is created. A thrilling and important performance.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“It’s one of very few discs of this repertoire I’ve been happy to play in its entirety, and then several times since. This is in part a tribute to Gombert … but also to The Brabant Ensemble and Stephen Rice … by encouraging an unusually individual and carefully balanced vocal response, he avoids the pitfalls of relentless consistency and arrided elision … there is a welcome and (in this music) novel belief in the power of voices as voices … try the sopranos halfway through Hortus conclusus es for erotic Mariolatry at its most disconcertingly sensual. Arise, make haste, as they sing, and hear this music” Gramophone Magazine

“These 10 motets are notable for their richly glowing sonorities, their disciplined counterpoints, their intensity of expression and, most of all, their careful tailoring of music to text. There’s the darkly erotic intensity of Hortus conclusus es, the angst-ridden, pentitential Tribulatio et angustia … the singing is meticulously balanced and blended, Stephen Rice shaping and pacing each work with exquisite judgement” Sunday Times

“The Brabant Ensemble’s exploration of the “forgotten generation” of composers between Josquin and Palestrina is reviving an abundance of unwarrantedly neglected sacred polyphony. Judging by this splendid selection of motets, Gombert’s neglect is particularly flagrant. In penitential pieces, such as Aspice Domine and Tribulatio et angustia, his lavish use of dissonance within a smooth-flowing yet intricately imitative style creates an atmosphere of almost unbearably intense and bitter anguish, whether contemplating a city laid waste or beseeching rescue from a foetid quagmire … these shapely and well-paced performances do full justice to Gombert’s outstanding talent” The Telegraph

“This is the first disc to focus on the core of Gombert, his motets. What we know of his troubled life and extant music suggests that he was not a 'Laetentur coeli' sort of composer, and so the opening Tribulatio et angustia is well chosen, being both one of the finest of them and setting the mood for the rest. Barely a minute has passed before the first of many dark spots of extreme and focused dissonance, yet such harmonic knots never tie up the line. Indeed it's one of very few discs of this repertoire you can happily play in its entirety.
This is in part a tribute to Gombert, who went to the well so often and never returned emptyhanded; but also to the Brabant Ensemble and Stephen Rice, who researched Gombert's motets for a doctorate. Rice believes in a largely steady tactus, which certainly suits the reflective nature of these works, but by encouraging an unusually individual and carefully balanced vocal response, he avoids the pitfalls of relentless consistency (The Tallis Scholars) and arrided elision (one-per-part groups like Henry's Eight and the Hilliard Ensemble). There is a welcome and (in this music) novel belief in the power of voices as voices rather than instrumental simulacra: try the sopranos halfway through Hortusconclusus est for erotic Mariolatry at its most disconcertingly sensual. Arise, make haste, as they sing, and hear this music.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“This is a deeply impressive Bruckner Fourth. It is one of those performances in which the reading and the realisation are of a piece: a finely considered concept which is at one with the music itself…….Where the pacing shaping and balancing of this wonderful but strangely demanding score are concerned, Van Zweden barely puts a foot wrong.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2007

“Angela Hewitt joins the equally period-sensitive Daniel Müller-Schott in performances which lead the field for performances on cello and piano.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2007

“With a perfect balance between instruments, this is playing which gives nothing but a glow of pleasure” Gramophone Magazine

“From the moment the cello starts its suave tread over the piano's gently rising bass and sustained right-hand trill at the beginning of the G major Sonata, you know this is going to be a disc to sit back and enjoy. Daniel Müller-Schott and Angela Hewitt may have substituted modern instruments for the viola da gamba and harpsichord Bach had in mind but nothing in this superb music's original character has been lost – this is as clear-textured and as vividly articulated a performance as you could hope to hear.
Indeed, it has gained much by the sheer musical feeling and intelligence that these two players have put into it, aided by extra warmth from Müller-Schott's cello (achieved without resorting to excessive vibrato) and from the delicate dynamic subtleties of Hewitt's piano-playing.
There are some memorable moments here.
Architecturally, too, they consistently get things just right. With a perfect balance between instruments, this is playing which gives nothing but a glow of pleasure, that not even what sounds like some weary tuning at the piano's top end can dispel.
All Bach gamba sonata discs need a filler, and the choice here is a sonata by CPE Bach, rather more romantically drawn by Müller-Schott and with a continuo accompaniment less well suited to the piano. But then this disc is worth your money for the JS alone.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The sheer keyboard brilliance of Hamelin’s playing is exceptional. The breathtaking clarity with which he articulates even the most ferocious passages, while unerringly projecting melodic shapes that are often obscured under welters of notes, never fails to dazzle, and the way in which he sustains the huge first movement of the Concerto so that each discursive paragraph seems a natural consequence of what precedes it is a triumph of pure musical will” The Guardian *****

“Hamelin’s playing here is as breathtaking as ever—it is hard to believe that a lot of it is humanly possible—but, more than simply a dazzling panoply of notes, it conveys a deep musical and expressive range” The Telegraph

“A performance of the Concerto of such brilliance and lucidity that one can only listen in awe and amazement. Scaling even the most ferocious hurdles with yards to spare, he is blessedly free to explore the very heart of Alkan’s bewildering interplay of austerity and monstrous elaboration … You can only marvel at such a unique mix of blazing if nonchalantly deployed virtuosity and poetic conviction … All of this is superly recorded and presented, prompting some not unreasonable conjecture: if Liszt feared Alkan’s mastery as a pianist he may well have feared Hamelin’s” Gramophone Magazine

“If you are yet to be convinced by Valentin Alkan's music, this intelligent and magnificently played programme, displaying contrasting sides of the composer's personality, is for you. As for the performance, if anyone can play it better, expect to see the devil as their agent. It is not simply that Hamelin can negotiate the ferocious technical challenges. Like a great ballet dancer, he maintains a clarity and beauty of line, so that the shape of the music is always clear and seems natural, however unnatural the demands made by Alkan. ...this is playing of the highest order in music that should be at the heart of the Romantic repertoire.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2007 *****

“This is Marc-André Hamelin's second recording of the Alkan Concerto for Solo Piano (the first for Music & Arts dates from 1992) and he now trumps his previous ace with a performance of the Concerto of such brilliance and lucidity that one can only listen in awe and amazement.
Scaling even the most ferocious hurdles with yards to spare, he is blessedly free to explore the very heart of Alkan's bewildering interplay of austerity and monstrous elaboration. In the gigantic first movement you can hear avalanches of notes given with the rarest focus and trenchancy.
And whether you turn to the finale's helter-skelter pages (with their curious Eastern underpinnings) or the baleful central Adagio, you can only marvel at such a unique mix of blazing if nonchalantly deployed virtuosity and poetic conviction.
For his substantial encore Hamelin gives us Alkan's Troisième recueil de chants where outward convention vies with that sinister and pervasive oddity so central to this composer's nature. No 3 is a near bitonal canon, No 4 a polonaise with memories of the Etudes from which the Concerto is drawn and a crazy, race-away coda, while the concluding Barcarolle contains ironic echoes of Liszt's Au lac de Wallenstadt.
All this is superbly recorded and presented, prompting some not unreasonable conjecture: if Liszt feared Alkan's mastery as a pianist he may well have feared Hamelin's.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“There's some fine music here, and Robert Plane is a persuasive advocate. …Stanford enthusiasts will welcome the bonus of his third and last Piano Trio: Brahmsian again and here given a clear recording and expert performance.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2008 ****

“Ravishing in tone and exploiting an excitingly wide range of dynamics, Plane forges a commandingly articulate alliance with the pianist… Naxos’s absurdly modest asking-price is the icing on the cake!” Gramophone Magazine

“There are wrong notes, some of the recordings are of poor quality, others remarkably good for the 1920s: what is amazing is the unfailing verve, poetry, warmth and spontaneity. Some of the playing here is hardly credible, the technique and insight together are overpowering.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2008 *****

“Here, in recordings dating from 1925-26, is the very essence of Cortot, superbly remastered by Mark Obert-Thorn. A voice from another age, Cortot was addicted to his incomparable recreative art. Every bar and phrase of these performances induces a frenzy or delirium in the listener, setting the mind and senses reeling.
Cortot may have 'discovered the opium in Chopin' (Daniel Barenboim) but he also discovered the opium in virtually everything else. His arrangement and playing of Schubert's Litany has all the poetic freedom and sumptuous tonal allure of the greatest singers and always you are made aware of his alternating simplicity, richness and intricacy of expression. Hear the cascades close to the end of Chopin's Second Impromptu and you may well agree that you have rarely heard such feline ease and facility.
The mechanics (forced out of focus in the heat of the moment) could be erratic but the technique was scintillating in a way known to very few pianists. Cortot's Liszt Rhapsodies, decked out with an array of sly nudges and winks, are as flamboyant as any on record, and time and again you are made aware of his own dictum on music: 'my secret is, I can't have enough of it'. Above all, he reminds you of Liszt's celebrated description of a virtuoso as 'one called upon to make emotion weep, and sing, and sigh. To conjure scent and blossom, and breathe the breath of life'. A wild but enthralling fragment from Chopin's First Ballade is included (a complete version comes later) and there are two versions of both Liszt's 11th Hungarian Rhapsody and Weber's Invitation to the Dance.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010