Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice

“Ashkenazy approaches the works with the generosity and dramatic sweep that has always characterised his piano playing, and his tone is as luminous as ever. But there is nevertheless something effortful about the performances, a sense that this is no longer music Ashkenazy can technically take in his stride.” The Guardian, 2nd February 2012 ***

“this great musician here returns to something like top form. These may be his first recordings of these works but they sound as though they have been in his fingers for a long time...Ashkenazy's playing of [Variation 16] is quite bewitching, yet in Var 20 he shows that he can still scamper around the keyboard with the best of them...This is his most successful disc for some time, a notable adjunct to the renowned Rachmaninov recordings of his youth” Gramophone Magazine, March 2012

“Stotijn confronts [Kindertotenlieder's] emotions with acute sensitivity, and then leaves us with the benediction of Strauss’s “Morgen!”. A connoisseur’s recital.” The Telegraph, 2nd December 2011 ****

“Stotijn's latest well-earned recital disc takes the imaginative high ground right at the start...In the booklet-notes, Stotijn eloquently explains why they travelled to Schiermonnikoog (or 'Grey Monk Island') for the shoot, and how she chose the programme. The programme matters most, of course, though all the incidentals help make this a winner. The Richard Strauss sequence has its own logic of lively versus reflective” BBC Music Magazine, February 2012 *****

“a singer whose voice and intelligence melded seamlessly with words, vocal line and whatever dramatic concert was at hand...Stotijn's vivid performances make you examine the texts anew just to appreciate her sudden burst of vocal colour ('Zueignung' goes into the Jessye Norman zone) or her onomatopoeic effects, which give the characters within the songs a near-physical presence....Stotijn is God's gift to Christa Ludwig admirers.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2012

“He's a pianist of tremendous resources, both technical and musical, possessing all the equipment to cope with Liszt's most extreme demands without ever flaunting it. He shapes even the most massive climaxes (his dynamic range is vast) with fastidious care, and much more pungent characterisation than he showed in his disc of César Franck last year...It's all the work of a major Liszt intepreter.” The Guardian, 1st December 2011 ****

“Far from being too much of a good thing, Chamayou’s survey underlines the depth and breadth of Liszt’s inspiration. If poetic imagination is the prime quality one looks for in a Liszt interpreter, Chamayou has it in spades...His shimmering “Les Jeux d’eau à la Villa d’Este” is the highlight of Book Three.” Financial Times, 16th December 2011 ****

“Chamayou (on a Steinway) offers a luminous, supple, poetic sensibility that you sense is uncannily close to how Liszt himself would have imagined and played these wondrous pieces. Chamayou's technique, while huge, is also brilliantly clear: his way with Book One's 'Orage' is a phenomenal combination of lucidity and raging Byronic power.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2012 ****

“Chamayou is clearly a superb Lisztian, and makes the sequence of 26 pieces equally compulsive and delectable to listen to. Everything should be singled out, but I loved, as ever, the wonderful free-floating inventions of the Petrarch Sonnets in the Italian second book; and who could resist Chamayou’s streamingly brilliant account of Les Jeux d’eau de la Villa d’Este, from Book 3?” Sunday Times, 29th January 2012

“one to make even the finest Lisztians look to their laurels. Hear him in the three Petrarch Sonnets, where a soaring sense of ecstasy is complemented by balzing eruptions of passion, everything engulfed as it were in restless and romantic enquiry. His 'Dante' Sonata brims over with a virtuoso savagery that dazzles and astounds...Yet even more remarkable is Chamayou's profoundly expressive response to the third and final book.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2012

“These are fresh, spirited, finely judged performances. The tempi of the fast movements never seem too quick, though they often prove faster than those of other period players, and the slow movements are superbly paced...Beyer never plays on the listener's emotions but instead maintains a sliver of detachment that, in the context of her stylish performances, seems appropriate for music that is almost 300 years old...An enormously enjoyable set.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2012

“Beyer's playing is outstanding for her consistently sensitive delivery - finely chiselled in details but always organic with a keen ear for the music's broader harmonic direction. Although it invites and deserves close attention it does not overtly seek it...Her playing is at its finest...where it is at its most self-effacing: in the ear- and finger-defying polyphony Bach frequently demands from his player.” International Record Review, February 2012

“What is so satisfying about these performances recorded at Princeton University is the overall warmth of the playing, with speeds ideally chosen and never forced, with natural rubato and shading, and with wonderfully sustained pianissimos...This is a disc that makes one want to hear the Brentanos in the other late Beethoven quartets. Anyone who fancies this generous coupling need not hesitate.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2012

“This was Beethoven breaking new ground with the first of what he categorized as his 'late' quartets [Op. 127]. The Brentano Quartet tries to emphasize the shock...It is an understandable approach, but it does sound rather overdone...The Brentanos seem more naturally at home with the great C sharp minor Quartet...It is a splendidly conceived and splendidly executed performance.” International Record Review, February 2012

“Karabits encourages the players to dig deep into the music, pounding out the rhythms sturdily, in the Tchaikovsky especially, rather than bustling ahead nervously. At 82 minutes this is a generous, as well as an enjoyable CD.” The Observer, 30th October 2011

“Strong rhythmic definition, clarity of orchestral texture and firmly controlled impetus give the Tchaikovsky a definite boost. Karabits coaxes a ripe, full sound from the Bournemouth players and encourages broad bowings from the strings that add weight to the sonority. Equally he allows for individual instrumental colours to tell..Karabits is an inspired architect.” The Telegraph, 11th November 2011 ****

“[it] has everything we expect from a Tchaikovsky interpreter of the Moscow school – colour, sweep, majesty, but not a whiff of indulgence. The Bournemouth orchestra responds with style and drive – all wind sections in superlative form – and a symphony that is often dismissed as a poor relation of its better known successors comes across as a masterpiece” Financial Times, 26th November 2011 *****

“The Musorgsky pieces are superbly performed...Bare Mountain's hair-raising opening sounding genuinely menacing rather than brash, and every cackle of the witches as impersonated by strings and woodwind brought to vivid life. Pictures, too, is a triumph, with Ravel's orchestration telling in every vignette.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2012 *****

“If there's a single distinguishing feature of this generously filled disc it's Karabits's determination to convey the grass-roots spirit of the themes which breathe life into these pieces...Characteristically, he is more mindful of the pianistic cragginess of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition than of Ravel's finesse...Karabits is big-boned and earthy, and positively encourages coarser-grained sonorities from his Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2012

“The group's engagement with the music registers throughout this important release, touching everything from the technical challenges of the second series of Strathclyde motets to the comparably demanding simplicity of MacMillan's papal Mass...The breadth of the composer's ideas and his myriad expressive contrasts, reinforced by superb singing and instrumental contributions and gold-standard recorded sound, hold the ear and invite repeated listening.” Classic FM Magazine, March 2012 *****

“Cappella Nova present illuminating performances which perfectly capture MacMillan's profound sense of the sacred, but here the sense of looking back over the centuries is especially strong...[an] essential addition to the rapidly growing discography of one of Britain's most self-assured musical voices.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2012

“Approachable without being apologetic, emotional but with a sense of dignity, the best of these works can both delight and challenge...Everything is performed with elegance and the requisite intensity, and the recordings are clear and atmospheric.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2012 ****

“Above all, this is beautiful, affecting music that is also severely practical...one of the chief pleasures of listening to it resides in the ease of imagining taking part in a performance. As with the earlier MacMillan release, Cappella Nova under Tavener's direction delivers performances every bit as luminous and attractive as the music itself.” International Record Review, May 2012

“This is an absorbing disc. It is full of interest and I admire greatly the way in which the composer responds to the words he is setting. Through his music he enriches and enhances them – as a good musical setting of words always should. We are challenged at times but it’s always accessible.” MusicWeb International, August 2012

“this disc is not just some worthy exhumation but the rehabilitation of an composition bursting with imagination and gripping drama...There is indeed something 'other' about this piece, a hint of some ancient energy that perhaps reflects how Sicily itself differs from the rest of Italian. The performers make the most of the lovely present they have been handed” Gramophone Magazine, March 2012

“the way the music seizes on all the dramatic possibilities of the text hints that it could just have been the sheer theatrical potential of the story that appealed so much to the composer...The solo voices have a reedy, throaty edge, the choral singing is robust, and there's a real energy about it all.” The Guardian, 6th October 2011 ***

“What these Schumann performances are going to take account of, apparently, is yet more newly published research into the pathology of Schumann's "madness", which proposes that he was neither bipolar or syphilitic but an alcoholic...Both the First and Third Symphonies receive agile, cogent accounts, but there's nothing to recommend them over a number of other recent recordings.” The Guardian, 1st December 2011 ***

“this [recording] shows that, when played with Mendelssohn-like delicacy and precise phrasing, Schumann’s orchestral writing can sound beautifully transparent. But despite lovely moments, there’s a coolness here that misses the surging romanticism in the music.” The Telegraph, 5th January 2012 **

“Järvi is always animated and alert to the music's expressive potential: he achieves the best of both worlds. His tempi are swift but never rushed; he runs the cursor along significant inner voices (these are extremely transparent readings), and his judgement of key musical transitions attests to genuine musical intention.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2012

“The accelerando build-up to the Allegro in the first movement of the Spring Symphony is very exciting: you can sense the life force quickening and finally boiling over. So why is the opening brass fanfare so unarresting?...The last two movements of the Rhenish Symphony are also very compelling: the sense of life suddenly bouncing back after the funereal solemnity of the slow fourth movement is right on target.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2012 ***

“It’s been well worth the wait for these performances. Restoration has done what it can for the boxy originals, but the energy and drive of the playing will make up for that.” MusicWeb International, March 2012