Medici Arts label

“The Juilliard String Quartet remains the standard by which all other quartets must be judged.” Los Angeles Times

“This is a glowing account of Smetana's nationalistic cycle of tone poems, under their most ardent advocate, with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra sounding lush. Kubelík, in interview, as in performance, is a delightful man.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2008 ****

“The players of the Keller Quartet seem to breathe the music. It is often magically beautiful, but more than that, it is full of meaning” New York Times

“By the 1960s Pops had long ceased to be an innovator, but he was still a giant. If the repertoire and, indeed, some of the solos, were predictable, the unique warmth and magic survived intact.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2009 ****

“Bernstein is thought-provoking in rehearsal and the memorable performance that follows features some superb solo playing” BBC Music Magazine

“This ties up nicely – Leonard Bernstein performing Shostakovich's First Symphony, written when he was 19, with an orchestra of young music students at the 1988 Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. Bernstein was a first-rate Shostakovich interpreter and here's the clearest available insight into his concept of how the pathologically enigmatic Russian composer ticked. The DVD opens with a 40-minute rehearsal in which Bernstein cogently describes Shostakovich's 'naughty boy' attitude – 'would you really want to start your first symphony like this?' he asks his amused orchestra, as he sings the jaunty, deadpan introductory bars.
Shostakovich's First was written only two years into Stalin's dictatorship, but Bernstein is right to locate an emerging, self-defensive satirical approach in these opening bars – if Ian Mac- Donald's The New Shostakovich is to be believed, he didn't think much of Lenin either. His description of how the work gradually fills the dimensions of a 'proper' symphony and arrives, symbolically, at a middle section filled with references to Wagner is persuasive.
This version was cut only a month after his 'official' reading with the Chicago SO. Hearing the two versions together demonstrates that this was Bernstein's settled view. And watching him gently coax his young charges – especially an obviously petrified clarinettist – is unexpectedly touching.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Bernstein was a first-rate Shostakovich interpreter and here's the clearest available insight into his concept of how the pathologically enigmatic Russian composer ticked. The complete performance, accumulates expressive weight as Bernstein holds the satire of the opening at a distance... before unlocking the magisterial depth of the symphony's middle section and finale.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2008

“this is no ordinary rehearsal. The orchestral players learn much more than they expected about what the composer is trying to convey, and so do we. The performance of the symphony itself has extraordinary power, a palette of colour and revelation of detail far beyond what we hear during an ordinary account. It is also thrillingly, marvellously played” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“Chin…demonstrates a quite remarkable musical assurance in her first opera, welding together all manner of styles…Sally Matthews gives the role [Alice] the performance of a lifetime…by turns lyrically sweet and dramatically expressive… supporting Matthews through this journey is a fine ensemble of singers…then there's Kent Nagano…a tireless champion of new music who coaxes such good things from the Chorus and Orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera.” International Record Review

“At 123 minutes it's a little long, but Chin's dreamlike opera feeds entertainingly from Lewis Carroll's strange imagination throughout its length in Achim Freyer's inventive production. It's not particularly child-friendly, although certain scenes - A Mad Tea Party, with its busy Prokofiev-style strings and impish verbal wit for instance - are utterly charming. Chin's score mixes pastiche with original invention, often with exotic instrumentation such as heavy temple bells or the Mock Turtle's harmonica. Sally Matthews is outstanding as the innocent, inquisitive Alice, centre stage and masked throughout, but the biggest cheer goes to Gwyneth Jones's thunderous Queen of Hearts.” The Times, 26th April 2008 ****