Penguin Guide Rosette Winners

“Sumptuous of tone, supremely sensitive, Crespin was born to illuminate the art of French song. Whether floating the seductive allure of Ravel or revelling in the wit of Poulenc these recordings were and remain classics.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2006 *****

“Ravel's magically sensuous writing finds the ideal interpreter in Regine Crespin...The sheer richness of tone of the singer's tone does not prevent her from bringing out the delicate languor required by an exquisite song like The enchanted flute...This is ravishing...This CD is one of the great glories of recorded music.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“Canciones populaires espanolas could not be sung with greater feeling...it has lost none of its ability to enchant and remains one of the most eloquent of Souzay's song records.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“The unpredictable Pogorelich at his very best, accomplishing miracles of tone colour, refinement and control, with a coruscating final 'Scarbo'. The couplings are both piano sonatas: Prokofiev No 6 and the Chopin B flat minor.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Zimerman's pianism is self-recommending.
His trills in the first movement of the G major Concerto are to die for, his passagework in the finale crystalclear, never hectic, always stylish. For their part Boulez and the Clevelanders are immaculate and responsive; they relish Ravel's neon-lit artificiality and moments of deliberate gaudiness.
That goes equally for the Valses nobles, which have just about every nuance you'd want, and none you wouldn't. The recording is generous with ambience, to the point where some orchestral entries after big climaxes are blurred. Otherwise detail is razor-sharp and one of the biggest selling-points of the disc. Zimerman's humming may be a slight distraction for some listeners, especially in the Left-Hand Concerto, where you may not be always convinced that the LSO knew quite what it was supposed to do with the long notes of the main theme, and where there's a slight lack of tension in exchanges between piano and orchestra. There again, had the G major Concerto not been so wonderful those points might not have registered at all, for this is playing of no mean distinction. In the Left- Hand Concerto, Zimerman's phenomenal pianism sets its own agenda and brings its own rich rewards.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

Diapason d'Or, FFFF. de Télérama & Penguin Guide Awards

“In the Rachmaninov, the heroic virtuosity of Michelangelo's playing banished any doubts that this composition was a poor shadow of its predecessors, while the cool demeanour and exquisite subtlety of the Ravel slow movement remains peerless.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2012

“In crude and subjective terms Michelangeli makes the spine tingle in a way no others can approach. How does he do it? This is the secret every pianist would love to know, and which no writer can ever pin down.
But it's possible to give some general indications.
It isn't a question of technique, at least not directly, because Ashkenazy, for example (on Decca) can match their most virtuoso feats; indirectly, yes, it's relevant, in that there are dimensions in Michelangeli's pianism which allow musical conceptions to materialise which might not dawn on others. Nor is it a question of structure, in the narrow sense of the awareness of overall proportions, judicious shaping of paragraphs, continuity of thought; but the way structure is projected and the way it's transmuted into emotional drama; these things are critical.
In one way or another most of the recordings in this section respond vividly to the excitement of Rachmaninov's dramatic climaxes; but with Michelangeli these climaxes seem to burst through the music of their own volition, as though an irresistible force of nature has been released. It's this crowning of a structure by release, rather than by extra pressure, which gives the performance a sense of exaltation and which more than anything else sets it on a different level. It enables him to be freer in many details, yet seem more inevitable as a whole.
The impact of all this would be negligible without a sympathetically attuned conductor and orchestra. Fortunately that's exactly what Michelangeli has. Michelangeli's Ravel is open to criticism, partly because many listeners feel uncomfortable with his persistent left-beforeright mannerism in the slow movement and with his unwarranted textual tinkerings (like changing the last note). But he's as finely attuned to this aloof idiom as to its temperamental opposite in the Rachmaninov.
And although the recording can't entirely belie its vintage, it does justice to one of the finest concerto records ever made.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Unbeatable value” Penguin Guide

“The singing is delightful: neoclassical crispness of articulation goes with refined textures that convey the ripe humour of the one piece, the tender poetry of the other.The inclusion of [the Rimsky Korsakov and Stravinsky], two classics of the gramophone, makes this reissue more desirable than ever.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“A new bargain disc finds a Romanian ensemble fully at home in the string quartets of Ravel and Fauré.” BBC Music Magazine, 2002

“Bour's pioneering magical (1947) mono version...should never be forgotten and in some ways is the greatest performance of this sublime score on disc.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition