Penguin Guide Rosette Winners

“the recording needs no defending, with singers, chorus and orchestra in full and lively presence, the soloists in excellent balance with the accompaniment...this issue is a life-enhancing creation which no serious music lover should be without.” MusicWeb International, October 2006

“Magic, mystery and joy; the opera’s definitive recording” The Times, 10th May 2013

“Sir Andrew Davis's formidable Tippettian credentials shine through in every bar of this outstanding anthology. Aided by realistic, firmly focused sound, the Concerto for Double StringOrchestra sounds glorious here. Davis directs a performance of enormous humanity, intelligence and dedication – even Sir Neville Marriner's excellent EMI remake now seems a little matterof- fact by comparison. In the slow movement Davis secures a rapt response from his BBC strings (the exquisite closing bars are drawn with ineffable tenderness), while the finale bounds along with irrepressible vigour and fine rhythmic panache. Davis's Fantasia concertante is an even more remarkable achievement. This is another inspirational display: sensitive and fervent, yet marvellously lucid and concentrated too. Once again, the BBC strings are on radiant form, and the lyrical intensity of their playing during the central climax has to be heard to be believed.
Davis's identification with this sublime music is total. Much the same applies, for that matter, to the committed and incisive account of the 'Ritual Dances' from The Midsummer Marriage, a veritable tour de force to which the BBC Symphony Chorus contributes thrillingly in the final dance.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010