Penguin Guide Rosette Winners

“Harnoncourt attends to the subtler aspects of Dvorak's scoring, and his love for the music's unique sound world is abundantly clear...[he] relishes the music's mix of rustic dance forms and colouristic innovation.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2010

“Harnoncourt gives us a compelling account of 'The Water Goblin' savouring to the full both its lyric and its scary elements” International Record Review

“Time and again, as I listened enraptured to this overwhelming performance, I felt as though as I was sitting in the Bayreuth stalls. …Keilberth's… command of every aspect of this vast score is unerring in balance, detail and overall Schwung. No opera house or recording has since rivalled the cast assembled here, not even the Decca set, by which time Hotter Windgassen and Neidlinger were all some 10 years older. In 1955 all three are at the peak of their form and - singing live rather than in the studio - are that much more involved and involving. Don't take my word for it: buy the discs and experience Wagner as he was supremely performed in those special days...” Gramophone Magazine, March 2006

“[Windgassen] is in gloriously fresh voice...Neidlinger too is clear and incisive as Alberich, with Josef Greindl darkly majestic as Fafner...The duetting of Varnay and Windgassen as Siegfried and Brunnhilde then makes a thrillingly passionate conclusion in Keilberth's thrustful reading.” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ****

“Stokowski's orchestrations, as flamboyant and full of flair as his interpretations as a conductor, have increasingly been accepted and welcomed on disc, a good sign that rigidly purist attitudes have nowadays softened. This Naxos collection of Stokowski's arrangements offers outstanding performances by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, brilliantly recorded.
Few would claim that Stokowski's arrangement of Pictures at an Exhibition matches, let alone outshines, that of Ravel. But with its weighty brass it is certainly more Russian. In fact – one of the most serious shortcomings – Stokowski omits two of the movements, 'Tuileries' and the 'Market Place at Limoges' on the grounds that they are too French. Yet Serebrier's new performance makes it very convincing with speeds well chosen and the brass wonderfully incisive.
The atmospheric qualities of the Boris Godunov Symphonic Synthesis come over superbly too, starting with a hauntingly rarefied bassoon solo, even if the recording catches the clicking of the keys. The mystery of the chimes in the Coronation scene as well as the Death scene are more evocatively handled. If A Night on the Bare Mountain finds the Naxos recording rather less immediate than in the other items, the weight of the arrangement comes over well, and the Khovanshchina Entr'acte has impressive weight and clarity.
The extra items also weigh in Serebrier's favour: an arrangement of a Tchaikovsky song that explores an astonishingly wide emotional range within a tiny span and the jolly Humoresque, a piano piece that Stravinsky memorably used in his ballet The Fairy's Kiss. Finally, a baldly effective piece, attributed to Stokowski himself, based not just on a Christmas hymn but on Ippolitov-Ivanov's In a Manger.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Serebrier's own imposing, heavyweight style yields different results to the volatile Knussen… but it's always absorbing. Something of the Stokowski sound is filtered through the refined texturing of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and further enhanced by the spacious concert-hall acoustic.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2005

“…outstanding performances by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, brilliantly recorded in sound if anything even more spectacular and more cleanly focused than that on the discs from Chandos and DG.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2005

“Pletnev dazzles in the Mussorgsky, caressing its sublime poetry with a velvet-gloved sensitivity while throttling its chilling angularities into piano-shattering submission. His Tchaikovsky is no less mesmerising. A real classic.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2005 *****

“Mendelssohn is clearly the guiding spirit here. But in movements like the delightfully capricious scherzo of the C minor Symphony, and in some of the striking modulations in the outer movements of both symphonies she shows she's no mere imitator. These fine performances certainly do her justice...” BBC Music Magazine, June 2005 ****

“what a fine work the C minor Symphony is, attractively tuneful throughout and with a fine grasp of orchestration and form...Shelley and the London Mozart Players are admirable advocates throughout, and this CD is most enjoyable.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“Alain is a completely involved communicator.
More than anyone else she delves into the very soul of these works. Thus we have an intensely prayerful Prière, a majestically statuesque Grandepièce symphonique while the Chorales are delivered with an unexpected degree of fervour; perhaps the Third is a shade overfervent since some of the semiquaver figurations lack absolute clarity – something which after one or two hearings serves to heighten the excitement but which might, after repeated listening, become irritating. This is a highly authoritative release not just in terms of playing but also in Alain's accompanying notes.
The Caen organ is a particularly fine specimen of a Cavaillé-Coll, dating from 1884 – 25 years after the St Clotilde organ for which Franck wrote much of this music. The recording captures it, and the church's atmosphere, effectively.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“However many times he has performed the Grieg, Andsnes retains a freshness and expressiveness that never sounds contrived, always spontaneous..., Andsnes is firmly supported by Jansons and the Berlin Philharmonic, with playing not just refined but dramatic too” Gramophone Magazine, November 2003

“faster, fiercer, yet more freely expressive than his 1990 version.” Classic FM Magazine, February 2012

“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