Penguin Guide Rosette Winners

“Savall sets some brisk tempos, particularly for the slow movement of Eine kleine Nachtmusik, but they're convincing. …it's vivid playing from everyone, well defined in outline and responding imaginatively to the varied character of Mozart's music.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2006 *****

‘Technically Perlman is beyond reproach. There is brilliance in the faster movements, delicacy in the galanteries, and grave expressiveness in the slower music. As the coupling of the names of Bach and Perlman is not one that readily springs to mind, this fine recording has come as a real surprise.’ (Gramophone)

“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 *****

“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