Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 11 in F major, K413

“Kraus plays with great authority, inflecting phrases with a sense of spontaneity and purposefulness that contrasts with the more carefully manicured Mozart style currently in favour.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2012 ****

“Andrea Bacchetti is a pianist possessed of poise and elegance, attributes mirrored by the orchestra di Padova e del Veneto and conductor Carlo Goldstein. These are performances that can't be faulted in terms of taste; yet they don't ignite the music...There are times when the players sound a touch deliberate in tempo and nuance, lacking a degree of carefree joy” Gramophone Magazine, May 2012

“[Bacchetti] shows himself to be fully able to converse, as it were, with the admirable Orchestra of Padua and the Veneto; and Carlo Goldstein, their conductor, ensures they respond to his elegant eloquence with equal warmth and sensitivity. Mozart's k415 is, for me, the finest of these works, and I have never heard a performance that so completely realises its charm without attempting to import any spurious grandeur” BBC Music Magazine, May 2012 *****

“Bacchetti is a very persuasive pianist, and a stylish Mozartian too. He plays with a clean tough, beautiful legato, subtle pedalling, immaculately even passagework, and his interpretations are notably devoid of any eccentricities and idiosyncracies. These are historically informed readings but without losing any of the richness of colour and dynamics afforded by the modern grand.” International Record Review, May 2012

“The performances are all very attractive: full of sprightly energy and witty inflection, and expressively phrased without mannered excess...I like the sonic texture set up by the orchestra, which has a decently rich-toned bass and plenty of bounce and refinement. [Bacchetti] is the star of the show...He doesn’t go overboard with unconventional ornamentation or artificial impositions of character, keeping to the text of each concerto and bringing the notes to elegant life” MusicWeb International, 2nd May 2012

“K413 is something of a neglected stepchild among Mozart's mature concertos. It is perhaps the most intimate of them all...Primakov and Simon Gaudenz give an appropriately chamber-like performance...Primakov's playing is effectively dramatic, and in the central stage of the opening movement he packs quite a punch...His limpid playing is a pleasure throughout, as is the Odense Symphony Orchestra's stylish contribution.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2011 *****

“Chamber music at its best—unified, warm, intimate” American Record Guide

“There are few recording pianists to match Susan Tomes for clarity of articulation, and here she leads sparkling performances. Speeds are relatively fast, with slow movements kept moving to bring out their soaring lyricism” The Guardian

“Susan Tomes’s playing has all the qualities for which Mozart himself was renowned: delicacy, agility, neatness, expressive eloquence. In close creative dialogue with The Gaudier Ensemble she brings limpid, subtly coloured tone to the lyrical melodies, makes Mozart’s passagework dance and sparkle, and relishes opportunities for sly and witty timing. Crucially, too, in Mozart, she knows when to be simple. A delightful disc” The Telegraph

“Light and air is everywhere; the transparency of the sound remains a constant delight … a sense of musicians bouncing their performances off each other … these are above all genial renditions. Mozart himself never aimed at plumbing depths—he told his father the concertos were ‘very brilliant’ and ‘fell agreeably on the ear’—so Tomes’s fingerwork, always light and precise, would appear to be made to measure … this disc offers major pleasures and refreshment” The Times

“With this delectably performed and well engineered recording he (Bebbington) is well set to enter the mainstream CD market.” Birmingham Post, May 2007

“Jando is such a refreshing and appealing player, he carries all before him.” The Wire