BBC Music Magazine Choices, BBC Music Magazine - Christmas 2016 Choices

'Perahia is unrivalled in coaxing a subtle dialogue in the dances that resort to the artful pared-back minimalism of the two-part invention. There’s nowhere to hide and Perahia’s effortless variety of touch, love of teasing voice-leading, and conversational affability would have it no other way…this is a set that gets ever more persuasive on repeated listening.'

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'The Sixteen give a mastreclass in the art of unaccompanied singing, and in close engagement with the pieces chosen. These are a canny combination of old and new...The Sixteen's consummate technical ability has long been legendary, but it's their ability to conceal it which is truly special.'

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'Here’s an unconducted Double Concerto transformed into pure chamber music, in which two old friends spar amicably with the lithe support of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. There’s an intriguing, subtly competitive friction between violinist Joshua Bell and cellist Stephen Isserlis, the one so glossy and fluent, the latter more gnarly and individual, each audibly inspiring – and often provoking – the other.'

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'Litton’s already fine championship of the composer scales new heights…[his] mastery shows in the immediate contrasts of broad, epic opening and razor sharp Allegro mechanics [in the Fourth]…[in the Seventh there are] handsome, songful breadth and sheer naughtiness in equal proportions, with heartbreakingly beautiful solos from the Bergen woodwind'

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'Litton’s already fine championship of the composer scales new heights…[his] mastery shows in the immediate contrasts of broad, epic opening and razor sharp Allegro mechanics [in the Fourth]…[in the Seventh there are] handsome, songful breadth and sheer naughtiness in equal proportions, with heartbreakingly beautiful solos from the Bergen woodwind'

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'The E flat major is given a bright and tender account, with balances judged finely, whether between the instruments or between the myriad emotions that flash through its fizzing duration…the Escher Quartet’s playing [in the F minor] is full of propulsive intensity that never stints on anguish, but they manage to keep their lightness of touch, letting the music make its points with swift, pure directness…a wonderful disc.'

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