Gramophone Choices, Gramophone Editor's Choices - Awards Issue 2019

'This is one of the best programmes that I have encountered in recent years, both in concept and execution, and it begins with an icon of early music, Allegri’s Miserere…The singers of Le Poème Harmonique are clearly accomplished virtuosos…their filigree passagework is nimble and flexible; and importantly, the sopranos never fail to sparkle…This is an album so nuanced you can almost taste it.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

• View full details
• Listen to samples
• Watch videos

'One key aspect of Pfitzner’s endlessly fascinating Piano Concerto that immediately strikes home is its harmonic richness…Like most of Braunfels’s music that I’ve heard, [his concerto] suggests a combination of profundity and play, being thematically pleasing, consistently inventive and very skilfully scored…An extremely fine release.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

• View full details
• Listen to samples
• Watch videos

'Smith is sympathetic, generous, introspective, romantic, adventurous in timbre…and his palette of sounds is enviably characterful…The overall listening experience is well crafted and charts an interesting journey…Smith does well to curate suites according to key that feel coherent and balanced.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

• View full details
• Listen to samples

'With Bertrand, tiny embellishments and a kaleidoscopic range of colours make listening a particular pleasure…You get the impression that she’s recalling the music from memory rather than reading it off the page…I think what most appeals to me is the degree of varied shading that Bertrand achieves by illuminating chords from within. She has a rich palette at her disposal and wastes no opportunity to use it. So a definite thumbs-up.'

Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

• View full details
• Listen to samples
• Watch videos

'As you’d predict from an artist who combines acute intelligence and technical panache, it’s utterly absorbing. It’s also a cycle that doesn’t have favourites – Levit feels equally committed to every single piece…Above all there’s that sense of being completely at one with Beethoven himself. And that, in the end, is what makes this such a magnificent achievement.'

Available Formats: 9 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

• View full details
• Listen to samples
• Watch videos

'This magnificent disc alerts us not only to the importance of a composer both British and Australian but to a significant voice in contemporary music in a wider sense. I sincerely hope that this recording, of performances of the highest order, will be the beginning of a revival of the work of a composer of staggering talent and sublime inspiration.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

• View full details
• Listen to samples

'The wealth of delightful melodies and the infectious dance-flavoured rhythms are all brought across with Trotter’s hallmark flair and panache, and, as ever, his ability to communicate real enthusiasm for the music makes this a hugely attractive recording…This should appeal to an audience who may not necessarily be aware that this period in English music history is every bit as musically valuable as Buxtehude, Bach et al.'

Available Format: CD

• View full details

'Absolutely on point: with two wonderfully matched countertenors and superb recorder-playing, bound together in the intimate acoustic of Alpheton New Maltings, Suffolk…The big draw is, of course, countertenor Iestyn Davies, and for me his performance of Purcell’s ‘O solitude’ is a clear standout…This is surely one of the best countertenor performances on disc…This whole disc is a trove of bittersweet delights.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC

• View full details
• Listen to samples
• Watch videos

'Finley is never an artist, one feels, to let himself be rushed…and his new recording of Schwanengesang is well worth the wait…The Vier ernste Lieder are possibly even better: noble, refined, heartfelt, supremely moving and often beautiful in the extreme…totally sincerity backed up by superb vocalism, matched at every turn by Drake.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

• View full details
• Listen to samples
• Watch videos

'While this album looks like echt Anglicanism – all Mags and Nuncs – it reflects a broader musical mind…We also hear a choir that sings with extreme perception of blend (vowel and timbre), words and phrasing; a true ensemble that understands how a legato might be intensified or slackened, how a colour can be shaded and twisted and how to react to an organ however it’s throttled.'

Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC

• View full details
• Listen to samples

'If this was, indeed, Bartoli’s first Isabella, it was worth the wait…Nowadays she’s a consummate comédienne whose work looks especially well on film. As for her singing, one would be hard-pressed to find a better-sung Isabella…Abdrazakov is a thoroughly schooled bass who shows deftness of touch in passages of quick-fire coloratura…Olvera gives a performance in the Julie Walters class as the excruciatingly unattractive Elvira.'

Available Format: 2 DVD Videos

• View full details
• Watch videos

Picture Format: 1080i / 16:9

Sound Format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD MA 5.1

Available Format: Blu-ray

• View full details
• Watch videos

'In many key respects listening to these 15 discs…is tantamount to enjoying ‘fly-on-the-wall’ access to Horowitz’s rehearsal methods, his way with alternate takes, his personality – by turns skittish and seriously focused – his childlike excitement and his endearing candour…Most of the playing is truly fabulous…It’s a priceless set, one to savour repeatedly.'

Available Format: 15 CDs

• View full details
• Watch videos