listening to these wonderful performances side by side is cathartic...The journey is vividly delineated from the outset of the Berg. With Abbado drawing sonorities from his first-rate orchestra,... — BBC Music Magazine, April 2012, More…

an essential recommendation for any collection. These are performances which seem to present a Beethoven 'for the ages', a distillation of a long interpretative tradition, without concern for... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2012 More…

Interpreters of the late quartets have to convey what at times sounds like a stream of musical consciousness while respecting the many written markings. The Takács do better than most. For openers,... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

The Takács do a fine job here: controlled, well paced and impeccably balanced.
They manage to balance the music's vertical and horizontal aspects beautifully, long-breathed contrapuntal lines... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Those who are searching for perfection can stop here...this set, the first solo recording from Russo-German pianist Igor Levit, sets a new standard that will be very difficult to surpass...I... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2014, More…

…the most stimulating and fascinating accounts of the Beethoven violin sonatas I have heard in many years. Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov bring out the full quirkiness of the earlier... — BBC Music Magazine, October 2009, More…

The endlessly ear-opening consequences are riveting; the wide-ranging aplomb of Beethoven's Variations could have been conceived with Staier's musical curiosity and flair in mind...This isn't... — BBC Music Magazine, August 2012, More…

The [Goldberg] Aria sings without affectation as if to emphasise that what follows isn't about the theme but what happens to it...Unstarchy too is Levit's approach to Beethoven's Diabelli Variations...As... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2016, More…

Schiff's passion for this music, and his ability to communicate it, is apparent in every bar...The two instruments he plays each have a lean tone and the interpretation of the Diabellis doesn't... — BBC Music Magazine, Christmas Issue 2013, More…

They play with extraordinary strenuousness, very unlike the Alban Berg Quartet with whom they studied. The Belceas re-enact the creative torments of the composer to a degree where you feel their... — BBC Music Magazine, February 2013, More…