Browse: Building a Library, Baroque (era)

Faust's tone is both lean and exquisitely sweet, combined with consistent stylistic elegance which reaches the heights of eloquence in the slow movement of the E major Concerto. — BBC Music Magazine, Concerto Choice 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…

This crack squad of first-rate period-instrument musicians gives lithe, polished and devoted performances that make a convincing case for a one-to-a-part "orchestra". Indeed, so full-bodied is... — Graham Rogers, bbc.co.uk, 30th November 2010 More…

There's a sense of Podger and her players examining and analysing every note in their preparation, deciding on its role, and placing it carefully back into context, without ever disturbing the... — BBC Music Magazine, April 2015, More…

listening to Janet Baker as Dido in her celebrated recording made at the dawn of her career, in 1962, still leaves one breathless with admiration and moved to the core by her combination of glorious... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2012, More…

This new Dido… enshrines Connolly as one of the most affecting Carthaginian Queens since Janet Baker's account nearly half a century ago. From the outset, Connolly exudes imposing presence,... — BBC Music Magazine, February 2009, More…

Short finds a musical dramaturgy to match that of the text. The Requiem is written for six voices, but this choir of 20 never seems lumbering or unbalanced. They are perfectly tuned (listen to... — BBC Music Magazine, June 2011, More…

Jonathan Kent's joyous Glyndebourne production burst[s] with opulent stagecraft...Kent is abetted by William Christie in the pit, a man of the theatre down to his gainfully-employed fingertips...Altogether... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2010, More…

To my mind, Mortensen’s special performance, which is full to the brim with insightful musicianship and has a refreshing avoidance of contrived formulas, comfortably joins Parrott (EMI), Junghänel... — Gramophone Magazine, March 2016 More…

an intensely dramatic account that will add spice to what has for many listeners perhaps come to resemble a dreary domestic relationship…[all] are realised in vivid colours through the agency... — Gramophone Magazine, October 2015 More…