Gramophone Awards, 1998

For connoisseurs of choral music this is an essential buy. Outstanding performances of two rarely heard 20th-century masterpieces. — Classic CDMore…

The music of Federico Mompou may appear at first to consist of little more than charming, delicately scented but dilettantish salon near-improvisations with marked overtones of Erik Satie; but... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010More…

Birtwistle's opera is about the Orpheus myth, but the familiar story has been fragmented. Each of the principal characters is represented by two singers and a (silent) dancer, and much of what... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010More…

Bostridge makes you think anew about the music in hand, interpreting all these songs as much through the mind of the poet as that of the composer, and, being youthful himself, getting inside... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010More…

Chailly has recorded the work before, but in the years since he's matured as a Rossini conductor, and the Scala orchestra has this music under its fingers; there's an energy and vitality to... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010More…

As Mandarins go, they don't come more miraculous than this – a vivid, no-holds-barred performance. Everything tells: the flavour is right, the pacing too, and the sound has a toughened, raw-edged... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010More…