Browse: Presto Recordings of the Year, Mahler (composer)

a perfect beauty of a performance, natural sound matching natural evoution and every solo perfectly intoned — BBC Music Magazine, May 2017, More…

It’s the most lightly, as in ineffably, characterised Mahler One I’ve heard since Kubelík’s. Everything flows, moves forward without rush…And when he needs to, Fischer pulls out the stops – a... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2018, More…

As vivid a performance as one would expect. That stylishly lazy trombone, a dying monster, is emblematic of the characteristic licence the conductor gives to his splendid Budapest players…the... — BBC Music Magazine, July 2017, More…

The biggest surprises of Mahler’s second, 1893 version of his first symphonic masterpiece…are the touches of orchestration later changed, usually for the better…Roth’s punchiness is probably... — BBC Music Magazine, August 2019, (Performance) / (Recording) More…

Barton seems now to be the equal of any dramatic mezzo before the public. The great element which has enabled her rise to stardom is, of course, her voice-large, rich, fully controlled...These... — American Record Guide More…

Rhythmically very taut, clean and just a little unusual…The conductor holds focus in what can sometimes be a turgid sequel to the opening funeral march; the scherzo flies…And the finale is just... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2017, More…

A mezzo can bring so many colours to the expression, and in that respect Alice Coote matches the previously unsurpassable challenge of Janet Baker with Barbirolli. There’s even a plus: the height,... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2017, More…

There are passages here as phenomenal and white-hot as any I’ve heard in the Sixth Symphony: try the whiplash return to the hurly-burly after the high-pastures idyll at the centre of the first... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2019, (Performance) / (Recording) More…

Bostridge and Antonio Pappano are on superb form here, carefully responsive to style and mood, yet striving throughout for unsparing immediacy of expression…Stephan’s taxing vocal lines push... — Gramophone Magazine, November 2018 More…

We have only to listen to [Berio’s] exquisite song orchestrations, graced with Goerne on riveting, vibrant form, to feel the depth of his empathy, an almost palpable longing to be absorbed into... — BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2016, More…