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Presto Recordings of the Year, Berlioz (composer)
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Paganini: 24 Caprices
Recommendedplus Caprices by Berlioz, Cervelló, Kreisler, Ortiz, Saint-Saëns, Sarasate, Wieniawski
María Dueñas (violin), Itamar Golan (piano), Boris Kuschnir (violin), Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Mihhail Gerts
The Paganini Caprices have energy in the bowing from the outset, confident octaves and portamento, and impeccable double stops...You could listen straight through, but I’d recommend random shuffling... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 14th February 2025
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Gramophone Magazine, March 2025, Recording of the Month
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Gramophone Awards, 2025 Winners, Instrumental
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2025
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The New York Times, Best Classical Music Albums of 2025
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Mirages
RecommendedOpera Arias & Songs
Sabine Devieilhe (soprano) & Alexandre Tharaud (piano)
Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth
Devieilhe’s singing lights up the good, the bad and the music of Ambroise Thomas with her vivid, pure tone and apparently limitless breath. Alexandre Tharaud pops in as a sensitive piano partner;... —
Awards:
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2017
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Presto Editor's Choice, November 2017
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Gramophone Magazine, December 2017, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine, January 2018, Opera Choice
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Gramophone Awards, 2018, Finalist - Recital
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Grammy Awards, 61st Awards (2019), Nominee - Classical Solo Vocal Album
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2019, Finalist - Vocal
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Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust
RecommendedMichael Spyres (Faust), Joyce DiDonato (Marguerite), Nicolas Courjal (Méphistophélès), Alexandre Duhamel (Brander)
Coro Gulbenkian, Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, John Nelson
Nelson has a great feel for the weird structure of the piece, with its sudden lurches of pace and location...Nelson’s pacing is uncannily ‘right’; he’s not one to force Berlioz, period-style,... —
Awards:
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Diapason d’Or, November 2019, Nouveauté
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2019
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Presto Recording of the Week, 22nd November 2019
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The New York Times, Recordings of the Year 2019
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2020, Nominee - Female Singer of the Year (DiDonato)
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This is utterly adorable from start to finish…In the booklet Piau speaks of her joy at performing this kind of repertoire and her rapture is palpable from the breathless opening moments of Saint-Saens’s... —
Awards:
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Presto Editor's Choice, May 2019
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Diapason d’Or, June 2019
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BBC Music Magazine, August 2019, Choral & Song Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2019
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International Classical Music Awards, 2019, Nominee - Vocal
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Gramophone Magazine, December 2019, Critics' Choice
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Presto Recording of the Week, 20th December 2019
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2020, Finalist - Vocal
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Gramophone Awards, 2020, Winner - Recital
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Berlioz: Les Troyens
RecommendedJoyce DiDonato (Didon), Michael Spyres (Énée), Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Cassandre), Orchestre et Choeur philharmonique de Strasbourg, Badischer Staatsopernchor, Choeur de l’Opéra du Rhin, John Nelson
Nelson drives the drama with unforced tempos but ample theatrical vitality and grandeur…Spyres isn’t as heroic an Aeneas as Jon Vickers…but sings with lyrical grace and spirit and decent if... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 24th November 2017
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Winner 2017
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The Times Records of the Year, 2017
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Gramophone Magazine, December 2017, Recording of the Month
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The New York Times, Recordings of the Year 2017
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2018, Winner - Opera
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International Opera Awards, 2018, Winner - Complete Opera Recording
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Record Review, 25th November 2017, Recording of the Week
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Gramophone Awards, 2018, Winner - Opera
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Gramophone Awards, 2018, Recording of the Year
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2018, Winner - Opera Recording (19th century)
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Limelight Magazine Recordings of the Year, 2018, Nominated - Opera
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The songs are chosen, for the most part, with Véronique Gens’s voice in mind – no longer the bright soprano of 20 years ago, but now a warm and expressive mezzo, ideal in the more soulful melodies... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 24th April 2020
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Diapason d’Or, May 2020, Nouveauté
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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Special offer. Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique; Ravel: La valse
RecommendedOrchestre de Paris, Klaus Mäkelä
What is there left to say about Symphonie fantastique? Plenty, on the evidence of this vibrant new recording of Berlioz’s extraordinary masterpiece...Mäkelä gets the strings to shun the comfort... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 6th June 2025
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2025
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Berlioz: Les Nuits d'été & Harold en Italie
RecommendedMichael Spyres (baritenor), Timothy Ridout (viola), Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg, John Nelson
This is special. Two extraordinary masterpieces...Two outstanding soloists thoroughly immersed in Berlioz’s music, partnered by an orchestra and conductor with an unsurpassed pedigree in the... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 18th November 2022
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2022
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2023, Nominated - Male Singer of the Year, Solo Vocal & Conductor of the Year
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A Tribute To Pauline Viardot
RecommendedMarina Viotti (mezzo-soprano), Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset
Imperceptibly Viotti makes them her own, tender but tough in Rosina’s ‘Una voce poco fa’ and producing a cascade of diamondbright coloratura in ‘Bel raggio lusinghier’, as well as an astonishing... —
Awards:
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2022
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2023, Nominated - Conductor of the Year & Solo Vocal
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International Opera Awards, 2023, Nominated - Recording (Solo Recital)
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Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette & Cléopâtre
RecommendedJoyce DiDonato (mezzo-soprano), Cyrille Dubois (tenor), Christopher Maltman (baritone), Coro Gulbenkian, Chœur de l’OnR, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, John Nelson
The Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra – lynchpin of the Nelson series – offers conf ident, full-toned playing, with crisp and alert strings, characterful woodwind, subtle yet, where necessary,... —
Awards:
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Record Review, 1st April 2023, Record of the Week
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2023
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