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

The performance is notably warmer and more personal [than his earlier accounts], it glows with affection for this life-enhancing music...[the Adagio of No. 99] unfolds with a sublime serenity... — BBC Music Magazine, October 2014, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Antonini has a fine line-up of soloists, and they clearly enjoy themselves: the soprano Anna Lucia Richter and the tenor Maximilian Schmidt both have attractively light-toned voices, and Richter’s... — BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2020, 4 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 5 out of 5 stars (Recording) More…

His interpretations, graceful and finely-etched before, now have a more rugged depth, and the new variants on his own cadenzas speak of experience…His own arrangement of Mozart’s heavenly ‘Geme... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2017, 5 out of 5 stars More…

there is much to admire here thanks to Ólafsson’s superb pianism, most notably in Haydn’s Sonata No. 47, Mozart’s little C major Sonata and his Adagio in B minor; his Kleine Gigue goes like the... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2021, 5 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 4 out of 5 stars (Recording) More…

Ardent, brilliant, stately: mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey probes the inner states of the mythical Cretan princess Ariadne…Cohen adds hugely to these performances, in the Haydn especially. Cohen... — BBC Music Magazine, April 2020, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Antonini sets out deliberately to counter the kind of smooth, polished sound cultivated by such conductors as Karajan. Certainly, the spiky approach of Il Giardino Armonico’s playing makes for... — BBC Music Magazine, September 2021, 4 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 5 out of 5 stars (Recording) More…

The knowledge that Grisey himself died unexpectedly himself died unexpectedly at only 52 shortly before the work’s premiere only heightens the impact of this mesmeric recording. — BBC Music Magazine, July 2020, 4 out of 5 stars More…

The Basel Chamber Orchestra present a sound that is a touch sweeter than Il Giardino Armonico’s, although that familiar period-instrument ‘spit’ is still never absent...That sweetness suits these... — Gramophone Magazine, January 2018 More…

The Basel CO are fully attuned to the style of these works and play with a slightly softer grain than Antonini’s ‘other’ band, Il Giardino Armonico. — Gramophone Magazine, September 2022 More…

the performance matches the high standards of McCreesh's previous grand choral projects...McCreesh revels in Haydn's masterly skills in writing for orchestra, choir and soloists...The choir's... — BBC Music Magazine, June 2017 More…