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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

The Chiaroscuro Quartet revel in the composer's play of ideas...It was the interpretation of No. 5 that blind-sided me on a first listening...This is a deeply absorbing reading, and can make... — BBC Music Magazine, October 2017, 5 out of 5 stars More…

The performances, though on modern instruments, pay attention to matters of period style - every repeat observed, careful balance between parts…the SCO is everywhere on wonderfully characterful... — BBC Music Magazine, December 2015 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…

While holding in reserve the sonorous depths and gradations of pedalling offered by the modern grand piano, his touch is predominantly light, with an evenness of figuration and crispness of attack... — BBC Music Magazine, June 2018, 5 out of 5 stars 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…