Browse: Presto Recordings of the Year, Winner 2015

Powerful and beautifully crafted, this recording – the first from the relationship between DG and the Boston Symphony under Nelsons – is a hugely impressive sign of just what this ensemble/maestro... — Gramophone Magazine, August 2015 More…

Anja Harteros can boast both the high-octane tone and the necessary level of dramatic expression to make Aida credibly three dimensional…[Ekaterina Semenchuk makes] many subtle observations pertinent... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2015 More…

The [Goldberg] Aria sings without affectation as if to emphasise that what follows isn't about the theme but what happens to it...Unstarchy too is Levit's approach to Beethoven's Diabelli Variations...As... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2016, More…

[Abbado] reaches extraordinary heights…every bar surges with energy, thrust, warmth of tone, miraculous detail in even the faster passages and…a huge joy in living, which must leave every sensitive... — BBC Music Magazine, September 2015 More…

The PHQ understand absolutely the plasticity of Smetana’s vision and convey it unerringly, unshrinkingly – and in some ways even more convincingly than the Talich, which is saying something.... — Gramophone Magazine More…

Although he does not sound very Italian, Kaufmann draws strength from staying true to himself, a gloriously bronze-voiced German tenor, welding musicianship with smouldering emotion...Pappano... — Financial Times, 18th September 2015, More…

Alina Ibragimova makes a strikingly distinctive contribution, albeit subtle and restrained…she introduces minute expressive emphases and nuances into her solo line, sustaining the hypnotic motoric... — BBC Music Magazine, December 2015 More…

Vivid detail and clear choral textures come over quite stunningly on both formats, but the Blu-ray has the edge...Sally Matthews doesn't quite catch the ethereal quality Gardiner's Barbara Bonney... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2016, More…

The performance of the Quintet is a fine one, with lovely clarinet tone, excellent overall sound and a deep understanding of the work's varied character…a fascinating issue, with playing of mastery... — Gramophone Magazine, June 2015 More…

If you want a Puccini tenor bulging with Italian vocal muscle, or a voice with top notes that ping off his dress studs, then Jonas Kaufmann is not your man. But for an artist working with a conductor... — BBC Music Magazine, December 2015, More…