Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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Shostakovich: Violin Concertos
RecommendedAlina Ibragimova (violin)
State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia 'Evgeny Svetlanov', Vladimir Jurowski
Ibragimova is the latest to make you think you’ve never heard [the First Concerto] played better, and her intense relationship with Vladimir Jurowski and the current incarnation of Yevgeny Svetlanov’s... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 29th May 2020
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Record Review, 6th June 2020, Record of the Week
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BBC Music Magazine, July 2020, Recording of the Week
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Gramophone Magazine, July 2020, Editor's Choice
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Diapason d’Or, July/August 2020, Nouveauté
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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The Times Records of the Year, 2020
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2021, Shortlisted - Concerto
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Gramophone Awards, 2021, Winner - Concerto
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Charles Ives: Complete Symphonies
RecommendedMarta Gardolińska (chorus conductor)
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Gustavo Dudamel
There are two chief reasons for Dudamel’s success as an Ives conductor with the LA Phil. One is their joint command of complex detail, conveyed in textures that seem to illuminate every thread... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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Gramophone Magazine, Critics' Choice 2020
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Grammy Awards, 63rd Awards (2021), Winner - Best Orchestral Performance
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Grammy Awards, 63rd Awards (2021), Nominee - Best Engineered Classical Album
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Presto Editor's Choice, March 2021
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Gramophone Awards, 2021, Shortlisted - Orchestral
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International Classical Music Awards, 2022, Nominated - Symphonic Music
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Janáček: The Cunning Little Vixen, Sinfonietta
RecommendedLucy Crowe (Vixen), Gerald Finley (Forester), Sophia Burgos (Fox), Jan Martiník (Badger/Parson), Peter Hoare (Mosquito/Rooster/Schoolmaster), Hanno Müller-Brachmann (Harašta)
London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, Sir Simon Rattle
If this Vixen is good, the Sinfonietta is outstanding – arguably the best on disc, though you need to experience the work in a concert hall with the nine trumpets blazing. They’re supremely... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 4th September 2020
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Gramophone Magazine, October 2020, Editor's Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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Gramophone Magazine, Critics' Choice 2020
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The Times Records of the Year, 2020
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Grammy Awards, 64th Awards (2022), Nominee - Best Opera Recording
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Special offer. Handel: Agrippina
RecommendedJoyce DiDonato (Agrippina), Elsa Benoit (Poppea), Luca Pisaroni (Claudio), Franco Fagioli (Nerone), Jakub Józef Orliński (Ottone), Andrea Mastroni (Pallante), Carlo Vistoli (Narciso), Biagio Pizzuti (Lesbo), Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Giunone)
Il Pomo d'Oro, Maxim Emelyanychev
This Agrippina jostles for top place among the opera’s complete recordings. Joyce DiDonato is matchless in the title role, most other cast members likewise outstrip their rivals and their vocal... — More…
Awards:
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Record Review, 11th January 2020, Record of the Week
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Presto Recording of the Week, 31st January 2020
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Gramophone Magazine, March 2020, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine, April 2020, Opera Choice
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2020, Nominee - Female Singer of the Year (DiDonato)
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2020, Nominee - Conductor of the Year
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Gramophone Awards, 2020, Winner - Opera
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2021, Shortlisted - Opera
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Grammy Awards, 63rd Awards (2021), Nominee - Best Opera Recording
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Orchestral players will travel long distances to make music with [Wilson] and this recording shows why…It’s far from being all noise, the woodwind in particular being exquisitely agile…All the... — More…
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, February 2020, Recording of the Month
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BBC Music Magazine, April 2020, Orchestral Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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Gramophone Magazine, Critics' Choice 2020
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The Times Records of the Year, 2020
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Special offer. Respighi: Pines, Fountains & Festivals of Rome
RecommendedSinfonia of London, John Wilson
Wilson takes an altogether more balletic approach [than Tortelier]. But there is no lack of wallop: the opening of ‘Circenses’ has tremendous adrenaline…The Triton Fountain sparkles with vitality…There... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 31st January 2020
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BBC Music Magazine, October 2020, Orchestral Choice
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Gramophone Magazine, October 2020, Editor's Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2021, Winner - Orchestral
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Gramophone Awards, 2021, Shortlisted - Orchestral
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Special offer. Josquin: Masses
RecommendedHercules Dux Ferrarie, D'ung aultre amer & Missa Faysant regretz
The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips
Phillips’s reading of the Ferrarese work is fluid and supple, and there’s a gentle momentum even in the more contemplative sections...The Scholars’ sound is lean and clear: every strand of the... — More…
Awards:
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Record Review, 7th November 2020, Record of the Week
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Gramophone Magazine, November 2020, Editor's Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2021, Winner - Choral
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2021, Recording of the Year
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Gramophone Awards, 2021, Winner - Early Music
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Purcell: The Fairy Queen, 1692
RecommendedCarolyn Sampson (soprano), Anna Dennis (soprano), Mhairi Lawson (soprano), Ashley Riches (bass-baritone), Roderick Williams (baritone), Gabrieli, Paul McCreesh
McCreesh’s production rises to the occasion: original voicing, unorthodox continuo, project-specific trumpet design and rediscovered string techniques bring out qualities missing from earlier... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 10th April 2020
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Gramophone Magazine, June 2020, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine, July 2020, Opera Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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Gramophone Awards, 2021, Shortlisted - Opera
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Building a Library, February 2023, Recommended Recording
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He is tender in op. 118/2 and powerful on op. 118/3. Op. 116/4 sings, and op. 117/2 is delicate, with a lovely touch. In several of these works—op. 116/5 and 6, and op. 117/1, for example—Brahms’s... — More…
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, January 2020, Recording of the Month
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Gramophone Awards, 2020, Finalist - Instrumental
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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Gramophone Magazine, Critics' Choice 2020
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Tchaikovsky & Barber: Violin Concertos
RecommendedJohan Dalene (violin)
Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Blendulf
Dalene’s freshness, vitality and interpretative charisma [in the Tchaikovsky] swept me along…If anything, the Barber is finer still, perhaps the closest anyone has yet come (at least on disc)... — More…
Awards:
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Record Review, 25th January 2020
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Gramophone Magazine, February 2020, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine, March 2020, Concerto Choice
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Diapason d’Or, April 2020, Découverte
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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