Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2021

They’re both electrifying, and they sound absolutely magnificent...Pappano makes sure [the Fourth] sings as often as it can...This is a terrible beauty, energetic, Satanic, utterly spellbinding,... — BBC Music Magazine, June 2021, 5 out of 5 starsMore…

Even by their standards, the choir are on blindingly good form in Schnittke’s monumental Choir Concerto. — Gramophone Magazine, December 2021More…

With their exhilarating brilliance and mesmerising beauty, these pieces have captured the imagination of players and audiences alike...These works are here to stay, in the distinguished line... — BBC Music Magazine, April 2021, 5 out of 5 starsMore…

The sequence works well as a recital-like experience, and also as a vehicle for Hough’s comprehensive mastery of his art...The idiom of his own ‘Vida breve’ Sonata, with its cogent sweep and... — BBC Music Magazine, March 2021, 5 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 4 out of 5 stars (Recording)More…

The Philadelphia polish helps to highlight one of Price’s most endearing qualities: those kaleidoscopic orchestrations, with piquant detailing from all corners, including celesta and slide whistle...... — BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2021, 4 out of 5 starsMore…

Spyres has a remarkable range and is a consummate vocal chameleon too...in a truly remarkable finale to his ‘Largo al factotum’, Rossini’s Figaro is indeed all things to all men vocally. What... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2021, 5 out of 5 starsMore…

Here in [the Bridge Lament] is a prime example of the heartfelt precision and beauty of tone that typifies John Wilson’s Sinfonia of London. There’s plenty of heart, too, in their superlative... — BBC Music Magazine, March 2021, 4 out of 5 starsMore…

Wilson seizes on the opportunities to bring out the vivid colours of Dutilleux’s score, with the brass blazing superbly and every rhythm alive with meaning. No less striking is the music’s lyricism,... — BBC Music Magazine, August 2021, 5 out of 5 starsMore…

The Takács Quartet has sustained an admiring following through its changes of personnel down the years, and their exceptional precision of tuning and ensemble, especially at full-tilt Mendelssohnian... — BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2021, 3 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 4 out of 5 stars (Recording)More…

Namoradze brings a deft touch to these charming works [the Andersen Fragments], teasing out their respective tenderness, melancholy and wit with subtlety and poise…[In the Op. 46 Studies] Namoradze... — BBC Music Magazine, February 2021, 5 out of 5 starsMore…