Browse: Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 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…

There's a sense of Podger and her players examining and analysing every note in their preparation, deciding on its role, and placing it carefully back into context, without ever disturbing the... — BBC Music Magazine, April 2015, More…

[Schiff] shows how [the fortepiano's] muted, delicate sound can transform Schubert for modern listeners. Two of the piano sonatas, the G Major, D894, and the late B Flat, D960, speak to us as... — Financial Times, 9th May 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…

You can always expect insights from Iván Fischer's energised Budapest Festival Orchestra, and he has his own distinctive view on this most traumatic and ultimately transcendent of symphonies…for... — BBC Music Magazine, August 2015 More…

the Philadelphians under Yannick Nézet-Séguin provide sterling support for Trifonov's stunning pyrotechnics. There are also moments of magical repose, Trifonov achieving astonishing beauty of... — BBC Music Magazine, December 2015 More…

Gens, as one might expect, is exceptional in this repertoire. Most of the songs are about erotic anticipation and tristesse, and her dark, slightly smoky tone adds to the sensuality of it all.... — Gramophone Magazine, January 2016 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…

[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 [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…