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SACD, Elgar (composer)
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Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius & Sea Pictures
RecommendedStuart Skelton (tenor), Sarah Connolly (mezzo) & David Soar (bass), Sarah Connolly (mezzo)
BBC Symphony Chorus & BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis
among the best Gerontius performances on record. Davis resists the temptation to make the work sound like a flabby, imitation Parsifal and the results are outstandingly convincing...[Skelton]... — More…
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, Disc of the month
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2015, Choral Award Winner
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2014
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Gramophone Awards, 2015, Winner - Choral
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Vaughan Williams, Howells, Delius & Elgar - Music for Strings
RecommendedSinfonia of London, John Wilson
The sound, engineered by Ralph Couzens, is magnificent...While fully relishing the at times dreamy polyphony of Vaughan Williams’s textures, Wilson’s Fantasia has sharp, impassioned edges too,... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 3rd February 2023
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Gramophone Magazine, March 2023, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine, April 2023, Orchestral Choice
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Gramophone Awards, 2023 Finalists, Finalist - Orchestral
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Winner 2023
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Sunday Times, 10 Best Classical Albums of 2023
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Gramophone Magazine, Critics' Choice 2023
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2024, Recording of the Year
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2024, Winner - Orchestral
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Elgar: King Olaf
RecommendedEmily Birsan (soprano), Barry Banks (tenor), Alan Opie (baritone)
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Choir, Collegium Musicum Choir, Edvard Grieg Kor, Sir Andrew Davis
there's nothing stilted about Elgar's music: it crackles with confident vitality...the Norwegian choruses respond with crisp vigour and superb English diction, only faintly (and appropriately)... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 26th January 2015
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Sunday Times, 2015, Albums of the Year
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BBC Music Magazine, April 2015, Choral & Song Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2015
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Elgar: Violin Concerto
RecommendedTasmin Little (violin)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis
Little and Davis steer a near-perfect path between the English stoicism and continental passion that lies at the heart of this glorious score. Positioned naturally against the orchestra, Little... — More…
Awards:
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Sunday Times, 2010, Albums of the Year
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Gramophone Magazine, December 2010, Editor's Choice
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Building A Library, October 2021, Also Recommended
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Elgar: Symphony No. 1 & Introduction and Allegro
RecommendedBBC Symphony Orchestra, Doric String Quartet, Edward Gardner
Complex, multi-faceted, subtly changeable Elgar…Gardner is a master of transitions: the gradual transformation of scherzo to slow movement is only the most striking, but there are plenty of... — More…
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, July 2017, Orchestral Choice
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Building A Library, June 2024, Recommended Recording (Symphony No. 1)
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Elgar: Falstaff, Orchestral Songs; Grania and Diarmid
Roderick Williams (baritone)
BBC Philharmonic, Sir Andrew Davis
The performances of the songs are ardent, warm and full of conviction. As ever Roderick Williams sounds completely on the composer’s side. But after Falstaff it’s all too clear that they really... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Editor's Choice, October 2017
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Gramophone Magazine, January 2018, Editor's Choice
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Diapason d’Or de l’Année, 2018, Winner - Symphonique
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Diapason d’Or, April 2018, Nouveauté
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From the wonderful lyrical springboard opening right through to the final slow fade there’s a singing line that rises, falls and snakes its way through everything…The Serenade for Strings here... — More…
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, August 2018, Orchestral Choice
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Newby, who turns 30 this year, has the kind of powerful natural presence that also belongs to Bryn Terfel, and the timbre of his voice has come to resemble Terfel’s in its plummy warmth and... — More…
Awards:
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International Classical Music Awards, 2024, Nominated - Vocal Music
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Elgar: The Music Makers & The Spirit of England
Dame Sarah Connolly, Andrew Staples, BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Sir Andrew Davis
Sir Andrew Davis and his forces, especially Sarah Connolly and Andrew Staples (why is this wonderful tenor so little recorded?), give their all and one can’t imagine their being performed more... — More…
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, December 2018, Editor's Choice
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Clean-heeled athleticism and rhythmic spring — More…
