Testament

This 1951 mono recording set the benchmark for many years, and so it probably did much to establish the current, questionable norms of tempo. But it's superb performance, played with skill... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2008 More…

Over the night of 13-14 April 1959 in St Gabriel's Church, Cricklewood, a recording session took place, historic in every way, when the young Charles Mackerras conducted a band of 62 wind players... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

…Otto Klemperer's energy and momentum come not from his tempos but from the way the rhythms are articulated. In the first movement and Scherzo the heroic, teeth-gritted determination are physically... — BBC Music Magazine, February 2010 More…

There have never been any doubts about these performances. The horn playing in the Sinfoniaconcertante is unsurpassable and in the quintets Gieseking's lightness and his clarity and sense of... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

For anyone lucky enough to have secured a ticket few orchestral concerts have remained so vividly in the memory as the one given by Karajan's incomparable Berlin Philharmonic in London's Royal... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…