Challenge Classics

The string playing is so crisp and clear, even at faster than-average tempos, that, at least in the two early symphonies, the section sounds smaller than it actually is. Here, he does what Harnoncourt... — Fanfare, January/February 2020 More…

The artistry and technique evinced in her Schumann are equally evident here: I particularly enjoyed her Handel Variations, whose narrative arc comes across very strongly, with an emphasis on... — Gramophone Magazine, January 2024 More…

The enchanting opening theme of Symphony No. 5 sets what will be the preponderant tone, vigorous and elegant, and that agreeably bracing idiom is maintained throughout both symphonies. — BBC Music Magazine, January 2023, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Ein Heldenleben [is] remarkably primarily for the forward momentum of Ingo Metzmacher's performance, the overall excellence of the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester's playing and the sympathetic... — Gramophone Magazine, December 2014 More…

De Vriend opens the Reformation with an appropriate sense of repose and vivid brass crescendos...The scherzo trips along lightly; the Andante wears a fragile demeanour with next to no vibrato... — Gramophone Magazine, March 2015 More…

Full marks for this well-conceived programme, which brings together two works closely related but rarely coupled…van Keulen plays [the Prokofiev] with a shiny, rather glassy (rather than glossy)... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2019, 4 out of 5 stars More…