Challenge Classics

de Vriend comes to Beethoven from the Baroque and Classical end of the repertory...These are strong, thrustful performances which make sense in terms of the music in hand and the orchestra's... — Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2010 More…

The soloists here are all members of the Danish wind quintet Carion and their knowledge of each other as players shines through in these beautifully prepared and balanced performances. — Gramophone Magazine, May 2014 More…

Conductors often become strangely inhibited when conducting Schoenberg’s masterly rethink, keen, no doubt, to point up its myriad instrumental subtleties. Claudio Vandelli goes in the opposite... — BBC Music Magazine, April 2020, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Known principally as an early music specialist, [de Vriend's] emphasis on clarity of articulation, hepled by excellent sound, allows the unusual aspects of the instrumentation to register more... — Gramophone Magazine, June 2010 More…

[this] has many fine qualities even if the poised, somewhat cautious music-making eschews Soviet-era rawness…Gaffigan prefers soft-focus glowering, emphasising instead the music’s contemplative,... — Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2016 More…