Hyperion
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Bach, J S: Christmas Oratorio, BWV248
RecommendedKatherine Watson (soprano), Iestyn Davies (countertenor), James Gilchrist (tenor) & Matthew Brook (bass)
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment & Trinity College Choir Cambridge, Stephen Layton
Layton unwraps it with all due festive pomp and circumstance...In a work incontestably smitten with the alto voice, Iestyn Davies triumphs...Gilchrist's relaxed and lyrical Evangelist maintains... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 2nd December 2013
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Brian: Agamemnon & Symphonies Nos 6 & 12
RecommendedJohn Findon (Agamemnon), Eleanor Dennis (Clytemnestra), Stephanie Wake-Edwards (Cassandra), Robert Murray (Watchman), Clive Bayley (Herald/Old Man)
English National Opera Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins
If anyone can convince us of the worth of this one-act drama of Aeschylus’s tragedy of Agamemnon’s last bloody bath it's Martyn Brabbins, a doughty champion of Brian’s music...All credit to... —
Awards:
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2025
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Michael Haydn: Requiem
Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Hilary Summers (alto), James Gilchrist (tenor), Peter Harvey (bass)
Choir of The King’s Consort, The King’s Consort, Robert King
A quality quartet of soloists, led by the vernal soprano of Carolyn Sampson. —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, June 2005, Editor's Choice
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Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, August 2003, Editor's Choice
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These arrangements are quite elaborate and charming —
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The Romantic Piano Concerto 2 - Medtner
RecommendedNikolai Demidenko (piano)
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Jerzy Maksymiuk
This splendid disc is given a fine recording, good orchestral playing from a Scottish orchestra under a Polish conductor and, above all, truly coruscating and poetic playing from the brilliant... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 1992, Winner - Concerto
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Here is a cunning and potent mix of every conceivable form of pianistic and musical intricacy (it excludes the merely decorative, salon or ephemeral). Everything is of the most absorbing interest;... —
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Marc-André Hamelin puts us further in his debt with another superbly played disc of Alkan … [the Symphony’s] big-boned, exorbitantly taxing writing draws appropriately stunning pianism from... —
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This completes the Florestan Trio's Beethoven series. Their thoughtfulness throughout has been impressive; their overall style avoids heaviness, keeping the textures light and airy, and giving... —
Awards:
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Building a Library, May 2019, Also Recommended
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Stephan Genz's light, warm and cultured baritone is especially fine in reflecting the ghost voices and moonlight serenades of Mahler's folk-inspired anthology. Yet more attack is surely needed... —
