New and Future Releases
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One thing that stands out [in the Fourth Sonata] and throughout the programme is the quasi-improvisatory quality Sudbin brings to proceedings, as if a fabulously endowed spirit were ad-libbing... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 9th May 2025
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Record Review, 10th May 2025, Record of the Week
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Gramophone Magazine, June 2025, Editor's Choice
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New. For Dieter: Hommage à Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
RecommendedBenjamin Appl (baritone), James Baillieu (piano)
Benjamin Appl’s singing is thoughtful and enjoyable.The voice sometimes uncannily recalls that of his guru...Appl and his artistic partners deserve huge credit for making this imaginative, moving... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 23rd May 2025
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BBC Music Magazine, July 2025, Vocal Choice
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New. Brahms: Piano Quartets Nos. 2 & 3
RecommendedKrystian Zimerman (piano), Maria Nowak (violin), Katarzyna Budnik (viola), Yuya Okamoto (cello)
The A major Quartet is one of Brahms’s most open-hearted and immediately engaging chamber works. Zimerman and his colleagues deliver a superb performance capturing the outgoing qualities of... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 4th April 2025
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Gramophone Magazine, May 2025, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine, June 2025, Chamber Choice
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New. Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer
RecommendedLise Davidsen (Senta), Gerald Finley (The Dutchman), Brindley Sherratt (Daland), Stanislas de Barbeyrac (Erik), Anna Kissjudit (Mary), Eirik Grøtvedt (Steersman)
Orchestra and Chorus of Norwegian National Opera, Edward Gardner
Finley and Davidsen sound like sleep-walkers as they plumb the depths of their shared predicament, and they are supported by a first-class cast. Stanislas de Barbeyrac’s agonised Erik and Brindley... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 18th April 2025
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Gramophone Magazine, May 2025, Recording of the Month
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Bavouzet immerses us fully in [Le gibet's] heavy mood. And, beyond the virtuosity we can take for granted, that's Bavouzet's trump card: his playing is so full of vivid character, whether conjuring... — More…
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, May 2025, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine, June 2025, Instrumental Choice
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New. J. S. Bach: Mass in B Minor, Bwv 232
Julie Roset (soprano), Beth Taylor (mezzo-soprano). Lucile Richardot (alto), Emiliano Gonzalez Toro (tenor), Christian Immler (bass), Raphaël Pichon, Pygmalion
Choral and instrumental passages are impressively disciplined and well-characterised throughout...There are countless recordings of this work from which to choose, but every choral music enthusiast... — More…
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, May 2025, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine, June 2025, Choral Choice
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Their performance of Dvořák’s magical Second Piano Quintet is magnificent. The verve and sheer beauty of the string playing is immediately apparent in the glorious cello solo at the opening,... — More…
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, May 2025, Chamber Choice
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Gramophone Magazine, June 2025, Editor's Choice
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The hand-picked players of his Sinfonia of London are thrilling in [the] big moments, a relatively small ensemble conjuring the heftiest sonorities…Not always super-refined or conventionally... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 16th May 2025
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New. Liszt: Via Crucis & Solo Piano Works
RecommendedLeif Ove Andsnes (piano), The Norwegian Soloists' Choir, Grete Pedersen
Choral singing is well-focused from the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir under Grete Pedersen, and the difficult acoustic balance is well judged; but the chief attention here is on Andsnes’s idiomatic,... — More…
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 11th April 2025
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Gramophone Magazine, May 2025, Editor's Choice
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New. Shostakovich: The Piano Concertos; Solo Works
Yuja Wang (piano), Thomas Rolfs (trumpet)
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons
In Yuja Wang’s hands the music comes across as delightfully playful, quick to register variety. Hardly any extended passage passes by without her lighting upon quicksilver changes of colour... — More…
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, June 2025, Editor's Choice
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