‘Collegium Musicum 90’s playing is splendid, energetic yet expansive… Crisply articulated with almost impeccable ensemble from 15 strings and continuo, finely recorded…’
BBC Music Magazine

"...Simon Standage’s survey of oboe and double-oboe concertos on Chandos is top choice in this repertoire. Anthony Robson plays all eight solo concertos from Op 7 and 9 using a period oboe. His tone is most appealing and his phrasing and musicianship are second to none. Simon Standage provides alert accompaniments, also using original instruments, and creates bright, athletic string timbres. Catherine Latham joins him to complete the Collegium Musicum 90 sets of Op 7 & 9, including the works from strings. The artistic results are very lively and refreshing."

The Penguin Guide - 1000 Greatest Classical Recordings 2011-12

Helped by an excellent recording, clean and alive, this is a first-rate introduction to Apollo and Pan on disc
BBC Music Magazine

‘Simon Standage demonstrates period-instrument playing at its very best: not only intimate, incisive, and sometimes abrasively invigorating, but also with transparent purity.’
BBC Music Magazine on CHAN 0541 (Music from the Court of Frederic the Great)

"...Very stylish and alert playing from Simon Standage and Collegium Musicum 90, and the sound is vivid and full. An unexpectedly distinctive and enjoyable collection, easy to live with."

The Penguin Guide - 1000 Greatest Classical Recordings 2011-12

…exquisite… the four singers are such brilliant virtuosi that the counterpoint emerges with unrivalled clarity. These are spirited performances, in splendidly lifelike recorded sound.
The Sunday Times on CHAN 0653 (Bach Lutheran Masses, Vol. 2)

In the glorious fugal conclusion, the single voices again seem the correct approach: the interweaving of voices and instruments (including an unusually perky oboe) is utterly beguiling. In this version the tenor does the bulk of the solo singing and Dani
International Record Review

The Purcell Quartet’s first volume of Masses is very welcome… the clarity of texture is superlative, making this an excellent introduction to these pieces… all the instrumental playing is vivid, intelligent and sensitive.
Early Music Review

The Singers balance beautifully… and oboes shadowed their parts and thicken the texture. Everyone bounced along in autonomous counterpoint.
Evening Standard on the concert of this recording

“…These early sonatas may not be music you will listen to often, but Yates does them justice, and makes them well worth hearing. Recommended.”

Jerry Dubins

 

‘The performances are highly persuasive: articulation is vivid, balance exemplary, contrasting sections are well judged and there’s an overall shapeliness to the playing, even at its most robust and gutsy. A fine release beautifully recorded – well worth exploring.’
Classic CD on CHAN 0591 (Biber)

…a performance of great musical versatility.
Gramophone on CHAN 0715

   Disc of the Month

Performance *****      Sound *****

Richard Wigmore - BBC Music Magazine - February 2004

The excellent Purcell Quartet weight their performances just right: light and, when the notes suit, pensively beautiful. The menu is varied with a meaty violin sonata. I can’t think of a better new CD for banishing the winter blues
The Times

Simon Standage and his musicians – all playing on beautiful period instruments – are excellent advocates of this music which they play with elegance and simplicity, never trying to ‘show off’ uselessly through excessive tempi, but, on the contrary, keeping the whole performance under poised control, which precludes neither sensitivity nor grace. This music really deserves to be better known and this version really does it justice.
Goldberg

''I can think of no performance that has served them more affectionately and with such sensibility to Buxtehude's warmly communicative harmonies.'
BBC Music Magazine

…a performance of great musical versatility…
Gramophone on CHAN 0715 (Bach)

"...these sonatas are inventive and full of life, and the later ones seem to get steadily more attractive. They are played by the Purcell group with pleasing vitality and freshness, and the Chandos recording is natural and warmly flattering."

The Pengiun Guide – 1000 Greatest Classical Recordings 2011-12
 

There is no one like Richard Marlow and the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge to revive a repertoire that is still reserved for a minority audience, able to enjoy the intricate patterns of the imitative counterpoint, the musical language of the most important monuments of Renaissance sacred music.
Goldberg

‘Performance and sound are excellent. Such music can glitter; here the sound is velvety, which is much more appropriate.’
Fanfare on CHAN 0637 (Marcello)

‘The playing is infectiously uninhibited and technically immaculate – a programme of unqualified pleasure’.
BBC Music Magazine

'The playing is infectiously uninhibited and technically immaculate - a programme of unqualified pleasure.'
BBC Music Magazine

The rich sound of the instrument is well captured and Sophie Yates’s well-judged tempos and apt registrations do full justice to the often nostalgic music. She also writes her own essay in which she does not shy away from expressing personal views, though she is careful to place A-LC’s music in the fullest context for the listener. This is a rewarding issue.
Early Music Review

'One of the most exciting mixed vocal ensembles around at the moment rejoices in the name I Fagiolini - 'the little beans'. They are an irrepressible force in the Early Music world bringing bags of style, energy and dramatic excitement to everything they touch.'
International Record Review

"This new release from Curnyn is the first complete recording of Eccles opera and has been cast with fine soloists. The first of these is Roderick Williams(Mercury) who, after the stylishly played symphony, opens  with his commanding baritone and explains the task that is to be set before Paris. Benjamin Hulett (Paris) is delightful as the young naive shepherd... His light tone is backed up with a wonderful presence that really draws the listener in. Susab Bickley is arrestingly brilliant in the role (Juno) and her aria’let Ambition fire thy mind’ is one of the most exciting due to a combination of her singing and the tight orchestral playing. Claire Booth’s ’Hark hark’ aria with four trumpets all sounding together for the first time is dazzling and vital. Lucy Crowe, accompanied by her soft flute, is feminine and beguiling - no wonder she wins the Golden Apple.

Particular mention should be made of the quality of the recording itself. Curnyn’s orchestra is sprightly and all of their meticulous detail is captured without any suspicion of over-mixing or excessive editing. The result is a very stylish performance that deserves wide recognition."

- Ed Breen

'In Yates's earlier Chandos collection of Elizabethan music [CHAN 0574] I praised here ability to project musical architecture and virtuosity in her performance of The Bells by Byrd. I like her playing even more in this new release, where she plays two different virginals by David Evans and Alan Gotto. These readings have a private air about them, as if we are eaves-dropping on intimate music-making.'
American Record Guide

Richard Stone and Tempesta di Mare are at the cutting edge of the re-discovery of Fasch’s output – this excellent and thoroughly enjoyable recording is based largely on their second concert of repertoire from Dresden… Tempesta di Mare really bring the glorious sound of Heinichen and Pisendel’s famous orchestra (which Fasch knew first hand) to life.
Early Music Review

The singing and playing are thoroughly enjoyable. The program is a sampling of all the types of secular texts that the composer set, though the notes point to the connection of one or more to the 1572 celebration of the great victory at Lepanto over the Turks. The notes are excellent' Highly recommended
Fanfare

The Mass for Christmas 1766, with its colourful harmonies and beguiling melodies, receives its premiere recording on this persuasive disc.
Classic FM Magazine

…for opera buffa lovers this recording with virtuosic chorus and orchestra, superb soundstaging and vibrant acoustic should not be missed.
Early Music Review

‘These are beautiful performances, frequently moving and never less than satisfying…’
Early Music Forum Scotland

Score is gloriously proletarian, subverting the aristocratic conventions of 18th-century French Opera by substituting revolutionary songs for arias and choruses. Some may fine its overtly bellicose mood objectionable. At the same time it’s hard not to be swept away by its rabble-rousing intensity, particularly given that the performance, with Diego Fasolis conducting I Barocchisti and a first-rate cast, is so convincing.
The Guardian

"In Fanfare 21:2  I waxed lyrical about the first volume in Chandos’s traversal of Handel’s great Opus 6. Volume 2 I find ever more delightful. The playing of Collegium Musicum 90under Simon Standage’s leadership is as crisp and musical as ever..."

Bernard Jacobson - Fanfare - November/December 1998

Fine musicianship here which stresses the courtly rather than the peasantish side of Handel, and the recording also brings out elegance rather than solidarity.
Hi-Fi News

“…Joshua and Connolly make a nicely complementary pair of Handelians. They phrase with purpose and direction, mirroring each other in the give-and-take of the contrapuntal passages, maintaining flowing lines even in the quieter, more spacious numbers.”
                                                                                      

Stephen Francis Vasta
 

“…The playing is assured and stylish, the varied scoring of the orchestra parts providing one of the principal delights. The Singers, with Rosemary Joshua so refreshingly in the lead, unostentatiously prove themselves to be well up to the demands of music written in 1723 for some of the greatest singers of the day. The recording is clear and natural in balance and tone quality. There is not much left to ask for.”

John Steane - Classical Recordings Quarterly – Winter 2010                                               

‘Sophie Yates confirms her credentials as one of Britain’s most talented harpsichordists …Yates has a neat, agile technique, phrases thoughtfully, with a restrained but telling use of rubato and ornamentation, and brings plenty of zest to the gigues and courantes. A disc to whet the appetite for further volumes in the series.’
The Daily Telegraph on CHAN 0644 (Handel Harpsichord Works Vol. 1)

'It is no mean feat that Yate's delightful performance of these suites provides a rewarding listening experience without a dull moment despite a total duration of over 70 minutes.'
BBC Music Magazine

"...both for its terms of overall programming and for the sheer beauty of the performances, this new entry on Chandos’s Chaconne label takes its place immediately as a top recommendation."

Bernard Jacobson - Fanfare - November/December 1998

'Richard Hickox… has succeeded in conveying to me the humanity of Handel's masterly score, its contrasts, its gestures, its radiance and its tenderness.'
Gramophone

This seriously addictive disc should make New Yorkers envy Philadelphia for its sparkling early-music orchestra, Tempesta di Mare. Here, the group’s five expert core players – who handle archlute, cello, flute, harpsichord, recorder, theorbo and violin – pay handsome tribute to Handel. Soprano Julianne Baird joins them for the Nine German Arias, largely lyrical reworkings of biblical passages by the poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes… Highly recommended for lazy Sunday mornings.
New York Time Out

The cast has no weak links, and Curnyn directs a performance devoid of the mannerisms and quirks of some Handelians
The Sunday Times

'The allegros brim with energy, the adagios impress with their introspection, and the minuets dance gracefully into the ear.'
Fanfare

'The playing is characterful throughout and puts as strong a case as one can make without needless hyperbole.'
Gramophone

'This concluding issue follows a similar pattern to earlier discs in this prize-winning series, offering exhilarating performances which wear their period style lightly.'
Gramophone

All in all, this is the finest disc of Haydn sacred music I have heard – an enthralling release.
BBC Music Magazine

‘All in all, this is the finest disc of Haydn’s sacred music I have heard – an enthralling release.’
BBC Music Magazine on CHAN 0612 (Harmoniemesse etc.)

‘…a stunning recording… the playing is excellent, and the control of the dynamics very well done, and the pacing first-rate… Very highly recommended.’
Early Music Review on CHAN 0655 (Volume One)

‘This is another excellent CD in the Haydn Mass Edition from Chandos. These are performances of enormous vitality and vigorous clarity… In a word, it is outstanding.’
Early Music Review on CHAN 0633 (Paukenmesse etc.)

This disc… the fifth in an impressive Chandos series of Haydn Masses blazes with energy and angst in equal measure.
Observer

This is another excellent CD in the Haydn Mass Edition from Chandos. These are performances of enormous vitality and vigorous clarity… In a word, it is outstanding.
Early Music Review

“Here then are discerning accounts which ably show how fine and still underrated a composer Haydn is. Close to the sound he’d have expected, they are presented sympathetically without showmanship yet with sensitive and judiciously varied ornamentation in repeats.”

Michael Greenhalgh - Musicweb-international – March 2011  

Gramophone Awards 2003 best choral recording recording
Gramophone

…this one is one of the best period-instruments performances I have heard. The brass are especially glorious, and the other sections are smoothly played and contribute to the celebratory nature of the performance. The soloists are all very good. The Collegium 90 choral ensemble is very well trained by Richard Hickox. Chandos offers good notes and a superbly balanced recording that is not too distant but has a pleasant airiness. In short this of one of my favourite recordings of the year.
American Record Guide

Unjustly neglected works enjoy superb advocacy under Richard Hickox’s baton…
Gramophone ‘Record of the Month’, Gramophone Awards 2003 ‘best choral recording’ on CHAN 0681

“…This is a fine addition to the recorded discography of Hummel’s music. I would especially recommend it for period-instrument enthusiasts…”

Scott Noriega

'Meunier's notes are lucid and informative, and this, his directional début, makes one look forward to other equally stylish projects. A great start.'
Gramophone

If this disc fails to ignite your enthusiasm for the harpsichord and its repertoire, then probably nothing else will…
BBC Music Magazine

Standage of course imparts ‘period’ insights, balancing the Sonata’s frisky second movement with an eloquently-turned Sarabande topped off by a Tambourin that is simultaneously rustic yet rocket-propelled.
BBC Music Magazine

‘Filippo Maria Bressan’s all-Italian forces give a vivid performance of this fascinating if uneven work… Recommended to any baroque enthusiast who fancies venturing off the beaten track.’
The Daily Telegraph on CHAN 0637 (Marcello)

‘… the music… is impressive…’
Early Music Review on CHAN 0637 (Marcello’s Requiem)

"The singing and playing are wonderfully sensitive and acute. It’s classy, provocative stuff"

“The performance is highly polished and well worth having”

Crawford

"Duo Amade embarks on its Mozart project with sytlish, technically proficient and immensely enjoyable accounts of three sonatas and two variation sets... Both variation sets (K359 and K360) are deftly characterises and the recorded sound is more faithful than many period instrument recordings."

Robin Stowell

 

“…Their [Duo Amade] playing throughout this volume is technically brilliant, filled with moments of musical beauty, and saturated with striking nuance of texture and tone colour. Chaccone’s recorded sound is clean and rich while free of unneeded reverb or other technical tampering. As with Volume One, this instalment is deserving of a place of respect in any ollection."

Mike D Brownell
 

                          ****
“This third volume in Duo Amades Mozart keyboard/violin sonata series maintains the standards of its predecessors in terms of carefulness, control, substantial accuracy, period sensibility and style…”

RS                            

'I did not expect to enjoy this disc so much. However, I have found myself returning to it again and again.'
International Record Review

'The technical standard could hardly be better' these are exceptionally fine perfomances.'
American Record Guide

"... This is superbly controlled but at the same time deeply felt singing, worthy of these-and I do not hesitate to use the word- masterpieces of sacred art." *****

Ivan Moody - Goldberg

I am especially impressed with the choir’s ability to adapt its delivery to the specific style of the music performed… Marlow has clearly taken great pains to project the expressive content of the motets with a careful shaping of dynamic gestures and articulation though there are no indications for these aspects of performance in the original sources. Sometimes the lines are delivered with great smoothness, and sometimes there is an energetic marking of the rhythms… Marlow never allows Palestrina to become perfunctory or bland, and this is a noteworthy achievement in a programme of 25 motets that were never intended to be heard at one setting.
American Record Guide

Roberto Loreggians playing is admirable, with a subtle sense of rhythm and an ability to project the most intricate part-writing. In the long ricercar, he reels off the virtuoso figuration with complete ease. Keyboard enthusiasts will find this a rewarding release.
Early Music Review

“…Richard Marlow and his mixed-voice choir are excellent.”
                                                                     

Richard Lawrence
 

'This recording uses a different critical edition (by Francesco Luisi; the Bongiovanni was by Lorenzo Tozzi) and adds a lot of music. It takes 34 minutes longer. It's also a better performance. A Gloriously bright, brisk overture - all earthy bounce and excitement - bodes well for the music to come. I Barocchisti (is that a real word?) is period instruments, including lute; their precise, slightly metallic sound rest well in the ear. The singers are generally better as well.'
American Record Guide

Yatess sensitivity to the subtleties and nuances of this music goes hand in hand with a wonderful technical facility… she seems to have a natural feel for French music and the rich, almost orchestral colours of Rameaus writing.
Early Music Today

'This second recording in Sophie Yates's Rameau series (the first was released four years ago 12/00) has it all - novelty, familiarity, sensuousness, audacity, musical authority and a beautiful sound… Stunning!
Gramophone

‘Recommended both for the under-recorded music and for the high quality of the music-making.’
American Record Guide

“A hugely enjoyable disc from an excellent young ensemble. I look forward to much more.”

Stephen Cassidy

“…These works are very well done by these musicians; Clara Rottsolk sings with clarity and expression” “…very good sound.”
                                                                       

Crawford
 

"... the powerful new Hickox recording of this late Schubert masterpiece, clean as a whistle, superbly recorded, and with an excellent note by the scholar Brian Newbould, is now the one to have."

The new Chandos is also performed on period instruments… The playing of this Italian quartet, begun in 1986, is polished and very good. The recording is full and well-balanced, and the notes are good.
American Record Guide

Collegium Musicum 90, directed by Simon Standage, offers exemplary performances: last movements vigorously projected with taut rhythms, slow movements stylish and expressive
The Times

Conductor Estevan Velardi elicits superb dramatic playing from his orchestra.
Opera News

"...a glorious CD of some of Sweelinck’s most inspired keyboard music. There are all sorts of delights here, from the beautiful variations on Mein junges Leben hat ein Endt, to the substantial Fantasia Crommatica which ends the recital - and what an impressive piece it is too. Sweelinck’s music is full of imagination, taking influences from all over Europe and mixing them together to form an original voice. Die flichtig Nimphae is very charming indeed, but there is an unforced elegance about all the usic on this CD is quite captivating. This CD is superbly recorded and Robert Woolley is a masterful exponent of this repertoire."

The Penguin Guide - 1000 Greatest Classical Recordings 2011-12

"...Standage and his group make the very most of Telemann’s remarkable orchestral palette and play with great vitality as well as finesse."

The Penguin Guide - 1000 Greatest Classical Recordings 2011-12

‘Collegium Musicum 90’s authoritative accounts penetrate the spirit of Boyce’s music. These artists play with taste and finesse… Their blend and intonation are impeccable… and they dispatch the abundant fugues with an intelligence and panache that is inspiriting…’
‘The Strad’ on CHAN 0648(2) (Boyce)

…performances are clean, neatly characterized and brightly recorded…
Gramophone ‘Editor’s Choice’ on CHAN 0593 (Music of the Nations)

                         Chamber Choice
                 Performance *****          Sound *****
"...The five multi-talented members of Sirinu all take a large number of roles, including singing, and are joined by the tenor Hugh Wilson, but the most prominent voice is that of Sara Stowe, who softens her naturally bright soprano very stylishly..."

Adrian Jack - Classic CD - October 1998

'…this is a marvellously entertaining disc, cleverly kept together by some interpolated lute pieces, nicely played.'
BBC Music Magazine on CHAN 0665 (Croce)

''of the 26 madrigals and anthems here, 16 are not otherwise available on disc - reason alone to welcome this delightful recording.'
BBC Music Magazine

"... the period performances here are first class. The rather more conventional Trumpet Concertos are also in confident hands, and the accompaniments throughout are characteristically stylish and the Chandos recording first rate."

The Penguin Guide - 1000 Greatest Classical Recordings 2011-12

“…They [Nordic Voices] display a remarkably tight blend and ensemble. These six singers are evidently so accustomed to singing together that their combination is like a single highly disciplined instrument. Within the narrow band of the present repertory, they are warmly expressive in their singing-in contrast to choirs that seem to cultivate a dispassionate style. Perhaps the most moving performance here is Gesualdo’s ‘Tenebrae Factae Sunt’, which concludes the program. They display extraordinary control in the quiet, sustained writing of this piece. It leaves the listener breathless.”

William J Gatens

"... warmly recomended ..."

Michael Talbot - IOC - Autumn 1998

'Collegium Musicum 90's stylish performances, distinguished by characterful phrasing and nimble rhythmic vivacity, add the final sheen to this captivating disc.'
BBC Music Magazine ('Pick of the Month', March 2000)

'Stone's playing is agile and confident, his sound round and full. These characteristics are essential to project the instrument's small voice in a concerto. The players of Tempesta di Mare supply a lovely, understated accompaniment that is historically informed but without any ornamental gimmickry.'
American Record Review