“… These performances by a Finnish period-instrument ensemble are lively and polished … an essential acquisition for Schumann admirers.”

“… Few singers have her [Sampson’s] combination of linguistic intelligence plus a voice with coloratura precision and a solid core allowing the variety of colour needed over a full-disc, one-composer recital. She occasionally goes for operatic amplitude, though not nearly as often as some visitors to this repertory. At the other end of the expressive spectrum, her partnership with the pianist Joseph Middleton shows great capacity for intimacy…”

“… The playing here is exemplary in its rhythmic precision and detail …”

“… Lucy Crowe is an enchanting Galatea: warm and womanly in ‘As when the dove’, full of tender regret in ‘Heart, the seat of soft delight’. Tenderness – without regret – is the hallmark of Allan Clayton’s Acis in ‘Love in her eyes sits playing’, and his tone is always beautiful, even in his vigorous preparation for battle. The bet-known number is ‘O ruddier than the cherry’, with its incongruous, penny-whistle accompaniment: Neal Davies, less lumbering than some, almost makes Polyphemus a credible suitor. In this tenor-heavy cast, Benjamin Hulett and Jeremy Budd are mellifluous with, like the rest, excellent diction…”

Editor's Choice - Vocal Section

"... Convincing and original, this recital sits in the upper echelons of a significant list of eminent accounts of these favourite Bach cantatas."

"... Hopefully Pietmontesi is going to record the remaining two books, for this is very fine."

"... In Debussy's centenary year, which has brought so many fine new recordings it is good to have this marvellous disc restored to the catalogue."

“… A deeply satisfying programme from a player at the peak of his powers.”

“…When it comes to choosing a thorough survey of Stravinsky’s violin music, Gingolts’s mastery of the composer’s idiom makes this CD and it earlier companion credible front-runners … BIS’s SACD sound is superb.”

"... excellent disc ..."

“… The Neaves’ Debussy is all sparking elegance and wit … “

“… In the arresting (and still underrated) Piano Concerto, Oundjian forms a splendidly combustible alliance with Louis Lortie, who process as commandingly articulate and powerfully imaginative a proponent as any I have yet encountered. Not only does the big-boned solo writing hold absolutely no terrors for him, the experienced French-Canadian virtuoso locates every ounce of crepuscular mystery from the slow movement and ravishingly soft epilogue. Rest assured, Oundjian and his admirably spruce Toronto band are with him every step of the way … Oundjian also presides over a deeply sympathetic rendering of Flos campi, that sensuous and exotic paean to earthly love … Boasting top-notch contributions from the TSO’s principal viola, Teng Li, and the Elmer Iseler Singersm it’s an uncommonly lucid, entrancingly detailed performance to have you marvelling afresh at this music’s intoxicating beauty, soaring poetry and bracingly adventurous harmonic scope. AS for the remaining items, both the Oboe Concerto and Serenade to Music enjoy supremely mellifluous treatment…”

“… It [Concertino for flute and orchestra] is an attractive, assured piece, played with delicacy by the orchestra’s principal flute, Lena Kildahl… There is plenty to listen to, again and again, in these four pieces but you can hear why the ballet suite The Dethroned Animal Tamer has been placed first on this disc. There is canny pastiche, dramatic clarity and theatrical colour in this 1942 work but more than anything there is a directness that us wholly Danish… The Aarhus Symphony Orchestra play it with exhuerance…”

"...She [de la Vega]  is a charming, persuasive, advocate for these two indelible works. The English Chamber Orchestra, too, offer fine support and, with a range of tone colours (the muted central movement of the G major First Concerto is a particular highlight) match de la Vega's recreative imagination. Pentatone has played its part as well, capturing these performances ... in particularly clear sound, without letting it become too analytical ..."

"... BIS's terrifically clear sound captures these works, sparklingly performed in Odense, in all their appealing whimsy."