“… Throughout these recordings, the SACD sound evinces admirable depth and perspective …” *****

“… Here we have a cross-section of music styles that should appeal to most moviegoers. Dirk Brossé is himself a composer of nearly thirty scores for films and television, as well as concert works. He knows his way around film music and elicits the best from the London Philharmonic.”  ****

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“…These are fully committed and generally playful readings by Rachel Harris that do justice to the music’s inventiveness and melodic vitality…. This is a captivating release, providing an attractive point of entry to little-known repertoire…”  ****

“…Gábor Takács-Nagy makes it [K451] vivid and dynamic, the Manchester Camerata incisive and lyrical, complemented by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s scintillating playing, brilliant and bravura, and perfectly balanced with the ideally captured reach-out-and-touch orchestra, this K451 really speaks to the senses. So too the whimsies of K450, formalities with a flounce in the first movement, enjoyed by the performers and – with no sound barrier in the way – shared with us… As for the Piano and Wind Quintet, once again the recording preserves every note and nuance, friends making civilised conversation, mostly intimate, always intelligent, a lively and considered discourse, give and take, changes of colour and character. *****

Recording of the Week

“… the latest volume of a cycle that stands up favourably against Bernstein’s own Copland recordings, and surely ranks as one of the finest orchestral series of the past few years.”

“… There is always a place even in a crowded historical market place for Schnabel’s Mozart performances, especially when they receive top quality transfers as here.”

“Artur Schnabel’s Mozart is every bit as individual as [Glenn] Gould’s Beethoven [Piano Sonatas Nos 30-32, Naxos 8.111299] but infinitely more subtle, the pathos-filled Rondo in A minor, K511, providing a fine example of Schnabel’s immaculate sense of musical timing. The same Naxos CD also includes the Concertos K595 (under Barbirolli) and K365 (with Karl Ulrich Schnabel, under Boult). The transfers are excellent.”

“… every track is played with an ideal blend of style and sensitivity, and the Naxos engineers have done their part by framing the music with a sonic ambience than is warm, fairly close-up, and that reveals every detail without ever sounding too analytical.”

"... While the playing is utterly seamless and unaffected, it's also full of personality... As with the previous installment in this indispensible series, you need to run-not walk-to order this one."

“…This is magnificent programming, magnificently delivered.”

“… Angular or strident sounds are not a part of Christian Blackshaw's technique. Instead a horizontally even line and lucid touch sustain his vision of Mozart.”

“… there is created in the listener a sense of unlimited trust in the pianist's interpretative authority - whether in his instinct for relating of tempo choice to shaping of phrases and grading of dynamics, or in his always acutely sensitive, never showy placing of detail... one of today's most completely accomplished keyboard Mozartians.” *****

“There is no greater compliment to Blackshaw that this ongoing set surely ranks with the greats and that he appears to be one of the foremost Mozart interpreters of the day.”

“… He identifies completely with each work, drawing out the emotional characteristics of individual movements without unwarranted mannerism. As before, Blackshaw works within a deliberately limited dynamic range, but nonetheless exerts a subtle control of timbre and voicing and delights in projecting the sheer inventiveness of Mozart's music.”

“… the capacity of the modern piano for a horizontally sustained line is largely to the fore, heard through Christian Blackshaw's lucid touch, command of tone through dynamics and tactful use of pedal. His technique is unimpeachable, his concept of the music often gentle, sometimes contemplative, occasionally detached or assertive.”