“… In trying times, we have a responsibility to find joy wherever we can. Hemsing and Trpceski provide that joy in spades with their vivacious, probing, and ultimately life-affirming performances.”

Recommended

“…What a winner!”

“… By my reckoning, this is the third volume in Chandos’ on-going Goossens series … performed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, with the previous issues garnering enthusiastic endorsement from our reviewers. This latest release is no exception. The sound is gripping and full of pull and punch, and Lewis Foreman's booklet essay, in English, French and German, is packed with detailed information. For those not familiar with the other volumes in the series and encountering Goossens’ music fresh, this compelling release will steer the aspiring supplicant on the right path.”

“This programme vividly illustrates that the work of many of the now lesser-known composers working in Beethoven’s era …each represented by a sonata here — were anything but second-rate… Bavouzet’s advocacy is passionate and intelligent …”

Album of the Week

“… Tingaud has the music in his blood and draws playing of ravishing beauty from the RSNO, whose priapic horns in Le Chasseur maudit (Accursed Huntsman) make a splendid sound.”

“… I can’t recall any recorded performance {Sonata in B minor] which has entertained me so much, Moog relishing the sonata’s emotional extremes. The ominous fff chords which interrupt the first section are genuinely scary, before a radiant take on the “Andante sostenuto”… the things which stand out for me when listening to the sonata are the unexpected tempo and key changes, the structural boldness. Moog knits things together beautifully, this performance feeling much shorter than it actually is. The soft close is mesmeric … As a brilliant encore we get the Csárdás obstinée, an exhilarating, baffling Hungarian dance packing a wealth of invention into barely three minutes.”

“… This piece [Concerto] is deservedly a modern classic, thanks in part to a 2011 Proms performance with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain under Vladimir Jurowski…. . I love this piece; it’s both deadly serious and great fun. Orchestral samples spar with their live counterparts, the wail of a sampled flute adding wonderful colour to the slow fourth movement. So much is packed into a short time span, the advantage of a recording being that you can instantly listen again… The coupling is a 2012 Cello Concerto, explicitly referencing the composer’s Russian heritage in an elegiac central movement. The ticking woodwinds and glowering lower brass are surely a nod to the composer’s grandfather, and it’s good to hear that a gift for writing sinuous melody runs in the family… As with the earlier disc in this series, coupling two concertos for Bass Drum and Saxophone, Signum’s production values are appealing – excellent sound and attractive graphic design make this another keeper.”

“… It’s  [Sextet] performed here, exquisitely, by members of John Wilson’s newly revived Sinfonia of London. Depths are plumbed in Korngold’s angst-ridden slow movement and there’s some exhilarating playing in the finale’s busy closing bars. Korngold usually wrote good endings, and the Sextet’s is no exception… Andrew Haveron’s sultry introduction [Violin Concerto] hits the spot for me, his rich, generous tone ideal for the work. But nothing’s forced or overblown, making this a recording which might convert naysayers. Listen to the way Haveron phrases the slow movement’s opening theme, John Wilson’s RTÉ Concert Orchestra providing indecently warm support. This is a hugely enjoyable performance, capped with a spectacular finale. The Dublin horns don’t disappoint near the concerto’s close, and Chandos’s sound is suitably sumptuous in both concerto and sextet. A winner. “