‘The choir of King’s College Cambridge had been singing divine service for well over a century when William Byrd assumed his first major post at Lincoln Cathedral around 1563, and his music is woven through the choir’s lengthy discography … Stephen Cleobury stakes his claim on a clutch of Latin motets artfully arranged to chart the onward march of the liturgical year’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Christopher Purves … scores another triumph in this recital of solo Handel arias … few singers can match the colours, plush timbres, and rugged muscle of Purves’s instrument, and no singer surpasses his dramatic imagination … Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo … enrich the recording with a fiery rendition of Handel’s Concerto Grosso in F major, HWV315’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘The string quartet has long been a powerfully personal medium for MacMillan, yielding some of his most intimate and affecting music. This fine recording features his three full-length quartets, the excellent Royal Quartet bringing all the insight, colour and precision that these rich works demand’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Excellent throughout, the Royal Quartet impart a brittle edge to the sound that brings MacMillan’s quartets closer to mid-century European modernists such as Lutosławski and Penderecki. But there are moments of intense, lyric beauty here too’ (Gramophone)

‘As Roman Simovic moves through the micro-worlds of Paganini’s imagination, he has a nice line in rubato, and already in the second caprice there’s a good sense of his intimate relationship with the music, intensified in the portamento octaves in the third, and the contrasts of tempo in the fourth … the famous variations of the 24th [are] dispatched with elegance’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Steven Osborne’s thrilling new recording leaves no doubt of the Études’ unique position in Rachmaninov’s oeuvre. As brilliant as Osborne’s execution is throughout, it is his freshness of conception that, for me, is most striking. Naturally, every agogic, dynamic and tempo indication is scrupulously observed. On that firm foundation Osborne layers his inerrant rhythmic sense, chaste rubato, his seemingly infinite dynamic palette and, above all, his beautifully sculpted singing line … Rachmaninov fans won’t want to miss this; nor will connoisseurs of intelligent, meaningful piano-playing’ (Gramophone)

‘Like Rheinberger, Scholz wrote the one Piano Concerto, which included Clara Schumann among its champions, and it’s a delight—tuneful, insouciant, expressive. Pro-Brahms Scholz may have been, but these pieces betray a lightness of touch that is beguiling and carried off with a craftsmanship (and a few dreamy surprises in the Concerto's first movement) that suggests Scholz as unfairly neglected … throughout, Ben Gernon and the BBC Scottish offer lively and considered support to the excellent Callaghan, and the recording is a model of good balance, clarity and presence’ (Classical Source)» More

‘Watts does ravishing things with the great clarinet melody with which the work opens, to which Perkins responds with a gruffness that gradually broadens into deeply felt lyricism. There’s plenty of wit and bravura from them both in the finale, where Edwards’s refusal to rush also allows us to appreciate the complexity of Strauss’s musical argument … it’s an engaging disc, and very enjoyable’ (Gramophone)

‘In all these miniatures—some arrangements, some written for the instrument—there are folkloristic echoes amplified by compelling rhythmic variations, extended harmonies and songlike melodies … what makes Denoth’s offering a must-have is a musical sensitivity exemplified as much by his curation as by his playing’ (Gramophone)

‘As you’d expect, the music is pre-eminently personable, eclectic, adroitly crafted, and gambists have rallied to the cause … Boothby is alive to their confiding intimacy and made-in-the-moment fluidity’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘The six adult male singers of The Binchois Consort under Andrew Kirkman perform on a very high qualitative level indeed … there are two excellent earlier recordings of Frye’s Mass Flos regalis but The Binchois Consort may well come closer than their predecessors to the true spirit of the work, particularly in terms of personnel and pacing’ (Gramophone)

‘The performances are of the highest quality … this is highly recommended to all’ (MusicWeb International)» More