‘He’s really made me reassess this music I thought I knew so well; nothing is taken for granted … Hough takes Brahms at his word with his tempo indications … there are ravishingly beautiful lullabies interrupted by outbursts of volcanic emotion, soulful introspection twisting into agonizing torment, and Hough’s playing melts into the recorded acoustic … I think, end-to-end, this is some of the most refreshing, surprising and emotionally fulfilling late Brahms I’ve heard in a modern piano recording … a New Year treat that will still, I think, be in some of the ‘best of the year’ lists in December’ (BBC Record Review)

‘[Symphony No 3] Martyn Brabbins seems completely aware of the duality of the symphony—the sometimes understated beauty of the surface, the turbulence breaking through from below … [Symphony No 4] another superbly paced performance … these new accounts from Brabbins and the BBC Symphony Orchestra sound superb in such broad, atmospheric recordings’ (BBC Record Review)

‘Hough calls these 20 pieces 'salon music to the nth degree' and says he does not imagine anybody else in the room with Brahms, just the composer alone at the piano. This makes his playing more intimate than most and he captures the strain of songful resignation very beautifully. The touching theme of the Intermezzo Op 116, No  5 (a repeated dying fall) is exquisitely voiced. The favourite, Intermezzo Op  118, No  2, is like a tender song without words. Most radiant of all are the Op  117 Intermezzos, glowing here with quietly rapturous colours’ (Financial Times)

‘Hough—pianist, composer, painter, and prolific writer of great charm and intelligence—comes to these late Brahms works equipped with considerable brain-power, sensitivity, and a profound understanding of the composer. His interpretations are often moving, haunting, poignant, and simply beautiful … a most impressive Brahms recording’ (The Arts Fuse, USA)» More

‘One of the finest accounts of Brahms’s late piano works on record, one that stands head and shoulders above most contenders in an ever-growing catalogue … in his natural, unmannered freedom, Hough can be ranged alongside Radu Lupu … both join hands with the treasurable few Brahms recordings that have survived from Ilona Eibenschütz, friend of the composer who gave the private premieres of Op 118 and Op 119’ (Gramophone)

‘[A] richly rewarding recording of choral works sung by Yale Schola Cantorum under David Hill’ (Gramophone)

'Het Weense Cinquecento zingt wondermooi. Onaards mooi haast, zo mooi dat je je afvraagt of deze vocale muziek indertijd—het leven was vijfhonderd jaar geleden in alle opzichten toch wat minder gepolijst dan nu—echt zo gaaf en zo rein geklonken heeft. Sterke, sonore stemmen zijn het stuk voor stuk, die in hun fraai mengende vocaliteit haast instrumentaal klinken. Een recensie geeft een beoordeling van de uitvoering, maar in feite is het de muziek die in staat stelt zo hoogstaand te zingen. Dus een 10 voor Cinquecento, en een 10 met een griffel en een kus van de juf voor Palestrina' (Luister, Netherlands)

‘The work [the Symphony in A Major] overall has an easy-going, retro charm that puts me in mind of Schubert’s early symphonies, and especially in such a deft and crisply articulated reading as this. The Utah Symphony have really blossomed under Thierry Fischer’s direction and play with considerable finesse … he does convey real affection for this neglected gem [Symphony No 1], and Hyperion’s engineers reveal a wealth of exquisite orchestral detail’ (Gramophone)

‘It's clear that here is a disc about inter-connectedness. Intelligently planned; eager to stray from the tried and tested … with La Serenissima on incisively tip-top form the programme's Italo-German entente proves cordiale’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘One immediately feels Brabbins’s special affinity for this music in the numinous pacing of the first movement of the Pastoral Symphony … I was most moved by the space, shape and tone Brabbins gives to the lyrical second subject [of the first movement of No 4] that then contrasts so vividly with the mechanistic theme (so redolent of Job) which follows. Brabbins’s attention to dynamic detail is also striking, both in the first movement (note the really hushed level of the development before the recapitulation really erupts) and the troubling demeanour of the slow movement’ (Gramophone)

‘This CD contains an account of the Pastoral Symphony in the superlative class, fully revealing the genius lying behind the score … this exceptionally well-filled issue is very strongly recommended’ (Musical Opinion)

‘Startlingly effective singing in the Bulgarian style from the Elm City Girls’ Choir teamed with Yale Schola Cantorum … superbly sung and recorded, and so’s the premiere of Roderick Williams’s A New England Symphony which comes after it, a moving choral meditation on texts born out of slavery, emigration and regeneration’ (BBC Record Review)