‘[Tiberghien's] partnership with Ibragimova is a real one and they seem to feel and breathe the music together. I liked the restraint of their performance: instead of milking the juicy harmonies for all they are worth, they are the more powerful for using suggestion and nuance. The performance of the D minor work, in my view the finest of the three, is particularly impressive, and there is no lack of power and strength in the passionate finale. As an encore there is a salon piece by Clara Schumann’ (MusicWeb International)

‘Just one example of Kolesnikov’s ability at dramatization, the Mazurka in C minor, Op 30/1. An opening theme of inconsequentiality, a central section more resolute before Kolesnikov’s repetition of its dotted-quaver/semiquaver motif casts a spell. The return of the opening now briefly illuminates with unexpected beauty before it becomes waggish’ (MusicWeb International)

‘Late Liszt is a different world from that of the well-known virtuoso works. The subjects are sometimes religious, sometimes macabre, and they explore strange harmonic regions with an undertone of mystery and terror. Tiberghien is an expert guide to this territory and he moulds and shapes the sometimes forbiddingly bare writing as well as rising to massive climaxes when required. The recording is superb’ (MusicWeb International)

‘What Cinquecento gives us is the best of worlds, giving Palestrina’s melodic lines and harmonies great clarity, not adding complexity but communicating the words and music with an elegance of phrasing and a feel for the dynamic flow of the music that is entirely natural … this is the kind of recording that provides a total-immersion listening experience … allow it to enter your spiritual being and you will emerge on the other side renewed and with life’s little problems firmly put in perspective’ (MusicWeb International)» More

‘One of the finest piano discs I’ve heard for many a year, and so a shoe-in for this list [Recordings of the Year, 2019]. Andrey Gugnin’s remarkable pianism and musicianship is served by an equally breathtaking recording’ (MusicWeb International)

‘Even in a year packed with fine solo piano releases—just too many to mention—one really stands out. It features the multi-award-winning millennial Andrey Gugnin in masterly performances of the Shostakovich piano sonatas and 24 Preludes. The recording is well up to the high standards of the house’ (MusicWeb International)

‘Accomplished with brilliance. At one moment a triumph of feathery lyricism and at others impressionistic delicacy against doughty pride. A resoundingly confident contribution to the Stanford revival’ (MusicWeb International)

‘Last year I enthusiastically welcomed Brabbins’ recordings of the first two Tippett symphonies. Now he has completed the cycle, and the results are even finer. The third, one of Tippett’s greatest works, gets the best performance I have heard, with Rachel Nicholls particularly convincing in the tricky vocal finale. In the fourth symphony Brabbins at last finds a convincing rendering of the breath effect which opens and closes the work, and indeed of the display of orchestral virtuosity which constitutes the main part. As a bonus we get the first recording of Tippett’s unnumbered early symphony, performed a few times, then withdrawn but now available again’ (MusicWeb International)

‘One senses throughout a judicious maintenance of familiar pillars … balanced with new elements such as the annual commissioned carol … and repertoire ranging from Medieval to composers from other traditions such as Arvo Pärt … the choir is generally in superb form, disciplined yet clearly relishing the music … superbly engineered, the recording vividly conjures the chapel’s unique acoustic’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Even in an overcrowded field, the cellist’s playing of Bach’s baroque dances commands attention for his musical insight and formidable technical bravura’ (The Sunday Times)

‘Hewitt’s playing is characteristically limpid, technically faultless, deeply intelligent and infectiously joyous. Her decades of experience playing this repertoire gives it a special patina; it glows like old gold. Give yourself an early Christmas present; you’ll want to play this again and again.’ (The Guardian)

‘While Hewitt’s stylish integrity, superb finger independence and deep feeling for the music’s roots in dance remains a constant, there’s now a greater level of interplay between hands, with added variety of articulation and rhythmic flexibility’ (Gramophone)