‘This disc is a resoundingly confident contribution to the Stanford revival … to be celebrated’ (MusicWeb International)» More

‘Barry Cooper’s notes are succinct and rich in useful detail, as one has come to expect from one of the doyens of Beethoven scholarship. I must also mention the terrific recording, superlative even by Hyperion’s demanding standards … the sonics seal the deal on a uniquely edifying and moving Beethoven disc. Steven Osborne has here captured what Beethoven’s biographer Maynard Solomon pithily characterised as the ‘etherealised improvisatory tone’ of the trilogy arguably more convincingly than anyone to date’ (MusicWeb International)» More

‘The Winchester team is an experienced one and they do this music proud. I should also recognize the idiomatic and appropriate organ playing of George Castle. The excellent booklet notes are by Martin Neary, who was himself at one time organist and director of music at Winchester, and whose understanding of Tavener’s music was commended by the composer. The cathedral is vast, but the engineers have secured good sound. Full texts are included. Even if you already have discs of Tavener’s choral music you should consider this’ (MusicWeb International)» More

‘Certain pieces of music can change your life. For me, it was Hyperion’s June release of an all-Janáček CD highlighted by the song cycle 'The diary of one who disappeared' … Spence’s voice stuns, and his beautifully pronounced Czech illuminates the music’s emotional nuances startlingly well. Drake has had a long involvement with this piece … [his] playing throughout the CD is extremely impressive. As far as transforming a life, or at least temporarily rerouting it, this album led me to choose, for a summer project, to listen to all of the music of Janáček—and it has been a complete delight. I would never had made this discovery if I had not heard these luminous performances’ (The Arts Fuse, USA)

‘The hoped-for second volume from Leonore PT of Charles Hubert Hastings Parry’s chamber music has arrived! And it’s every bit as good and rewarding as the first … a job exceptionally well done—hats off to Sir Hubert Parry, Leonore members and their guest viola-player, and of course Hyperion—and not forgetting sound-engineer Arne Akselberg, whose demonstration-quality recording invites the listener to be the fourth or fifth member of the ensemble’ (Classical Source)» More

‘What Dausgaard gets—quite brilliantly—is that a lot of this music is really dramatic … you get this wonderful sense of almost theatrical music and I think that’s really important … [Benjamin Appl] is fabulous’ (BBC Record Review)

‘Linus Roth proves a thoughtful soloist. His sweet tone and artful feel for the [Lassen]’s phrasal uplift is best encountered in the slow movement, the whole cantilena of which sounds to me like a song arrangement, though the arabesques, with an underlying waltz rhythm, prove especially ear catching … the notes to this issue are by MWI contributor Philip Borg-Wheeler and very readable and informative they are too. The BBC Scottish Symphony under Antony Hermus, who has made something of a specialty of the romantic literature, plays with great sympathy and sense of colour … this disc offers an out-of-the-way sidelight on the repertoire’ (MusicWeb International)» More

‘Taking the bait, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, big as always on brass and percussion, respond to any detail and every intention. Dausgaard brings plenty to the table. The rhythmic bite and string articulation (nourished despite being no more than 14.12.10.8.6) generates febrile electricity and tautness from the onset, the tutti climaxes attacked powerfully, the voicing of sound-print chords and solos keenly judged … come the end, gripped by the sensualism, swagger and sorrow of it all, the Loki fire, you feel as though you've been on an epic symphonic voyage, that here, youth regardless, lies truly some of the most imaginative, inventively original, raw music of an era, Strauss and Mahler notwithstanding’ (Classical Source)» More

‘Callaghan’s adroitly played disc’ (The Guardian)

‘Hyperion have given us a very fine version of Kullervo. Engineer Simon Eadon and producer Andrew Keener have presented the performance in excellent sound … you won’t go far wrong with this performance of Sibelius’s early symphony.’ (MusicWeb International)

‘Hats off to pianist-conductor Howard Shelley, who has by no small set of skills kept this often wild and wily music in constant motion … a perpetual source of musical wonder’ (Audiophile Audition, USA)

‘This celebration of Herbert Howells (1892-1983) forms Stephen Cleobury’s final recordings from King’s College Cambridge where he has been director of music for thirty-seven years. Of particular interest are the rarely performed An English Mass and the Cello Concerto, although both are previously recorded … the rhapsodic first movement [of the Concerto] is given due respect to its spacious arch-like design and the central ‘Threnody’ is sculpted with warm expressivity, its elegiac ruminations fully explored. If this dark-hued lament reaches into the core of the composer’s heartache, then the colourful Finale with its Walton-like vigour is no-less tinged with melancholic lyricism … the recorded sound is excellent’ (Classical Source)» More