‘A song recital disc from the English countertenor of the moment … the main strength of Iestyn Davies’s singing lies in its straightforward lyrical beauty, certainly a sound fit for Dowland’s classic melodic grace. When his songs are performed as purely musically as this, the battle is already half-won, and indeed Davies seems to see no need for overdeliberate interpretation. His diction is clear (impressively quick in ‘Can she excuse?’) but his phrases are touched by naturalness … Davies’s accompanist is Thomas Dunford, a lutenist still in his twenties but already making people notice him with his strongly projected resonant tone, wide range of touch and dynamic, and effortlessly attentive musicianship. His five solos are a strong plus; ‘Lachrimae’ and ‘Fortune my foe’ are both seriously slow and free. This is Dowland to treasure’ (Gramophone)

‘‘The recorded sound is excellent, and final applause has been removed. This is a release to treasure for great music and magnificent readings of it (and one doesn't forget Sir Colin's previous Haydn Symphonies, like tulips, from Amsterdam) … and the front cover is quite striking in a feel-good way. Believe me, a couple of hours spent in the company of “Papa” Haydn and with a conductor who tapped so perceptively and benevolently into this imaginative and indestructible music (and which is so adaptable to a devoted and without-dogma approach, as here) makes the World a better place’’ (Classical Source)» More

'All of these symphonies' expressive strength and rigour, their invention and mastery of form, are laid bare in these revelatory performances which confirm for all time Sir Colin's reputation as a pre-eminent interpreter of Haydn's music. He doesn't hold back and relishes the warmth of Haydn's sound world' (Classic FM)» More

‘Lawrence Power, our leading viola player, comes to [Benjamin's] defence by recording Benjamin's work premiered by previous greats, Lionel Tertis and William Primrose. He switches to the violin for the formidably difficult Sonatina and the delightfully quixotic Three Pieces for Violin and Piano, before he and Simon Crawford-Phillips settle the argument with the profound Viola Sonata of 1942’ (The Observer)» More

‘For her new Prokofiev release Ibragimova teams up with Steven Osborne in one of those astute mergers of talent for which Hyperion is well known. Osborne revealed his penchant for Prokofiev last year in the Visions fugitives and Sarcasms that accompanied his compelling, multi-faceted interpretation of Musorgsky’s Pictures from an Exhibition (CDA67896). In the two Prokofiev violin sonatas, his instincts are just as finely honed … performances of depth of perception and strength of character … shifting kaleidoscopes in the piano part and the subtle vocal inflections of the violin’ (The Daily Telegraph)» More

‘Kolesnikov emphasises the delicacy and intimacy of these infrequently played pieces … the 12 short pieces of The Seasons are Tchaikovsky’s 'songs without words', although entirely pianistic, and it is wonderful to hear a young Russian avoiding the barnstorming style of so many contemporaries. He plays the 'Six Pieces' with affection and élan’ (The Sunday Times)» More

„Seine Interpretation dieses Werks [Schumanns ‘Carnaval’] halte ich für eine der hinreißendsten, die ich je gehört habe“ (Pizzicato, Luxembourg)» More

„Leslie Howard und seine drei Streicher bringen das Aufgewühlte und das Lyrische der Musik recht gut zum Ausdruck“ (Pizzicato, Luxembourg)» More

‘The Seasons … are perhaps the most immediately attractive of Tchaikovsky's piano works. Selections of them regularly appear in recitals and on disc, but for his first release on Hyperion Pavel Kolesnikov has opted to play all 12, alongside the Six morceaux Op 19, which was composed three years earlier. In 2012, Kolesnikov took first prize in the Honens piano competition in Canada, and on the evidence of his effortlessly refined playing here, he was a worthy winner … a charming, rewarding disc’ (The Guardian)» More

„Cembalo, Fortepiano, moderner Flügel? Die Diskussion ist sinnlos. Jeder soll es für sich entscheiden. Dem Rezensenten bleibt es, seine Meinung zum Spiel zu äussern. Und das ist in diesem Fall ein Spiel auf dem modernen Flügel. Danny Driver lässt keine artikulatorische Nuance der Suiten unausgespielt, die Verzierungen sind reich, jede Phrasierung ist gepflegt, das Spiel generell elegant, ohne jemals auch nur den Anschein erzwungener Bravour zu erwecken. Hoch alert ist das agogische Feinfühlen, vital und energisch die abwechslungsreiche Rhythmik. Auch klangfarblich lässt der Pianist keine Wünsche offen“ (Pizzicato, Luxembourg)

'It's their year of composition, 1917, that links the four works for violin and piano in Tamsin Waley-Cohen and Huw Watkins' collection, all by composers who had either not been affected by the rise of modernism in the previous decade, or in Debussy's case, who had played a crucial part in it but had taken his own music in a different direction. Each disc has a sharply contrasted pair of works. Sibelius's Five Pieces is the least substantial here, charming and expertly written for what was his own instrument but is really just a sequence of salon miniatures which are followed by Respighi's expansive sonata, full of rhapsodic violin lines and grandly rhetorical piano writing. Waley-Cohen and Watkins relish all that, but they seem more at home in the Debussy and Elgar works. The former is given a wonderfully subtle, introspective and touching performance; the latter is by turns typically bluff and elegiac, leaving just enough room for doubt in the optimism of its finale' (The Guardian)

‘Celebrating the work of a singer described by Voltaire as an ‘adorable nightingale’ is a terrific idea for a recording, especially when it has been prepared with such care and performed so stylishly … from the start, it’s clear that Carolyn Sampson is an ideal exponent, stylishly supported by Ex Cathedra and its period-instrument orchestra … this is a lovely disc, a most attractive programme supported by Graham Sadler’s illuminating and extremely interesting note (in a booklet that also includes complete texts and translations). The sound is up to Hyperion’s usual standard, capturing Sampson’s voice extremely well, in a natural balance. The whole production has provided me with hours of pleasure’ (International Record Review)» More