'The 18 trebles of the King’s choir have a good cutting edge to their sound and overall they make a very good showing … Cleobury’s performance is, in the main, light on its feet' (MusicWeb International)

'A fine account of Britten's solo cello music, inspired by admiration of Rostropovich, and stemming from a 'challenging' period of this cellist's life. There is an ample note by M. Ross, explaining the complicated relationships between Britten, Rostropovich and Sacher. An excellent album but do listen to the Suites one at a time!' (Musical Pointers)

'The three solo suites (1964-71) were written for Britten's friend Mstislav Rostropovich. Britten references the great solo cello works by Bach with his neo-baroque titling of some of the movements, but in the melancholy slow pieces he pays tribute to the music of Rostropovich's Russian homeland, with cantilenas redolent of doleful folk songs. In the third, he quotes three Tchaikovsky arrangements and the funeral Kontakion (the Russian Orthodox Hymn to the Departed). Walton completes his survey of Britten's cello music with this disc, including the theme for a composite piece dedicated to Paul Sacher. None of this music holds terrors for Walton, with his big, bold tone and formidable technique' (The Sunday Times)

'Britten’s suites for solo cello are not perhaps an easy listen any more than they are easy to play, but Jamie Walton’s absorbing performances of all three seem to expose and explore the emotional heart and soul that went into the writing of them … Walton’s range of utterance is rich, subtly inflected and a towering testament to his innate musicality and profound thinking' (The Daily Telegraph)» More

'Tenebrae has already recorded another substantial work by Russian composer Alexander Levine (b.1955), Prayers for Mankind. They understand his soundworld and this makes for a polished and convincing rendering. Those listeners who, like me, have spent hours absorbing Orthodox divine liturgy settings by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Tavener will find much to savour here. The language is tonal, often gentle and sustained, but always contrasted, deeply expressive of the sacred texts, and consistently rewarding, interpreted through the vibrato-free yet appropriately sonorous timbre of Tenebrae' (Choir & Organ)

'Owen Rees's vocal ensemble Contrapunctus here presents a programme of Renaissance polyphony ingeniously employing lamentations for the subjugation of Jerusalem as code expressions of the plight of both English Catholics under Protestant rule, and Portuguese oppressed by Spanish hegemony. It's a rich seam of material by such as Tallis, Byrd and Cardoso. The theme is most evocatively summarised in the line from Psalm 136, How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a strange land?This forms the root both of Philippe de Monte's enchanting eight-voice motet setting of Super Flumina Babylonis, and William Byrd's equally exquisite response, Quomodo Cantabimus' (The Independent)

'The 'Lacrimosa' from Michael Finnissy's recent realisation … truly whets the appetite for a complete recording … the Academy of Ancient Music provide solid support and choral scholars sing lustily. The boys, however, have a tendency towards sharpness' (Gramophone)

'The standard of the performance is high, so long as you want a liturgical version, one that might be used at a service … this is an educative set, and it is interesting to listen to the alternative versions' (BBC Music Magazine)

'The main elements of this double CD are opp 73 and 127, both over 30 minutes in length and illustrative of Reger at his most inventive. With Reger's writing bordering on Impressionism here, it is hard to sustain the musical narrative at this length. However, Goode has a natural instinct for this music and one is effortlessly navigated through all the technical challenges presented. By way of contrast the second CD contains the Five Easy Preludes & Fugues and a pair of Reger's Bach transcriptions. I had my doubts as to whether the Symphony Hall Klais organ would prove ideal, but what one loses in atmosphere with the concert hall acoustics, one gains in clarity' (Choir & Organ)

'The first volume of Nolan's survey of all the Widor organ symphonies unsurprisingly dispatched the most popular numbers (5 & 6). Volume 2 features the first two symphonies. While ground-breaking in their symphonic concept, Widor's ideas are still developing in an exploration of different tonal and structural possibilities. In the wrong hands these disparate movements can lack cohesion, but there is no doubting that Nolan's great affinity with this music really lifts the notes off the page. The organ of La Madeleine is beautiful in the softer movements, but I couldn't help longing for Widor's instrument at St Sulpice in the tutti passages, which would deliver more grandeur and clarity' (Choir & Organ)

‘A disc to make the uninitiated fall in love with Schoenberg; a big-hearted performance … which manages to combine intense refinement with unabashed emotion … wonderful, rich recording too’ (TheArtsDesk.com)

'After a long period with only a few new Brahms releases, it seems that now every major record company has found an interesting pianist to record the piano music of the German cigar-chomping master. British pianists are among the leading interpreters, including Barry Douglas, Jonathan Plowright, Martin Jones and Leon McCawley. All have released very fine recordings, although the benchmark remains the recording by Julius Katchen, which has never been out of the catalogue. I sincerely hope Alessio Bax's Brahms will also stay in the catalogue and that he will continue to record more Brahms. His enthusiastic performance of the Paganini Variations is enough to secure him a place among the very best. It is not only his technical prowess that I cannot stop praising, but also, as in the Four Ballades, the high quality of his musicianship. He carefully lays out the complex emotions of the nearly half-hour-long Klavierstücke opus 35 in a way that many seasoned pianists would envy. The finely recorded piano is heard to its full advantage in a naughty Bax arrangement of the Fifth Hungarian Dance, already made impossible to play by Cziffra. It's as if Bax is saying 'come on, I can do anything'. And perhaps he can' (Pianist)