‘There's no trace here of starry individualism, but instead a real feeling of collegiate responsibility in the way that all the players constantly listen to each other and shade their own contributions accordingly’ (The Guardian)

‘They bring silky skills and subtle touches to two great string pieces … the dapper phrasing and translucent textures are wonderfully calculated’ (The Times)

'A suitably scholarly project from the Choir of King’s College … the boy trebles are slightly tuneless in places, but the singing generally has vigour, Stephen Cleobury keeps the tempos brisk and the soloists are excellent' (The Times)

'Produced before Bennett's death, this forms a moving tribute to a masterly composer. The immediately attractive opener, Letters to Lindbergh, quirkily imagines correspondence the aviator might have received from, among others, Pluto (the cartoon dog!) and the Titanic. His gift for soaring, exciting and grateful vocal lines is shown time and time again, and this young Scottish group repay him in spades. Warmly recommended' (Classical Music Magazine)

'Alessio Bax is living and urgently needed proof that competition triumphs are still meaningful; something to associate with playing of the highest calibre. His performance of Brahms's Paganini Variations is sufficiently prodigious to invite comparison with such luminaries as Michelangeli and Géza Anda. Yet his virtuosity is effortless, lyrical and never hard-driven; and while others struggle to clarify Brahms's potential opacity, Bax makes light of every devilish demand' (Gramophone)

'As always, Barley's playing is fearless. [It] is a voyage around the cello as well as around Britten, and one that never becomes relentless. In his Improvisation, there is skilfully woven reference to the profusion of styles in which he plays' (Gramophone)

'Faced with a commission to pay tribute to his friend's son whose life was cut tragically short, Jonathan Dove could all too easily have turned to composing a Requiem. Instead, he has fashioned an oratorio celebrating childhood and young life from birth. A Walt Whitman poem gives the work its title and finale, in which innocence and experience are grafted on to an ecstatic sense of eternal continuity. Texts are adroitly assembled from authors such as Thomas Traherne and Emily Dickinson, and there's a penultimate triptych involving Chidiock Tichborne, Shakespeare and Tennyson in musings on loss and grief. It all plays to Dove's trademark strengths: the young choirs draw on his community music prowess and his approachable idiom shows his willingness to refract a multiplicity of influences, ranging from Walton to Britten to John Adams. The setting of Keats's A Song about Myself is an impish Brittenesque scherzo, revelling in the freshness of the children's choir. In this live recording of its premiere, conductor Simon Halsey's CBSO forces savour the music's immediacy' (BBC Music Magazine)

'The combination of Ralph Allwood and the Rodolfus Choir usually means quality. It does again here in this excellently sung recital of Elgar choral pieces. It's hard, in fact, to imagine Go, song of mine, the opening item, done better … The sound is ideally balanced. A fine introduction to a still under-appreciated area of Elgar's output' (BBC Music Magazine)» More

'Many an aspiring composer today would relish the lucrative market for sheet music afforded by the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries' passion for choral festivals, glee clubs and suchlike. Elgar certainly knew their worth, as this selection of splendid part-songs—composed over a 40-year period—testifies … the delicacy (and occasional fragility) of the Rodolfus's young voices make the effect even more poignant … the whole choir blooms in Elgar's greatest part-song, the unbridled Go, song of mine' (Gramophone)

'Even by Max Reger's standards, the works that fill the first of this pair of discs are massive: at 35 and 31 minutes respectively, they are his two most substantial organ works. The Introduction, Variations and Fugue on an Original Theme Op 73, composed in 1903, is couched in the dense, chromatic style typical of Reger's maturity and dominated by the huge central set of variations, which is followed by a relatively modest concluding fugue. In the Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue in E minor Op 127, from 10 years later, the weight is again the central section, a passacaglia with 26 variations. In this case it is balanced by a hefty double fugue, while the textures have a clarity and, in David Goode's performance on the organ of Symphony Hall, Birmingham, a greater crispness, that really do suggest more transparency in Reger's later style. By contrast, the Five Easy Preludes and Fugues on the second disc seem much more straightforward and lighter in tone; Goode certainly makes them sparkle in a way that belies the composer's dour image' (The Guardian)

'Josquin Des Prez, the most influential composer in the Flemish school of the early sixteenth century, died in 1521. Over the following decade, a whole generation of composers, many of them former pupils, wrote memorial works, often quoting material and techniques from Josquin's own music. The King's Singers' disc of those tributes centres on perhaps the most substantial of them: the Requiem in Memoriam Josquin Desprez composed by Jean Richafort (c1480-1550). Richafort, who worked at both the French court and in Bruges, may well have been a Josquin pupil, too, and his requiem, which borrows themes and devices from the older man's chansons, was one of the most successful of its time' (The Guardian)» More

'An unexplored, if slightly morbid Renaissance treasure trove, this CD presents memorials composed by Josquin's colleagues after the Flemish master's death in 1521. The centrepiece is Jean Richaford's Requiem, with flowing counterpoint spiced by rich dissonances. But the most astonishing work is Jacquet de Mantua's Dum vastos, weaving together five Josquin 'hits'' (The Times)