‘Natalie Clein gives an unexaggerated performance pursuing the music's linearity and playing from the heart while conjuring some appropriate dark tone from her instrument … the music takes wing to both beguile and thrill. It's one of the most persuasive performances of this work [Schelomo] that I have ever heard … throughout, the recording is as vivid as the music … an outstanding release’ (International Record Review)» More

„[Clein] hat das nötige Einfühlungsvermögen, die starken, aufwühlenden, dunklen Klangfarben, die gelegentlichen Abstiege in seelische Abgründe mit der herzlichen Heiterkeit der volkstümlichen Klänge fein dosiert zu kombinieren. Hier gibt es keine schmachtende Melancholie und eben so wenig überschäumende Fröhlichkeit, dafür viel Sensibilität, viel Lyrik und schöne dynamische Kontraste“ (Pizzicato, Luxembourg)» More

‘If one has enjoyed the music in those epic biblical movies of the last century, mostly starring Charlton Heston, chances are one will also respond to the works of the composer who influenced that genre. The Swiss-American Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) also wrote much secular music, but he will be best remembered for the works that reflect his Jewish heritage … completing this gorgeously performed anthology by young British cellist Natalie Clein is Max Bruch’s popular Kol Nidrei … essential listening’ (Singapore Straits Times)» More

‘Clein plunges deep into the world of Bloch's Schelomo as she effectively forms a red-hot line of communication with the listener in both its introspective, brooding moments and its soulful outbursts. The orchestra's string section produces a flawless body of sound and the balance is nicely judged’ (The Strad)» More

'This is a largely enjoyable performance, if not one that ultimately deserves to be considered as a serious alternative to the classic accounts from Karl Bohm (Decca) and Gunter Wand (BMG)' (BBC Music Magazine)» More

'As a specialist early-music consort, Gallicantus are perfectly placed here to compare the works of William Byrd and Philippe de Monte—the one a Catholic recusant fortunate in the favour of Elizabeth I for his simpler Protestant pieces, the other a Flemish sympathiser and correspondent. Gallicantus render exquisitely the ornate verses of Byrd's Cantiones Sacrae, their interwoven timbres cascading in noble equilibrium; but the most direct comparison is between de Monte's 'Superflumina Babylonis' and Byrd's 'Quomodo cantabimus', both derived from Psalm 136, which subsequently gave the world Boney M's deathless 'Rivers of Babylon'. In this case at least, music is the winner, whichever one prefers' (The Independent)

'The Armonico Consort follow up their dazzling second volume of Naked Byrd acappella pieces with this programme of baroque works for trumpet, soprano and chamber ensemble. The tone is immediately set by Crispian Steele-Perkins' trilling trumpet on Bach's Jauchzet Gott in alien Landen, which also features quite thrilling counterpoints between him and soprano Elin Manahan Thomas. Alessandro Scarlatti's pairing of voice and trumpet brings added nobility to the expression of unrequited love in Su le sponde del Tebro, though its most affecting passage is Infelici miei lumi, where Thomas's heartbreaking vocal is borne on a haunting meniscus of strings' (The Independent)

'As you might just guess from its title Let The Bright Seraphim, and the billed soloists soprano Elin Manahan Thomas and trumpeter Crispian Steele-Perkins, it’s a celebration of highlights by Bach, Telemann, Scarlatti and Handel for the valveless baroque trumpet on which Steele-Perkins is an acknowledged master, and the way it can work to such fine effect with a shiny soprano solo … the whole thing seems suffused with light reflected from Manahan Thomas’ voice, and Steele-Perkins’ effortlessly projected trumpet' (BBC Radio 3 CD Review)» More

'This album is a tribute to three composers making a big splash on the contemporary choral scene, as well as three works that were created for the 40th anniversary celebration of the King’s Singers … a fine group that do credit to these oft-recorded pieces' (Audiophile Audition, USA)» More

'Even by the standards of Mozart's astonishingly precocious childhood, this is an extraordinary achievement, a little gem of an opera written when he was just 11 years old. Commissioned by the grammar school in Salzburg as a musical interlude in its annual Latin play, it displays the audacious assurance of a composer at least three times his age. Ian Page, setting out on an epic Mozart series for Linn, conducts a top cast, including tenor Andrew Kennedy, the sopranos Sophie Bevan and Klara Ek and countertenors Lawrence Zazzo and Christopher Ainslie, with the crisp and alert Classical Opera orchestra driven along by the fine harpsichordist Steven Devine' (The Observer)

'If you discount the ‘sacred singspiel' Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots, Apollo et Hyacinthus is Mozart's first opera, written in 1767 when he was just 11 years old. It was commissioned to form lighter musical interludes to be performed during the weightier play 'The Clemency of Croesus', presented by pupils at the grammar school attached to Salzburg University. Mozart's libretto, in Latin, adapts the story of the god Apollo and the youth Hyacinthus, killed with a blow from a discus thrown by the jealous Zephyrus. The gay love triangle of the original myth is disguised in Rufinus Widl's libretto by the introduction of Hyacinthus's sister Melia, whom Apollo loves instead. Either way, it's a simple story that Mozart tells in a sequence of da capo arias, plus the odd duet, trio or chorus, with continuo-accompanied recitative linking them together. It's an astonishing piece for an 11 year-old, of course, though not in the same league as Mozart's mature works. The Classical Opera Company principals do very nicely by it. Tenor Andrew Kennedy, sopranos Sophie Bevan and Klara Ek and countertenor Lawrence Zazzo are all excellent, and Ian Page's band is neat and stylish' (BBC Music Magazine)

'The pure, refined balance of Voces8 is to be heard nowhere on this disc to better effect than the opening number, Bruckner's Os justi. Recorded in Brinkburn Priory, Northumberland, this mixed bag of a cappella favourites includes Byrd, Monteverdi, Victoria, Palestrina and Gibbons, as well as rarer items by Reger, Brahms and Rheinberger. Tavener's song of innocence, The Lamb, is the only original contemporary composition. What appears at first as a rather arbitrary sequence, on closer inspection unfolds as a very satisfying programme, albeit one in which the recording is perhaps a little too closely miked' (Choir & Organ)