‘[A] startlingly good debut’ (The Scotsman)

‘This repertoire has been recorded by some world-famous artists in the past, but no performances have given me as much pleasure as these. A real treat’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘An oustanding pair of discs’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘Here is the finest string ensemble in Britain’ (Daily Mail)

‘A remarkably gifted young ensemble who bring classical elegance to these glorious works’ (Classic CD)

‘The most sensitive reportage that these works have enjoyed since the advent of digital recording’ (The Independent)

‘One of the best and most beautiful ensembles to emerge blinking into the sunlight from London's conservatoires in recent years’ (The Evening Standard)

‘The Leopold Trio offer a cleaner, more refined approach that’s easier to live with’ (Gramophone)

‘Anything that Mackerras does is worth listening to: he is one of the pioneering generation of early-music performers in the decade or so before early orchestral instruments were available, and who can now let his experience with them enhance his work with main-stream orchestras’ (Early Music Review)

‘This set of the Beethoven symphonies may well become a standard by which to evaluate both past and future performances—it certainly will be for me … this set receives my highest recommendation’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘As uncompromising and lived-in Beethoven as anyone could hope to hear’ (Classic FM Magazine)

‘The opening of the Pastoral is eager and mobile, the first movement of the Fifth Symphony quite aerobic. The tenor solo in the Ninth Symphony (one case where Beethoven's metronome marking probably is a mistake) is giddily apt to Friedrich von Schiller's text. Again and again, the ear is caught by a little stretching of pace for rhetorical effect, or by an elegant shaping of an inner voice. Both orchestras respond eagerly and well, as does the Edinburgh Festival Chorus in the Ninth Symphony. The Ninth, which drives to an electrifying end, also has a fine vocal quartet in Janice Watson, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Stuart Skelton and Detlef Roth. Sir Charles was 80 at the time of these recordings, and an introductory note by festival director Brian McMaster describes these as 'a valediction to a lifetime of making music'. If so, they're a splendid coda to a distinguished career … a top choice for a Beethoven cycle on CD’ (The Dallas Morning News)