‘The result of Jeffrey Skidmore’s research into Brazilian music has given us a really touching disc that inhabits a sound-world closer to that of Mozart and Haydn more than that usually associated with South America. Much of the music is crammed with melody and it is quite magical, often romantic and always meltingly beautiful’ (MusicWeb International)» More

‘With both works sublimely performed by Philippe Graffin and Pascal Devoyon, in a particularly intimate presentation, there is little to criticise here, although the recording balance just favours the violin, which in turn enhances the more delicate music of Cantaloube over the richer sound of Bréville. In fact, this beautiful release can simply be regarded as a most welcome addition to the French music catalogue’ (Hi-Fi Plus)

‘Fans of French music from this period will need no further recommendation from me. A beautiful disc’ (Classics Today)

‘Graffin and Devoyon play both of these backward-looking rarities with a rewarding combination of insight and selfless devotion’ (The Irish Times)

‘This is music that could easily pall in less sensitive and committed hands, but Philippe Graffin and Pascal Devoyon almost have one believing it's a neglected masterwork’ (International Record Review)

‘Both these extensive and serious works are fine examples of what is best about French Romanticism stretching into the modern era. Played with passion, commitment to idiom and technical fluency, as well as being excellently recorded, these little-known pieces should win wide appeal’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Graffin is ideally attuned to this idiom, sensitively partnered by the busy fingers of Devoyon. This, in other words, is Hyperion at its best—two beautiful and unaccountably neglected works revived in outstanding performances, sympathetically recorded and stylishly presented’ (Gramophone)

‘This recording comes from the work's first, thrilling and bizarre BBC Proms performance in July … the enormous, almost mystical sound of the chorus, the intriguing vocal colours, wacky instrumentation and sheer vastness of the enterprise give it an odd cult appeal: truly epic’ (The Observer)

‘For all the RAH’s lively reverberation this recording of The Gothic is very good indeed—the best yet—and captures a sensational amount of detail in a performance that resets the clock. Hyperion have done us proud … I’d be unsurprised if this turns out, in the long view, to be the most important classical release of 2011. Critics of this symphony have spent years trashing the work as undisciplined, gaudy, or just plain mad, but now anyone with a stereo has access to a grippingly powerful argument for the Gothic’s place in the classical canon’ (MusicWeb International)

‘A final track of applause lasting nearly nine minutes isn't excessive … it remains one of the oddities of the English symphonic repertoire, but Martyn Brabbins and his legions of players and singers do it proud’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘This release looks set to be the primary recommendation well into the future: conveying the fullest extent yet of a flawed masterpiece that risks so much in staking out the listener's awareness of its greatness’ (International Record Review)

‘Far and away the finest [performance] it has received … in a sense, Hyperion's release is a perfect one, of a great event, a magisterial work and an encapsulation of the enormous difficulties of the project as a whole … aided by Hyperion's sensational sound, details which barely registered before sound crystal clear’ (Gramophone)