‘It is a deep pleasure to hear this ensemble flourish. Since winning the 2019 Gramophone Early Music Award it has become increasingly obvious that the singers of Cupertinos and their musicologist-director Luís Toscano have a unique take on the golden age of Portuguese polyphony, and this is only further strengthened by this new release of Marian works by the extraordinarily under-recorded Pedro de Cristo (c1550-1618) … as if the musicological discoveries were not enough, I’m now quite bewitched by this glorious Iberian sound world’ (Gramophone)

‘The Takács Quartet still retains that uniquely distinguishable sonority, full and round, typical of central Europe. And what a quality it is! … [they] maintain an elegant restraint throughout, an option that is bang on target in this repertoire, particularly in the Op 77 and Op 103 Quartets, works of maturity composed between 1798 and 1803 … [and] given a warmly expressive performance by the Takács … Op 42 completes the programme, and the superb cantabile of the third movement is essential listening’ (Classica, France)

‘If this first volume is anything to go by, the journey will be a joy … Hewitt makes them sound effortless. Her articulation is clean, the pedalling lightly judicious, her fingers nimble and strong, the ornamentation always tasteful, while the clarity of her approach brings out the individual character of each sonata, each movement’ (BBC Music Magazine)» More

‘Charlie Parker’s Ornithology on the treble recorder? Surely not. But yes, this is exactly how Dutch recorder supremo Lucie Horsch has opened ‘Origins’, a globetrotting programme of specially commissioned arrangements and transcriptions celebrating the recorder’s connections to folk music, its repertoire ranging from classical to popular, supported by a host of energetic guest collaborators … what’s most impressive about this album is the meticulous thought Horsch has given to each piece’s sound world—drawing on the ranges and tonal qualities of eight different recorder types but also consulting her collaborators on each genre’s finer stylistic points … conceptually enterprising, sparkily executed, spotlighting both Horsch’s formidable technical prowess and her inventive powers, ‘Origins’ is an unexpected and marvellous affair’ (Gramophone)

'La lectura de Alina Ibragimova, con instrument barroco, se coloca, sin lugar a duda, entre las mejores' (Scherzo, Spain)

‘Proceedings are launched with a scrupulously prepared and enviably cogent account of the towering Sixth, the eager application and clean-limbed poise displayed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra captured in sound of impressive range, definition and depth … the Eighth, too, is most persuasively served. Again, the BBC SO is on its toes throughout, and Brabbins’s direction is unfailingly attentive and selfless … sandwiched between the two main offerings come three unpublished folk-song settings for unison voices and orchestra, which likely date from 1912 and may well have been receiving their very first airing at these Watford Colosseum sessions. Commissioned for a BBC broadcast in November 1941, the setting of WE Henley’s nationalistic poem ‘England, my England’ is rousingly delivered by Roderick Williams and the admirable BBC Symphony Chorus to round off a strongly recommendable release’ (Gramophone)

‘I like this choir very much with their Italianate, open vowels, clear tone quality, precise intonation and immaculate diction. This is their third CD for Hyperion; I waxed lyrical about the singers when reviewing their recording of another Portuguese composer Duarte Lobo (Hyperion CDA68306) in 2020, when I described their sound as ‘thrilling’. They have also returned to the basilica in Braga, the acoustic of which has been beautifully handled. Not only is this music wonderfully moving and uplifting but the performances are of outstanding quality’ (MusicWeb International)» More

‘For me, Le Beau’s Cello Sonata is the discovery that makes the whole recital sing … full of Mendelssohnian spirit, energy, sunshine, melodic joy. Hard to imagine it being more passionately championed than it is here … Kol Nidrei by Bruch is the other highlight here for me and the young Richard Strauss’s Sonata has rarely been made to feel as substantial as it does here’ (BBC Record Review)

‘From the first notes of the opening solo—an arioso/recitative with only continuo accompaniment—Iestyn Davies announces his clear, golden, mellifluous countertenor, and with his ingratiating tone and range of emotional expression convinces us that this is the ideal voice and character for this music. His virtuosity—control, consistency across registers, ease in both the fastest, most challenging roulades and melismas and the most delicate points of articulation—is not 'out there' but rather keeps itself fully inside the musical line and text. Although there are, for some reason, relatively few available recordings of these two cantatas (Andreas Scholl offers a fine rendition of BWV 35), it doesn’t matter when we have such excellently sung and played versions as here … for the two cantatas, you won’t find better performances. Davies is among the world’s best countertenors—a reliable, engaging, and impressive singer no matter what he performs, and he certainly is an exceptional interpreter of this repertoire’ (Classics Today)

‘I was immediately impressed and have been enduringly satisfied by this CD … Esfahani makes the most of this instrument's registers, and I would go as far as saying that this is a harpsichord recording for people who dislike harpsichords. To start with Esfahani's performances are full of expressive flexibility and arguably more the kind of playing you might expect from a pianistic interpreter, balancing that fine line between magnificent artistic inventiveness and distorting Bach's currently accepted idiom and to my ears easily falling on the right side of the argument. He appears to have shed himself from ‘historically informed’ delicacy and the formula of that Baroque machine that switches on, runs through and stops without much variation within a movement, and is also very good at giving the impression of there being a sustain pedal at his disposal. There are glorious contrasts all over the place, such as the final Presto of BWV971, which is taken at an exciting tempo and runs through an entire gamut of registers, pumping out every ounce of value from the rhythmic and harmonic drive of its 3:36 duration … a marvellous listening experience that is going straight into my collection of Bach favourites’ (MusicWeb International)» More

‘Alina Ibragimova has recorded extensively and in a wide variety of repertoire for the Hyperion label, and I particularly enjoyed her Mozart sonatas with Cédric Tiberghien. Recorded with fairly close detail but with a subtle halo of fine acoustic in the Henry Wood Hall, this solo recording is another very fine addition to her discography … Ibragimova's playing embraces Telemann's often playful inventiveness, giving us sprightly energy in the dance movements, real sustained drama where this is demanded, wide dynamic range and expressive lyricism in performances from which that all-important sense of contrast is key. The aesthetic here is ‘period style’ in the sense of generally avoiding vibrato, but the violin sound is both crisp and full, the clarity and skill in playing Telemann's at times very tricky counterpoint (so much for being not too complex technically) at times truly breathtaking … I would personally put Alina Ibragimova at or very near the top of the heap when it comes to the Historically Informed interpretations. Her natural sense of communication gives these pieces an almost effortless feel and this is the kind of recording you can easily enjoy in one sitting, which is not something you can say about too many solo violin discs’ (MusicWeb International)

‘Whatever it was that made the 1880s such an astonishingly fertile moment for cello writing, Isserlis's decision to double down and draw attention to even more works from that decade pays dividends. The original version of the Strauss is a joy, the Kol Nidrei offshoots are fascinating, and the Le Beau is a truly magnificent rediscovery that belongs right at the heart of the repertoire’ (Presto Classical)» More