‘If anyone can lift [Mendelssohn's] violin sonatas from being viewed as charming but of niche interest then it’s Alina Ibragimova (one of today’s leading exponents of the E minor Concerto), all the more so when it’s hand in glove with the pianist with whom she’s produced such covetable sets of Mozart and Beethoven sonatas, to name the composers who perhaps are these sonatas’ closest musical relatives. Happily, therefore, the results are every bit as good as one would hope. For starters, how wonderful to hear such natural, unfussy lyricism in the solo violin opening to the F minor Sonata, Op 4, of 1823, in place of the rubato and sometimes portamento-heavy, cadenza-like drama so many other violinists can’t resist … and I can’t not mention the merry, fairy-dusted virtuosity with which they flutter out the Midsummer Night’s Dream-esque finales of both F major sonatas. In a word, delicious’ (Gramophone)

‘Osborne’s readings of this repertoire are generously but never sentimentally nuanced and inflected. His sonority ranges from a roaring torrent of sound to the merest whisper, while his complete command of voicings brings crystal clarity to Rachmaninov’s idiosyncratic polyphony. All this is true of his performance of the Sonata in D minor, which emerges as a towering Romantic masterpiece … Osborne trumps all aces. His playing, heard in Hyperion’s magnificent sound, is of an authority beyond authority’ (International Piano)

‘Andrey Gugnin is a more than reliable guide to this repertoire. He responds eagerly to the special qualities of even the most modest piece: hear the lightly teasing tone he finds for the long fourth Mazurka of Op 3 or the skittishness of the sixth in the same set, or his sensitivity to the unexpected withdrawals at the end of several of the Op 25. He has an excellent feel for the dance idiom and a subtlety of tonal palette that protects him from the temptation to exaggerate’ (Gramophone)

‘Andrey Gugnin does his countryman proud. In the wrong hands, the composer’s sensitive, fleeting and often unresolved soundworld can seem incoherent, but Gugnin shapes every piece sensitively and knowingly … these are captivating pieces performed by a pianist wholly invested in them’ (Pianist)

‘We all have favourite recordings and cherished performances of the Sibelius symphonies but Mäkelä’s cycle is all of a piece, accomplished, insightful and full of the beauty and intrigue that make these works so perennially exciting. An uber-auspicious debut’ (Gramophone)

‘The Scottish tenor’s gift for combining pure tone with direct, daring expression makes this a covetable disc (even with so many available versions out there, including John Mark Ainsley’s, also on Hyperion). In Is My Team Ploughing?, hushed strings pulsating, Spence handles the leaps from pianissimo to full voice with absolute control. Bredon Hill conjures the hot stillness of a summer’s day, piano tolling and pealing as 'distant bells', the high strings suddenly transforming all to icy winter and sorrow: magically done by all, as is the whole disc’ (The Guardian)

‘Most Finnish greats have recorded cycles of Sibelius symphonies at least once … who’d have predicted that this latest, from Klaus Mäkelä at the helm of the Oslo Philharmonic, would be the most electrifying and often revelatory of them all?’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘What we have is a set of symphonies recorded by an extremely gifted conductor, who clearly communicates his understanding and interpretative viewpoint of the music to his players, who share that vision and perform with intensity and commitment. In each symphony I discovered new things, and that is exactly what I want from any new listening experience’ (The Classic Review)

‘Sensitive pianists with an ear for nuance usually put across the Mazurkas convincingly. Andrey Gugnin possesses these qualities, and has that gift for spinning out melodies in long, shapely arches, with exquisite finger legato … you cannot go wrong with Gugnin’s refined artistry and Hyperion’s world-class sonics’ (Classics Today)» More

„[Alina Ibragimova und Cèdric Tiberghien] beweisen, dass Mendelssohn nichts mit vermeintlich romantischer Gefühligkeit zu tun hat. Ibragimovas lichter, dabei intensiver Geigenton und Tiberghiens unverzärtelter Zugriff machen die drei Sonaten und einen grandiosen Fragmentsatz zur aufregenden Begegnung mit Mendelssohns klassizistischem Genius“ (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany)

‘Andrey Gugnin completely gets the way Scriabin emerges from Chopin’s salon and ends up somewhere quite different, as these mazurkas should demonstrate … you can feel the harmonic niceties of Chopin’s Parisian salon dissolving as Scriabin explores his own alternative tonalities, and Andrey Gugnin seems to understand where Scriabin has come from and where he’s heading—a passionate, sometimes improvisatory approach that pays dividends’ (BBC Record Review)

‘Hamelin, a musician of superlative gifts, makes us feel as if the composer has returned to Earth, discovered the glories of the modern piano, and is improvising the music in front of us’ (The Arts Fuse, USA)» More