‘If, like me, you’ve appreciated Hewitt as a performer of control and precision, then prepare to throw your hat in the air listening to the wild rubato of Widmung (Schumann/Liszt), or thrill to her joyously uninhibited Cäcilie (Strauss/Reger). But even these are topped by two arrangements of her own, of Bist du bei mir (Stölzel attr. Bach) and the Adagietto from Mahler’s Symphony No 5’ (Pianist)» More

‘Andrew Kirkman offers yet another casket of rediscovered musical gems—pieces once heard in the palace of James IV of Scotland … the main work here is the Missa Horrendo (the ‘Catherine Wheel Mass’). Its endlessly unfolding melodic contours are challenging but are sung here with a magical poise … the singers conclude with a beautifully constrained rendering of a Magnificat and Cornysh’s lovely Ave Maria’ (BBC Music Magazine)» More

‘From the start, Ibragimova captures the playful insanity that lies at the heart of No 1, with its crazed ricochet arpeggiations. Rather than articulating the notes with machine-gun precision, she flutters over the strings like a supercharged butterfly. In the famous variations finale, it feels as though the musical characters have come back for a final bow. Additionally, in the notorious quick-fire semiquavers of No 5, she removes the separate-bow safety net and revels in Paganini’s irregular, thrown-bow groupings. Inimitable, unforgettable and cherishable’ (BBC Music Magazine)» More

‘Nadejda Vlaeva’s mind, fingers and soul totally embrace Vladigerov’s idiom. Her ear for tone colour and her innate sense of controlled Romanticism are exactly what this repertoire needs. Take for example Op 9’s third selection, the ‘Waltz-capriccio’, where Vlaeva’s suppleness and lilt never allow the thicker, busier sequences to bog down for a second. Her subtle pedalling in Op 17’s Elegy creates alluring timbral distinctions between melody and accompaniment. Her sensitive articulation in the same work’s Prelude imparts welcome shape and character to the frequent tremolos and quasi-exotic decorative flourishes. And what a pellucid, limpid touch she brings to Op 9’s gorgeous ‘Confession’, as if the piano’s hammers had been replaced by peacock feathers! … if you’re searching for a gift for the Romantic piano-music maven who has everything, look no further than this delectable album’ (Gramophone)

‘While I like Colin Tilney’s expressiveness, Trevor Pinnock’s forthrightness, Robert Wooley’s sense of architecture, Pascal Dubreuil’s élan and Masaaki Suzuki’s grace in this repertoire, I love Esfahani’s rigor and clarity … the opening Sinfonia of the Partita No 2 in C Minor is glorious, the spacious, spread chord of the first bar establishing a dramatic tension which underpins the subsequent faster sections of the movement. Well-dramatised, too, are relationships among movements, such as those among the flowing Fantasia, the busy Corrente, the transparent Sarabande, the bustling Burlesca and the exciting Gigue in the Partita No 3 in E minor. Which sets up the sunny, tirade-streaked Ouverture in the following Partita No 4 in D just nicely. And its bittersweet cousin, the Sarabande in the same suite. Some of the best playing here can be found in Esfahani’s improvisatory and beautifully characterised account of the fifth Partita’s Praeambulum—which again points ahead to the sixth Partita’s opening Toccata, as thrilling an account as you’re likely to hear anywhere’ (Limelight, Australia)» More

‘The more I have listened to this concerto, the more I have grown to like it, and there is no doubt that Gablenz had a winning melodic gift … this is an attractive disc, well up to Hyperion’s Romantic Piano Concerto series standard (it is volume 83). The recording is fine, and the performances of both soloist and orchestra are top-notch. The highly informative booklet is full of musical and biographical detail’ (MusicWeb International)» More

‘The 20th century has been examined from multiple angles, but this week’s top album surely marks the first occasion when it has been seen from the perspective of the bassoon. Sometimes viewed as a comical instrument good for nothing but rude remarks, this long, thin creature, containing over eight feet of tubing partly doubled back on itself, is actually astonishingly versatile with a range of colours easily exceeding some paint charts. It’s especially impressive in the hands and lips of the British bassoon champion Laurence Perkins … Perkins’s partnership with the pianist Michael Hancock is especially joyous and the whole album represents the kind of triumph only possible from a small, imaginative, independent recording company’ (The Times)» More

‘This beguiling sequence of transcriptions was Hewitt’s lockdown project. Using a broad conception of a ‘love song’, she is able to include her own impressive arrangement of the Adagietto from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony (a love song to his wife) with Schubert’s An die Musik (a love song to Music) in Gerald Moore’s memorable recreation and Siloti’s version of Grainger’s Irish Tune from County Derry. Each of the 23 is beautiful, and the whole has a gentle, even religious solemnity.’ (The Sunday Times)

‘I’ve always admired Mahan Esfahani as one of the finest keyboard players of his generation. This latest recording in his Bach solo keyboard cycle, the Six Partitas published as Clavier-Übung I, once again reasserts 'his interpretive flair, expressive freedom and meticulous scholarship' … these are compelling and imaginative readings, both bold and convincing, captured in superb sound. Microphone placement is ideal. Esfahani has written his own scholarly liner notes in which he discusses the texts he’s used and his personal choices’ (MusicWeb International)» More

‘Paderewski’s Polish Fantasy gets a tremendous performance … Jonathan Plowright plays it so well you’re almost convinced that George Bernard Shaw might have been wrong about Paderewski the pianist-composer when he wrote, ‘Paderewski stands higher as a player than he does as a composer; and consequently his playing of his own works is a waste of his finest powers.’ Łukasz Borowicz conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the almost-forgotten piano concerto by Paderewski’s younger Polish contemporary Jerzy Gablenz is a worthwhile addition to the Hyperion label’s Romantic Piano Concerto series. Who knew there’d ever be 83 volumes? And counting’ (BBC Record Review)

‘This new release does not disappoint, as I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear … a really elegant and classy player: it’s such a refined sound, and [Shelley] employs so many ranges of touch in his playing, with great clarity which is so necessary for Mendelssohn’s music. He never makes Mendelssohn sound cloying and I think that’s a great achievement … he’s just a natural Mendelssohn player, [and] we’re lucky to have this’ (BBC Record Review)

‘Cinquecento is a group of six men who have been mostly devoting themselves for a number of years to rare Renaissance repertoire. Isaac has often been recorded in recent times but this, his longest and most demanding mass, is, I believe, heard here for the first time … [Sive vivamus] is a short motet but one I have returned to a few times. It begins homophonically and then falls into delicious rolling counterpoint … Parce, Domine, populo tuo is a simple, short and beautiful motet in four parts … [Judaea et Jerusalem] makes a wonderful ending to the disc … the booklet is up to Hyperion’s normal excellent standard with all texts given in clear translations. The recording is rather close but there is a sense of the lovely seventeenth century Charterhouse complex in which the group was luckily enough to able to record’ (MusicWeb International)» More