‘Whatever this music's challenges … the Royal String Quartet meet them head on … spacious and immediate sound, along with informative booklet notes: those for whom the present coupling appeals should not hesitate’ (Gramophone)

‘The Royal String Quartet, with a detailed, clear recording, give Penderecki's First Quartet a natural precision and direction … [Lutosławski's quartet] packs emotional punch. This is great chamber music’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘An absolute winner’ (Hi-Fi News)

‘This is so greatly superior to all previous recordings of Pergolesi's deathbed Stabat Mater as to put the others completely out of the running’ (Gramophone)

„Using a musical Kärcher Steam Cleaner, Sebastian Weigle and Alban Gerhardt give a Technicolor glare to Pfitzner’s music which sounds here as clearly as any music could. Gerhardt embraces every opportunity to inflate Pfitzner’s rhetoric to something large scale, though he also gives the more intimate passages an affecting expression“ (Pizzicato, Luxembourg)

‘The Royal Holloway Choir is adept and musical and, at its best, can pull off splendid performances as we can hear in the opening Benedictus Deus noster where voices and instruments combine … the highlight of the album is the shapely and effective performance of Caecilia virgo which makes the most of the timbral contrast between the groups. And the disc ends with a version of Hodie nobis that is full of panache’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Philips, an English recusant, settled in Brussels and knew Brueghel and Rubens well, his music celebrated in artistic circles as an engine of the Counter-Reformation. These delightfully rich eight-part motets from 1613 are sung here to mark their 400th anniversary, with stately cornetts and sackbuts enhancing the majesty. Rupert Gough and his fresh young voices make a convincing case for these unjustly neglected works’ (The Observer)

‘The Choir of Royal Holloway is a fine one on this showing … the overall sound full and well balanced but not overpowering … The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble do a fine job, ornamenting their lines judiciously without upstaging the singers … a very enjoyable portrait of a composer whose name deserves to be better known’ (Gramophone)

‘This was a record we needed’ (Gramophone)

‘Strongly recommended’ (Musical Opinion)

‘An important record both musically and historically’ (American Record Guide)

«Voici un disque de toute beauté pour fêter Palestrina» (Répertoire, France)