‘Two golden qualities leap out at once. One is the glorious singing. Tonal purity, articulation, ensemble spirit: everything here is sheer perfection, but it’s never the perfection that chills. Phillips’ unaccompanied voices, mostly numbering nine, bring passion and warmth to every note, however complex the counterpoint’s web. The second is the forceful appeal of Josquin’s music. If Phillips wanted to end the series with a bang, he couldn’t have chosen a better work than the 'Missa Hercules Dux Ferrarie', written for Duke Ercole I of Ferrara, a classy arts patron who ultimately became Lucrezia Borgia’s father-in-law … this is a heavenly album’ (The Times)

‘I love the athletic passion of Sophie Rennert’s mezzo, rich but so responsive to these vignettes with their erotic overtones. Graham Johnson relishes the economy of Brahms’s settings and they make an excellent duo in the other songs here, including Brahms’s two gorgeous opus 91 songs with viola, played with moving eloquence by Lawrence Power … as always, the insights and notes from Graham Johnson’s booklet essay are almost worth the price of admission on their own’ (BBC Record Review)

‘The latest in the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s excellent RVW cycle, conductor Martyn Brabbins … if you need a reason to opt for this eloquent recording, with so many fine versions around, it’s this: the incidental music for Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress is performed in its original 1906 guise. With contributions from folk voice Emily Portman, mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately, baritone Marcus Farnsworth, the BBC Symphony Chorus and a quartet from the BBC Singers, it’s a rewarding novelty and part of the continuing exploration of a composer whose reputation seems unstoppable’ (The Observer)

‘I have come to appreciate Alban Gerhardt's musicality and immaculate technique in listening to his formidable recording of Britten's cello works (Hyperion CDA67941/2). In recording Shostakovich's cello concertos, he faces some strong competition, not least Rostropovich who had made these works his own, but the strength of great music is that it can be open to interpretations sometimes slightly different from what one may have come to expect. Rostropovich's shadow looms large over these concertos but 'this does not mean we have to do everything differently to him, but we should arrive at our final interpretation of a piece of music by using our own resources and inspiration, and not through note-for-note emulation.' I for one thoroughly enjoyed his take on these great masterpieces which he plays with consummate assurance and deep understanding while Saraste and his WDR orchestra support him with full-hearted commitment. There are full notes too for this natural, clear and well-balanced recording. I warmly commend this very fine release to you’ (MusicWeb International)» More

‘Overall, this is an absolutely superb disc—I am very familiar with most of Mr Hamelin’s excellent other recordings and here he really outdoes himself. The playing is absolutely magnificent and he is clearly on top form in repertoire that he loves. The sheer exuberance and panache of the playing and the musicality is spellbinding. Add to this the top-notch recording quality (as we expect from Hyperion) and the informative and interesting cover notes by Francis Pott, and the whole enterprise is fantastic. This is well on the way to being my favourite disc of the year. Absolutely splendid stuff and top marks to Mr Hamelin and to Hyperion for another winner’ (MusicWeb International)

‘The temptation is merely to write that Stephen Layton and his Trinity College choir have done it again. So accustomed are those of us who review choral music to enjoying flawless excellence from them (as well as the magnificent Hyperion engineering and production team) that we have come almost to take it for granted. But even with such high expectations from the outset, the very first item here transports us into an altogether higher realm of sublimity, while the first of the three Stuttgart Psalms presents choral singing of a brilliance which simply sets new standards … there is a vast wealth of musical interest here, linked only by a thorough understanding of the medium and a musical language which is immensely lovely’ (MusicWeb International)» More

‘It is redundant to state that the performances by Howard Shelley and the London Mozart Players are superb. Equally superfluous is to note the excellent recording. It is up to Hyperion’s usual high quality. The extensive liner notes by Professor Jeremy Dibble make essential reading’ (MusicWeb International)

‘It’s a quality of performance and recording we’ve come to depend on from [Stephen Layton and Trinity College Choir] … I love the sound of the recording itself’ (BBC Record Review)

‘No qualifications are required for Angela Hewitt’s new Beethoven album of seven variation sets, a couple of them trifling but fun (variations on Rule, Britannia! and God Save the King), but others bracing creations deserving of greater fame. Hewitt’s touch is remarkably nimble and poetic’ (The Times)

‘This is the final disc in The Tallis Scholars’ complete recording of Josquin des Pres’s masses. Perhaps it is just as well, because this reviewer is running out of superlatives for the music itself and for this choir’s performances of it … here they still are, 34 years later, doing a major work full justice and laying bare the glories of two more of those marginal masses’ (Early Music)

‘Martyn Brabbins has reached the halfway point in his Hyperion/BBCSO Vaughan Williams Symphony cycle and his account of the solace-giving and transcending Fifth (first heard in 1943, the composer conducting) is as notable as the first four are in terms of performance and recording … Brabbins’s view of Symphony 5 is absorbing and spot-on in terms of tempo, transitions, phrasing and closely observed detailing and dynamics, structurally seamless from distant horizons to organically arrived-at ecstatic climaxes, the BBCSO opulent and sensitive in response, beautifully recorded by Simon Eadon and flawlessly produced by Andrew Keener. In particular, the ‘Romanza’ third movement is especially rapt.’ (colinscolumn.com)» More

‘This CD marks the triumphant completion of The Tallis Scholars’ cycle of Masses by the fifteenth-century composer Josquin des Prés. And as the choir’s director Peter Phillips points out, the first and greatest of these works reflects both the vanity of its dedicatee and the felicitousness of its construction. The Duke of Ferrara liked to hear his name sung obviously and often—he’d have fitted in well in the era of Donald Trump—so the composer took his name and title and turned their vowels into music, to create a neat little eight-note melody. He then ordains that this melody should be sung 47 times, mostly by the tenors. The effects are surprisingly intricate, and the singing here has a lovely warmth and freshness; the other two works have subtly different colourings. The acoustic of the Oxford chapel in which this music is recorded is perfectly appropriate’ (The Independent)