‘Planned with characteristic imagination and generosity’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘The whole thing's a delight’ (BBC Radio 3 CD Review)

‘The Nash, as one would expect, is second to none in this music, extracting every last whiff of wit and textural audacity’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Eleanor Bron and Richard Stilgoe make excellent reciters. The Nash Ensemble could not be more idiomatic in pointing the young Walton's sparkling parodies’ (The Guardian)

‘This outstanding group of musicians has recorded a definitive and, for the first time on disc, totally complete Facade. David Lloyd-Jones, one of the great conductors of British music, elicits fabulous playing from The Nash’ (Yorkshire Post)

‘The playing of the Nash Ensemble is quite outstanding. Eleanor Bron, as one might expect, purrs her way contentedly through her texts’ (Hi-Fi News)

‘I can’t imagine a clearer, more virtuosic account of the score’ (International Record Review)

‘Eleanor Bron and Richard Stilgoe make an excellent pair of reciters, and the recoding in a natural acoustic balances them well. [Stilgoe] is the most fluent Façade reciter I have ever heard, with phenomenally clear articulation, starting with a virtuoso display in the opening poem, "Hornpipe" … Under David Lloyd-Jones the brilliant sextet of players from the Nash Ensemble … could not be more idiomatic, with rhythms delectably pointed’ (Gramophone)

‘There have been several excellent recordings of Façade, but Hyperion's now moves to the head of the class’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘Not for a while have I heard a new Walton First to put alongside the top entries … but this muscular performance, built around a dark string presence, stentorian brass, and bright woodwinds, qualifies … [but] the real wonder of this disc is the Second … if you are looking for a disc with both Walton symphonies, Brabbins is the clear choice over Charles MacKerras and Owain Arwel Hughes’ (American Record Guide)

‘During the last 40-50 years, rival versions of Walton's music have come and gone, but in the case of his symphonies, it is Previn and Szell who have seemingly remained unassailable—until now, for this new Martyn Brabbins disc is fully the equal of its distinguished predecessors and in certain details is superior to either … it is, quite simply, the sound of the orchestra in your living room—with nothing in between. For this, engineer Simon Eadon deserves the highest praise and, with Andrew Keener as producer, the result is a disc of incomparable sonic and musical quality’ (International Record Review)

‘Anyone tempted by both symphonies on a single disc need not hesitate’ (The Sunday Times)