8.557599 Bax: Symphonic Poems

“The RSNO responds with warmth, alacrity and colour to Bax’s by no means straightforward writing. As interpretations they do Bax proud…”   - Calum MacDonald, BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2005

“The evocative and very personal nature of the music is enhanced in suitably rousing Celtic style by the impressive Royal Scottish National Orchestra.”   - Michael D Heatley, HMV Choice

8.557590 Alwyn: Piano Concertos

“Peter Donohoe plays both works with verve, technical brilliance and clear respect for the difference in their respective natures, and he is well matched with James Judd and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.”   - Stephen Johnson, BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2005

“Naxos’s Alwyn centenary series gets off to a cracking start…Donohoe proves an even more dashing soloist and he is supported to the hilt by James Judd and an audibly fired-up Bournemouth SO…Donohoe dispatches it with a purposeful aplomb and dazzling technical prowess…Yet another Naxos winner.”   - Andrew Achenbach, The Gramophone, September 2005

“Expertly produced and engineered, this is a disc that seduces the listener simply by the sound it makes. All of which would have gone for nothing if it wasn’t for the impassioned advocacy and exuberant virtuosity of Peter Donohoe, backed to the hilt by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under James Judd.”   - Julian Haylock, Classic FM Magazine, September 2005

“Peter Donohoe, conveys his rich tonal palette with panache.”   - Gavin Engelbrecht, Northern Echo, 04/08/05

“His [Alwyn’s] large scale piano pieces are rarely performed, partly because they demand a virtuoso technique. Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 redresses the balance, with Peter Donohue taking the honours…with the Bournemouth Symphony under James Judd offering sterling support.”   - Michael D Heatley, HMV Choice

8.557481 Weill: Symphonies 1 & 2

“The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop give a satisfying performance…She [Alsop] achieves quite a triumph with the very early single-movement First Symphony.”   - Patrick O’Connor, The Gramophone, September 2005

“Alsop’s performance with her Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra offers plenty of drive and tension, with lyrical sidesteps nicely judged to heighten the brooding mood…Alsop and the players really deliver the goods here.”   - Geoff Brown, The Times, 05/08/05

“Marin Alsop and the Bournemouth players present clean, direct performances.”   - George Hall, The Independent, 21/08/05

“Marin Alsop directs the Bournemouth Symphony in a strong, purposeful reading”   - Rob Cowan, The Independent, 23/08/05

“Award-winning conductor Marin Alsop guides the Bournemouth Symphony…with her characteristic lightness of touch.”   - Michael D Heatley, HMV Choice

8.557595 Hummel: Violin Concerto

“The great merit of this Russian performance is the piano playing of Polina Osetinskaya, with Hummel’s rippling passagework persuasively done with crystal-clear articulation.”   - Edward Greenfield, The Gramophone, September 2005

8.554071 Beck: Six Symphonies

“…it is stylishly played and warmly recorded, and makes undemanding, agreeable listening…These are excellent modern instrument performances.”   - Ivan March, The Gramophone, September 2005

8.557287 Milhaud: La Création du Monde

“The performances, with Jean-Claude Casadesus conducting the Orchestre National de Lille, combine exuberance with scrupulous refinement. La Création du Monde, in particular is sleaze incarnate and one of the finest versions available on disc.”   - Tim Ashley, The Guardian, 12/08/05

“A thrilling performance of L’Homme et son désir expands our idea of Milhaud beyond ‘beef-on-the roof’. The eerie wordless choir evokes sultry passions.”   - Rick Jones, Classic FM Magazine, September 2005

“The most enjoyable disc of music by Milhaud that has come my way, the Lille Orchestra revelling in the jazz aspects of the ballet, La Création du Monde, before whizzing through the Le Boeuf sur le toit, strutting their virtuosity in the brilliant colours of this fun-filled score.”   - David Denton, Yorkshire Post, 22/07/05

8.557340 Léonin and Pérotin: Sacred Music from Notre Dame Cathedral

“Building a programme of music around a non-musical concept may or may not work in practice, but this utterly spellbinding disc is a fine example of how successful such a project can be…Tonus Peregrinus sing with forthright confidence and a strong sense of rhythmic purpose…They communicate their infectious enthusiasm for this distant sound-world, and recreate it most persuasively.”   - Elizabeth Roche, The Daily Telegraph, 06/08/05

“Vocal group Tonus Peregrinus bring these pages of music history to vivid life.”   - Michael D Heatley, HMV Choice

8.557647 Alwyn: Symphonies 2 & 5

“The immaculate soloist, Suzanne Willison, is placed well forward in the sound picture without any undue masking of detail.”   - Andrew Achenbach, The Gramophone, September 2005

“The sensitive harpist is Suzanne Willison; the sound quality excellent throughout.”   - Rob Cowan, The Independent, 23/08/05

“The Lyra Angelica (or Harp Concerto) that completes the selections gives Suzanne Willison the perfect platform to display her virtuosity in what enchanted critics have termed ‘a continuous web of luminous sound’.   - Michael D Heatley, HMV Choice

8.557775 Brian: Violin Concerto

“Bisengaliev performs heroically in the Concerto”   - Terry Blain, BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2005

8.557495 Quilter: Complete Folk Song Arrangement

“I particularly enjoyed the gentle barcarolle accompanying Quilter’s duet version of ‘Greensleeves’, beautifully played by that doyen of Quilter’s piano music, David Owen Norris. Philip Langridge really sells ‘The Rose of Tralee’ with his fervent engagement with its intimate confiding. And Amanda Pitt captures the fragility of innocence in the tiny Ophelia fragment, ‘Tis St. Valentine’s Day’.”   - Hilary Finch, BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2005

8.557328 French Flute Music

“Patrick Gallois gives virtuoso and (grâce á Dieu) vibrato-free renderings of six classics from French flute music of the last 60 years”   - Roger Nichols, BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2005

8.557672 Penny Merriments

“All three singers have the uncanny ability to find an appropriate tone for each song: in The Country Lass, Skeaping delivers a ‘straight’ ballad very movingly, revealing a different side to her character. And Richard Wistreich’s distinctive tone works wonders throughout.”   - Fabrice Fitch, The Gramophone, September 2005

8.557543-44: Bartók: String Quartets

“These are very able and often excellent performances. For the most part beautifully resonant and precise. The Vermeer Quartet have an attractively blended collective sound, and no problems getting their fingers around these works”   - Carl Rosman, International Record Review, July/August 2005>

8.557624 Stainer: The Crucifixion

“James Gilchrist’s beautifully poised recitatives are faultless…any new recording of Stainer’s masterpiece is welcome, especially one which is delivered with such immaculate technical and musical assurance.”   - Marc Rochester, International Record Review, July/August 2005

8.557456 Borodin: Prince Igor

“Theodore Kuchar conducts a lively yet loving reading, rhythmic vitality combining with nostalgic lyricism.”   - Christopher Morley, Birmingham Post, 11/08/05

8.660152-54 Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

“Hedwig Fassbender is a lovely Isolde and has the advantage of an excellent Brangane in Martina Duke. Wolfgang Millgram’s Tristan is lyrically sung… and Lennart Forsen’s Marke has many merits.”   - Michael Kennedy, The Sunday Telegraph, 31/07/05

8.557197 Britten: Piano Concerto/ Johnson Over Johnson

“She [Joanna McGregor] here gives a stunning performance, packed full of virtuosity in the big romantic moments, and as a separate track includes Britten’s original and fiendish difficult finale…Excellent playing from the English Chamber Orchestra in fabulous sound.”   - David Denton, Yorkshire Post

8.557770 Tallis: Spem in Alium

“…the singing of Oxford Camerata has a vibrancy and warmth that, although generously ‘romantic’ in style, is elegantly shaped and most expressive.”   - David Hart, Birmingham Post, 18/08/05

8.557445 Vivaldi: Sacred Music Vol. 1

“Kevin Mallon uses a bright and clean-sounding mixed choir…and a stylish period-instrument orchestra, with particularly good oboe and trumpet playing.”   - Peter Holman, Early Music Today, 01/08/05

8.55938 Vivaldi: Complete Bassoon Concertos

“…the soloist, Tamás Benkócs, is stylish and accomplished, and the orchestra is mostly lively and sympathetic…”   - Peter Holman, Early Music Today, 01/08/05

8.559224 Fuchs: An American Place

“Eventide was written for cor anglais virtuoso Thomas Stacy, while Out of the Dark combines wind and string quartets with the French horn of Timothy Jones”   - Michael D Heatley, HMV Choice

8.557197 Britten: Piano Concerto / Johnson Over Jordan Suite
8.553834 Britten: Serenade For Tenor, Horn and Strings

“I also love the Piano Concerto with Joanna McGregor and another unique masterpiece, the Serenade For Tenor, Horn And Strings, with Philip Langridge, who, more than any other singer since Britten’s muse and lifelong partner, Peter Pears, has total mastery of Britten’s vocal idiom”   - David Mellor, The Mail on Sunday, 29/08/05

8.660107-08 Britten: Albert Herring and 8.660109-10 Britten: Turn Of The Screw

“Also memorable are Bedford’s recordings –even better than the composer’s own- of two treasurable operas; the rustic comedy Albert Herring, with a formidable cast led by Dame Josephine Barstow as the monstrous Lady Billows, and the spooky Turn Of The Screw…a disturbing tale of two youngsters manipulated from beyond the grave by the evil manservant Quint (Langridge at his finest).”   - David Mellor, The Mail on Sunday, 28/08/05

8.557200, 8.557205, 8.557196, 8.557197, 8.553834, 8.660107-08, 8.660109-10
Britten: Naxos Reissues

“These CDs are without doubt the greatest bargain in 20^th Century music in the current catalogue”   - David Mellor, The Mail on Sunday, 28/08/05

8.110765 Beethoven: Piano Works

“This, the last of Naxos’s reissues of Schnabel’s Beethoven recordings from the 19302, expertly remastered by Mark Obert-Thorn, is one of the best…the rhythmic poise of the first variation, half imposing, half humorous, shows his [Schnabel] grasp of the dual nature of this prodigious work.”   - David Cairns, Sunday Times, 31/07/05

8.111018-19 Verdi: Otello

“But the atmosphere is electric, Martinelli’s trumpet tones are phenomenal, Rethberg’s legato line is as fine as ever, and Tibbett is an Iago who can rarely, if ever, have been bettered.”   - David Cairns, Sunday Times, 29/08/05