Presto Team Choices - May 2026

Tracks from the recordings featured in the most recent Team Choices from the Presto Classical team. 2 hours 33 minutes

'Two of Saint-Georges' fourteen violin concertos are featured here - exemplifying his mastery of the Empfindsamer Stil, the fruits of his studies with Gossec, and his favouring of the violin's bright, radiant tone over its potential for acrobatics and fireworks. They're sandwiched either side of a new concerto written in tribute to him by Thierry Pécou that draws on aspects of his fascinating and varied life, including his fencing career, the folk traditions of transported West Africans in Guadaloupe where he was born, his activities as a Freemason, and his contributions to the French Revolution.' (David Smith)

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'Often dismissed merely as a friend of Beethoven or the teacher of Berlioz and Liszt (amongst others), Anton Reicha was a highly innovative composer whose music has pleasingly been receiving more attention of late. Adding to that discography is this sparkling recording of the six Piano Trios, Op. 101 from Trio Bohémo. All three members are magnificent in their energy and beauty of tone, but special mention must go to the effortlessly nimble way in which pianist Jan Vojtek despatches Reicha’s often fiendish writing, with particular highlights being the final movements of Trios 1, 3, and 5. A gem of a set.' (James Longstaffe)

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'Themed around the concept of the fair (with all its connotations of nostalgia, glitz and underlying darkness), this riveting programme of twentieth-century Americana includes a rose-tinted reading of Richard Rodgers's Carousel Waltz and a hyper-detailed account of Robert Russell Bennett’s Symphonic Picture on Gershwin's Porgy & Bess which balances languor, pathos and joie de vivre to perfection. But the highlight is Hannigan and Bill Elliott's suite At the Fair, which sees the Canadian soprano and conductor putting her own inimitable spin on two Barbra Streisand classics.' (Katherine Cooper)

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'These five sonatas neatly encapsulate the three periods of Beethoven's compositional output and receive performances here which elucidate his development with considerable elan. Striking throughout this beautifully recorded set is the sensitivity of the partnership between Watkins and Bax, the way in which they so instinctively phrase and articulate the music together with unfailing clarity, musical sense and cohesion. They find glittering opulence without excess in the allegro of the first sonata, and the tenderness at the beginning of the fourth sonata demonstrates their innate understanding of the music and of each other.' (Matthew Ash)

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'A musical celebration in miniature of all that Northern Ireland has become over the last few decades, and continues to become - featuring works such as Molloy's Violin Concerto that wear their Irish heritage front and centre by drawing on traditional Irish folk-musical concepts, alongside pieces inspired by Flemish tapestries, by narrow brushes with danger in the water, and by the experimental techniques of Boulez and Berio. Darragh Morgan and the Ulster Orchestra excel throughout.' (David Smith)

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'This gorgeously performed and delightfully varied recital is a fantastic showcase for composer and singer alike. Price's captivating songs have received relatively little exposure in comparison with her orchestral output, and Black's evenly-produced, rangy and versatile tenor is as well-suited to the dramatic numbers (including the title-song and the bitter 'They Lie') as it is to the quirky character songs: 'The Superstitious Ghost' is a bittersweet little treat, and the tiny encore to the dubious joys of tobacco is done with deadpan aplomb (splutter and all)'. (Katherine Cooper)

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'Extraordinarily daring in its structure, Witold Lutosławski’s Cello Concerto audaciously begins with almost five minutes of nothing but the soloist, presenting the perfect opportunity for Jean-Guihen Queyras to showcase his splendid virtuosity. Alongside this is an eloquent account of Bloch’s Schelomo, where Queyras’s warm, expressive tone makes for a most moving performance. In both of these works he is ideally complemented by the Luxembourg Philharmonic under conductor Gustavo Gimeno, who are given their own chance to shine in a thrilling reading of the Concerto for Orchestra.' (James Longstaffe)

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'It is testament to the conviction and insight of the playing here that Pejačević's Piano Quartet is consistently engaging beyond the drama of its opening. The fantasy they create in the first movement is contrasted in the second by rich-toned strings in communion with Tom Poster's beautifully shaded piano playing. There's a tasteful salonesque elegance in the third movement, and the pointed character of the fourth is expressed with panache. In the less outwardly impressive parts of Brahms's writing the Kaleidscope players display unerring balance and control, letting lose with earthy bravura in the closing Rondo alla Zingarese.' (Matthew Ash)

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