London Symphony Orchestra
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Special offer. Vaughan Williams: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 6
RecommendedLondon Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano
They’re both electrifying, and they sound absolutely magnificent...Pappano makes sure [the Fourth] sings as often as it can...This is a terrible beauty, energetic, Satanic, utterly spellbinding,... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 16th April 2021
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BBC Music Magazine, June 2021, Recording of the Week
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Winner 2021
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International Classical Music Awards, 2022, Nominated - Symphonic Music
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Gramophone Magazine, Critics' Choice 2021
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Record Review, Records of the Year 2021
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2022, Shortlisted - Orchestral
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New. Copland: Symphony No. 3 – Walker: Sinfonia No. 5, 'Visions'
London Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano
Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra do nothing to soften either work's aggressive if contrasting spirit. The LSO sounds, indeed, much like a genuine American orchestra: rhythms are fiercely... —
Awards:
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Record Review, 6th June 2026, Recording of the Week
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Gramophone Magazine, July 2026, Editor's Choice
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Special offer. Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony
Recommendedoriginal 1913 version
London Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox
Hickox and the London Symphony Orchestra have come up with a recording that you can cheerfully measure against most others in the catalogue, before you consider its unique extra charms! —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 1st December 2008
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Gramophone Awards, 2001, Recording of the Year
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Gramophone Magazine, July 2001, Editor's Choice
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Building a Library, November 2016, Also Recommended
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Penguin Guide, Rosette
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Ravel - Piano Concertos
RecommendedKrystian Zimerman (piano)
Cleveland Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Boulez
Zimerman's pianism is self-recommending.
His trills in the first movement of the G major Concerto are to die for, his passagework in the finale crystalclear, never hectic, always stylish. For... —Awards:
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Building a Library, May 2005, First Choice
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Gramophone Awards, 1999, Winner - 20th-Century Concerto
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Penguin Guide, Rosette
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Building A Library, May 2024, Recommended Recording (Ravel)
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Building A Library, October 2025, Top Choice (Piano Concerto in G)
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Britten: War Requiem, Op. 66
RecommendedGalina Vishnevskaya (soprano), Peter Pears (tenor), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone) & Simon Preston (organ)
London Symphony Orchestra, Melos Ensemble, London Symphony Orchestra Chorus, Highgate School Choir & The Bach Choir, Benjamin Britten
Britten was writing personally for three muses who had all shared the wartime experience...His incandescent commitment to pacificism and horror at the failure of humanism blazes forth...As you... —
Awards:
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Building a Library, November 2009, First Choice
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Presto Greatest Recordings of the 1960s
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Grammy Awards, 6th Awards (1963), Best Choral Performance
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Grammy Awards, 6th Awards (1963), Best Contemporary Classical Composition
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Grammy Awards, 6th Awards (1963), Best Contemporary Classical Composition
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Special offer. Janáček: The Cunning Little Vixen, Sinfonietta
RecommendedLucy Crowe (Vixen), Gerald Finley (Forester), Sophia Burgos (Fox), Jan Martiník (Badger/Parson), Peter Hoare (Mosquito/Rooster/Schoolmaster), Hanno Müller-Brachmann (Harašta)
London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, Sir Simon Rattle
If this Vixen is good, the Sinfonietta is outstanding – arguably the best on disc, though you need to experience the work in a concert hall with the nine trumpets blazing. They’re supremely... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 4th September 2020
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Gramophone Magazine, October 2020, Editor's Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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Gramophone Magazine, Critics' Choice 2020
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The Times Records of the Year, 2020
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Grammy Awards, 64th Awards (2022), Nominee - Best Opera Recording
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Special offer. Janáček: Katya Kabanova
RecommendedAmanda Majeski (Katya), Katarina Dalayman (Kabanicha), Simon O'Neill (Boris), Andrew Staples (Tichon), Magdalena Kozená (Varvara), Ladislav Elgr (Kudrjas), Pavlo Hunka (Dikój)
London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Sir Simon Rattle
Rattle and his recording engineers have produced a Katya that sound s magnificent both in its attention to musical detail and in those sudden orchestral climaxes that seem to sweep nature itself... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 23rd February 2024
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Gramophone Magazine, March 2024, Recording of the Month
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Gramophone Awards, 2024 Shortlist, Shortlisted - Opera
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalists 2024
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International Classical Music Awards, 2025, Nominated - Opera
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Gramophone Magazine, Critics' Choice 2024
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Special offer. Meyerbeer: Le Prophète
RecommendedJohn Osborn (Jean de Leyde), Elizabeth DeShong (Fidès), Mané Galoyan (Berthe), Edwin Crossley-Mercer (Count Oberthal)
London Symphony Orchestra, Mediterranean Youth Orchestra, Maîtrise des Bouches-du-Rhône, Lyon Opera Chorus, Sir Mark Elder
Elder and the LSO bring unerring musical conviction to a performance recorded at the Aix Festival in 2023...Elizabeth De Shong's Fidès, the Prophet's abandoned mother, is something else...This... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 28th June 2024
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BBC Music Magazine, August 2024, Opera Choice
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Gramophone Magazine, September 2024, Editor's Choice
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International Opera Awards, 2024, Shortlisted - Complete Recording
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Winners 2024
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International Classical Music Awards, 2025, Nominated - Opera
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Few can rival Valery Gergiev's pedigree in Prokofiev's music, and he is palpably aware of how this score works in the theatre. His pacing of events is masterly, with plenty of verve and passion…... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 18th January 2010
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Building a Library, February 2010, Modern Choice
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Gramophone Magazine, March 2010, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2011, Disc of the Year & Orchestral Award Winner
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Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts Mendelssohn & Schumann
RecommendedMaria João Pires (piano)
London Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Eliot Gardiner
[Pires] has the enviable ability to make everything sound fresh but natural, and her tone is enchanting...The definition on [the Blu-ray] is superb and the camera work actually helps the viewer... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 20th October 2014
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Gramophone Magazine, January 2015, Editor's Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2014
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Presto Favourites, Recommended Recording
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