Presto Recordings of the Year, Berlioz (composer)
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Paganini: 24 Caprices
Recommendedplus Caprices by Berlioz, Cervelló, Kreisler, Ortiz, Saint-Saëns, Sarasate, Wieniawski
María Dueñas (violin), Itamar Golan (piano), Boris Kuschnir (violin), Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Mihhail Gerts
The Paganini Caprices have energy in the bowing from the outset, confident octaves and portamento, and impeccable double stops...You could listen straight through, but I’d recommend random shuffling... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 14th February 2025
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Gramophone Magazine, March 2025, Recording of the Month
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Gramophone Awards, 2025 Winners, Instrumental
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2025
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The New York Times, Best Classical Music Albums of 2025
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This is utterly adorable from start to finish…In the booklet Piau speaks of her joy at performing this kind of repertoire and her rapture is palpable from the breathless opening moments of Saint-Saens’s... —
Awards:
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Presto Editor's Choice, May 2019
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Diapason d’Or, June 2019
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BBC Music Magazine, August 2019, Choral & Song Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2019
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International Classical Music Awards, 2019, Nominee - Vocal
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Gramophone Magazine, December 2019, Critics' Choice
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Presto Recording of the Week, 20th December 2019
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2020, Finalist - Vocal
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Gramophone Awards, 2020, Winner - Recital
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What is there left to say about Symphonie fantastique? Plenty, on the evidence of this vibrant new recording of Berlioz’s extraordinary masterpiece...Mäkelä gets the strings to shun the comfort... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 6th June 2025
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2025
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L'Opéra
Recommendedjewelcase version
Jonas Kaufmann (tenor), Ludovic Tézier (baritone), Sonya Yoncheva (soprano)
Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Bertrand de Billy
Kaufmann is a consummate artist who rethinks everything that he sings…You can almost forgive the hooded, crooner-like tone that [he] favours when his characters are interrogating their souls.... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 15th September 2017
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2017
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International Opera Awards, 2018, Nominated - Solo Recital
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Special offer. Berlioz: Les Nuits d'été & Harold en Italie
RecommendedMichael Spyres (baritenor), Timothy Ridout (viola), Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg, John Nelson
This is special. Two extraordinary masterpieces...Two outstanding soloists thoroughly immersed in Berlioz’s music, partnered by an orchestra and conductor with an unsurpassed pedigree in the... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 18th November 2022
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2022
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2023, Nominated - Male Singer of the Year, Solo Vocal & Conductor of the Year
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Special offer. Mirages
RecommendedOpera Arias & Songs
Sabine Devieilhe (soprano) & Alexandre Tharaud (piano)
Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth
Devieilhe’s singing lights up the good, the bad and the music of Ambroise Thomas with her vivid, pure tone and apparently limitless breath. Alexandre Tharaud pops in as a sensitive piano partner;... —
Awards:
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2017
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Presto Editor's Choice, November 2017
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Gramophone Magazine, December 2017, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine, January 2018, Opera Choice
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Gramophone Awards, 2018, Finalist - Recital
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Grammy Awards, 61st Awards (2019), Nominee - Classical Solo Vocal Album
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2019, Finalist - Vocal
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Special offer. Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust
RecommendedMichael Spyres (Faust), Joyce DiDonato (Marguerite), Nicolas Courjal (Méphistophélès), Alexandre Duhamel (Brander)
Coro Gulbenkian, Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, John Nelson
Nelson has a great feel for the weird structure of the piece, with its sudden lurches of pace and location...Nelson’s pacing is uncannily ‘right’; he’s not one to force Berlioz, period-style,... —
Awards:
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Diapason d’Or, November 2019, Nouveauté
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2019
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Presto Recording of the Week, 22nd November 2019
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The New York Times, Recordings of the Year 2019
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2020, Nominee - Female Singer of the Year (DiDonato)
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A Tribute To Pauline Viardot
RecommendedMarina Viotti (mezzo-soprano), Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset
Imperceptibly Viotti makes them her own, tender but tough in Rosina’s ‘Una voce poco fa’ and producing a cascade of diamondbright coloratura in ‘Bel raggio lusinghier’, as well as an astonishing... —
Awards:
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2022
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2023, Nominated - Conductor of the Year & Solo Vocal
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International Opera Awards, 2023, Nominated - Recording (Solo Recital)
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Special offer. Berlioz, Ravel & Saint-Saëns
RecommendedMarie-Nicole Lemieux (contralto), Orchestre philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Kazuki Yamada
The Berlioz and Ravel cycles are natural partners, and Lemieux’s beguiling performance sets a formidable benchmark...Kazuki Yamada ensures that the Monte-Carlo players support every nuance,... —
Awards:
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2023
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International Classical Music Awards, 2024, Nominated - Vocal Music
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Special offer. Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette & Cléopâtre
RecommendedJoyce DiDonato (mezzo-soprano), Cyrille Dubois (tenor), Christopher Maltman (baritone), Coro Gulbenkian, Chœur de l’OnR, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, John Nelson
The Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra – lynchpin of the Nelson series – offers conf ident, full-toned playing, with crisp and alert strings, characterful woodwind, subtle yet, where necessary,... —
Awards:
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Record Review, 1st April 2023, Record of the Week
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2023
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