Instrumental, Byrd (composer)
-
Less dramatic [than Kit Armstrong's 2021 album] but more even-tempered and sometimes even delightfully sentimental, Momen’s approach is different but no less satisfying. I admired Armstrong’s... —
Awards:
-
Presto Recording of the Week, 5th July 2024
-
Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalists 2024
-
International Classical Music Awards, 2025, Nominated - Early Music
-
Sunday Times, 20 Best Classical Albums of 2024
-
-
Armstrong’s playing is both expressive and technically brilliant, a combination here in constant demand as the ornamentation is intricate and often dizzyingly fast. And they run the emotional... —
Awards:
-
Gramophone Magazine, July 2026, Critics' Choice 2021
-
Gramophone Magazine, August 2021, Editor's Choice
-
Presto Editor's Choice, August 2021
-
Presto Recordings of the Year, Winner 2021
-
Presto Recording of the Week, 17th December 2021
-
-
Shakespeare Songs
RecommendedIan Bostridge (tenor), Antonio Pappano (piano), Elizabeth Kenny (lute), Adam Walker (flute), Lawrence Power (viola), Michael Collins (clarinet)
Five songs from Finzi’s incomparable Let us Garlands Bring see the tenor’s head voice floating sympathetically through the melismatic vowels and ever-shifting metres of Finzi’s most sensitive... —
Awards:
-
Gramophone Magazine, October 2016, Editor's Choice
-
Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2016
-
ECHO Klassik Awards, 2017, Winner
-
Grammy Awards, 59th Awards (2016), Best Classical Solo Vocal Album
-
-
The paradox of this disc is that, though devoted to melancholy, much of the music speaks of innocence and joy; perhaps it expresses a still small hope for the future. —
-
Laurence Dreyfus (himself something of a Renaissance man), combines rigorous intellect with sensitive musicianship...Ensemble and intonation are flawless; keen rhythms and feather-light bowing... —
Awards:
-
Presto Recording of the Week, 13th June 2011
-
Gramophone Awards, 2011, Finalist - Early Music
-
BBC Music Magazine, August 2011, Disc of the month
-
Gramophone Magazine, September 2011, Editor's Choice
Purchase product
Downloads
Audio formats guide -
-
Unsurprisingly, refinement abounds, though sometimes at the expense of ‘bite’. —
Awards:
-
Presto Editor's Choice, January 2019
-
The New York Times, Recordings of the Year 2019
-
International Classical Music Awards, 2020, Nominee - Early Music
Purchase product
Downloads
Audio formats guide -
-
These works have sometimes been handled as trifles or decorative miniatures, but Iranian-American harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani treats them as profoundly expressive and introspective works.... —
Awards:
-
BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2018, Instrumental Choice
-
Limelight Magazine Recordings of the Year, 2019, Nominated - Instrumental
-
-
Pienaar displays his collections thematically, connecting dances and variations, imitative and evocative works that suggest battles and birdsong, that paint portraits, tell stories and write... —
Awards:
-
BBC Music Magazine, April 2020, Instrumental Choice
-
Gramophone Magazine, June 2020, Editor's Choice
-
-
Gondko and North frequently swap parts, either from work to work or within a piece, but their playing is all of a piece: by turns joyful and reflective while evincing delight in each other's... —
-
