Orchestral, String Orchestras
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Special offer. Vaughan Williams, Howells, Delius & Elgar - Music for Strings
RecommendedSinfonia of London, John Wilson
The sound, engineered by Ralph Couzens, is magnificent...While fully relishing the at times dreamy polyphony of Vaughan Williams’s textures, Wilson’s Fantasia has sharp, impassioned edges too,... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 3rd February 2023
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Gramophone Magazine, March 2023, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine, April 2023, Orchestral Choice
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Gramophone Awards, 2023 Finalists, Finalist - Orchestral
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Winner 2023
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Sunday Times, 10 Best Classical Albums of 2023
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Gramophone Magazine, Critics' Choice 2023
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2024, Recording of the Year
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2024, Winner - Orchestral
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English Music For Strings
RecommendedBritten, Bliss, Bridge, Berkeley
Sinfonia of London, John Wilson
Here in [the Bridge Lament] is a prime example of the heartfelt precision and beauty of tone that typifies John Wilson’s Sinfonia of London. There’s plenty of heart, too, in their superlative... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, July 2026, Critics' Choice 2021
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Gramophone Magazine, February 2021, Editor's Choice
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Presto Recording of the Week, 29th January 2021
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Gramophone Awards, 2021, Shortlisted - Orchestral
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Winner 2021
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Sunday Times, 10 Best Classical Albums of 2021
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Special offer. Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending & Fantasia on a Theme By Thomas Tallis
RecommendedJames Ehnes (violin)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Manze
The success-level here is excellently high. Collectors will savour a genuine rarity: the composer’s own orchestra-only arrangement of the Serenade to Music…the music sounds as rapturously beautiful... —
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2019, Orchestral Choice
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Gramophone Magazine, December 2019, Editor's Choice
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Presto Recording of the Week, 20th December 2019
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Special offer. Walton: Viola Concerto, Partita for Orchestra & Sonata for String Orchestra
RecommendedJames Ehnes (viola)
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner
Ehnes, long established as one of the world’s leading violinists, doesn’t offer the same hefty, almost cello-like weight of tone on the viola as some of his specialist colleagues. Then again,... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, June 2018, Editor's Choice
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Record Review, 28th April 2018, Recording of the Week
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2018
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Arvo Pärt: Adam’s Lament
RecommendedTui Hirv (soprano) & Rainer Vilu (baritone)
Latvian Radio Choir, Vox Clamantis, Riga Sinfonietta, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir & Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Tonu Kaljuste
Adam's Lament serves as a summary of Pärt's evolution since he abandoned Modernist tendencies...The Radio Choir and Vox Clamantis affectingly convey anguished hopes for redemption while maintaining... —
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2014, Choral Finalist
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BBC Music Magazine, January 2013, Disc of the month
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Grammy Awards, 56th Awards (2013), Best Choral Performance
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Overall, what leaps out is the sheer quality, consistency and stylishness of Janine Jansen’s playing. She conjures up the mood of each piece with seemingly effortless and flawless technique...Pappano... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 10th September 2021
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Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2021, Editor's Choice
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International Classical Music Awards, 2022, Nominated - Chamber Music
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Special offer. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 & Barber: Adagio for Strings
RecommendedPittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck
Honeck’s Shostakovich sounds magnificent. From intense pianissimos to the shrieking upper register and full bass thwack of a grand peroration – which Honeck takes surprisingly at face value... —
Awards:
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Grammy Awards, 60th Awards (2017), Best Orchestral Performance
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Grammy Awards, 60th Awards (2017), Best Engineered Album, Classical
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Special offer. Elgar - Music for Violin & Piano
RecommendedLydia Mordkovitch (violin) & Julian Milford (piano)
Mordkovitch here transformed the elusive Elgar Violin Sonata. In rapt and concentrated playing she gives it new mystery, with the subtlest pointing and shading down to whispered pianissimos. —
Awards:
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Penguin Guide, Rosette
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[the Tallis Fantasia] is tight-reined, yet also singing and surging with no trace of anti-Romantic tendentiousness...But what makes this release so special is Elder and the Hallé's interpretation... —
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, January 2015, Disc of the month
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Gramophone Magazine, February 2015, Editor's Choice
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Gramophone Awards, 2015, Finalist - Orchestral
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Special offer. Elgar: Violin Concerto & Serenade for Strings
RecommendedJames Ehnes (violin)
Philharmonia Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis
James Ehnes has a lovely ripe vibrato and an expressive openness that touches the heart from his first entry. It's when it comes to the balancing of confessional intimacy with symphonic purposefulness... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 29th September 2008
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Gramophone Magazine, January 2008, Editor's Choice
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Gramophone Awards, 2008, Winner - Concerto
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