Orchestral, Incidental Music
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Special offer. Handel: Alceste
RecommendedLucy Crowe (soprano), Benjamin Hulett (tenor) & Andrew Foster-Williams (bass-baritone)
Early Opera Company, Christian Curnyn
Curnyn's delicious recording of the surviving score is amplified with a sinfonia from Admeto and a passacaglia from Radamisto. These fizzily, sexily swung orchestral additions emphasise the... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 14th May 2012
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BBC Music Magazine, July 2012, Opera Choice
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Gramophone Magazine, August 2012, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2013, Opera Award Winner
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It has a magic of its own which Andsnes casts equally, with his pure-source sound and range of colours, over early, middle and late Sibelius. The crystalline cascades of the Impromptu that launches... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, November 2017, Editor's Choice
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Presto Editor's Choice, September 2017
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2017
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Presto Recording of the Week, 15th December 2017
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The New York Times, Recordings of the Year 2017
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Charlston's mezzo is as dark and full-bodied as a good claret, and she offers highly expressive readings of the texts, plumbing their depths with cut-glass diction and a glorious range of colours... —
Awards:
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Presto Editor's Choice, May 2022
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BBC Music Magazine, August 2022, Choral & Song Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2022
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2023, Winner - Vocal
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Gramophone Awards, 2023 Winners, Concept Album of the Year
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Victorious Love - Songs by Henry Purcell
RecommendedCarolyn Sampson (soprano), Laurence Cummings (harpsichord & spinet), Elizabeth Kenny (archlute / theorbo), Anne-Marie Lasla (bass viol), Sarah Sexton (violin I), Andrea Morris (violin II) & Jane Rogers (viola)
Her tone is extraordinarily beautiful: natural, warm and unforced, with almost superhuman vocal athleticism —
Awards:
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Building a Library, February 2014, Top Recital Recommendation
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Gramophone Magazine, December 2007, Editor's Choice
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Penguin Guide, Rosette
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Special offer. Sibelius: Symphony No. 5; Two Serenades; Two Serious Melodies; Swanwhite
RecommendedChristian Tetzlaff (violin), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Nicholas Collon
The level of music-making presented here tells its own story. This is a Sibelius recording that’s up there with the finest of any era...And in the two groups of violin-and-orchestra pieces –... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, July 2025, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine, July 2025, Orchestral Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2025
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This new release of Mendelssohn’s complete symphonies confirms the symbiotic relationship Järvi has forged with the orchestra, and is jam-packed with exciting, at times electrifying, music-making...Many... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 22nd March 2024
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Gramophone Magazine, May 2024, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine, June 2024, Orchestral Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Winners 2024
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International Classical Music Awards, 2025, Nominated - Symphonic Music
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Grieg: Piano Concerto & Incidental Music to 'Peer Gynt'
RecommendedJean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano), Lise Davidsen (soprano), Ann-Helen Moen (soprano), Victoria Nava (soprano), Johannes Weisser (baritone), Håkon Høgemo (Hardanger Fiddle)
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Choirs, Edward Gardner
Gardner and the splendid team tackle the whole work with all the verve and drama one could possible want…But perhaps most illuminating is the contribution of Håkon Høgemo on the Hardanger fiddle,... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 5th January 2018
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Gramophone Awards, 2018, Shortlisted - Concerto
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2018
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Britten: Songs & Proverbs of William Blake
Recommendedand other songs
Gerald Finley (baritone) & Julius Drake (piano)
[Finley] just seems to be singing naturally, but at the same time he colors and inflects with astonishing specificity. He manages to vary the repeats in those folk-song settings where verses... —
Awards:
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Sunday Times, 2010, Albums of the Year
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Gramophone Awards, 2011, Winner - Solo Vocal
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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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a performance that may not be authentic in a strict historical sense but feels absolutely authentic to the spirit of the period and of players – as then, and as now. —
Awards:
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Presto Editor's Choice, September 2022
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2022
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Gramophone Magazine, November 2022, Editor's Choice
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