NMC
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these are among the most powerful orchestral pieces of recent years...Wigglesworth and the Halle give performances of amazing concentration, accuracy and passion, aided by recorded sound of... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 2011, Winner - Contemporary
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2012, Premiere Recording of the Year
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Huw Watkins: Flute Concerto, Violin Concerto and Symphony
Adam Walker (flute), Alina Ibragimova (violin)
Hallé, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Ryan Wigglesworth, Edward Gardner
Cast in the conventional three movements, [the Flute Concerto] dances through a musical landscape full of light and shade. Its invigorating sense of pace and momentum is beautifully caught by... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, September 2018, Editor's Choice
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Presto Editor's Choice, September 2018
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The Times Records of the Year, 2018
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Oliver Knussen: Autumnal
Alexandra Wood (violin), Huw Watkins (piano), Claire Booth (soprano), Ryan Wigglesworth (piano), Leila Josefowicz (violin); BBC Symphony Orchestra, BCMG, Oliver Knussen
this CD should do more than any live performance to tell the world what a treasure he is. The Walton-esque Violin Concerto, Knussen’s masterpiece, is played with dazzling artistry by Josefowicz...[the... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, January 2013, Editor's Choice
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Gramophone Awards, 2013, Finalist - Contemporary
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Tansy Davies: Nature
RecommendedHuw Watkins (piano), Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Karen Kamensek, Oliver Knussen
Shamanism and the human fascination with divine energy is a recurring theme in Tansy Davies’s work. The piano loosely represents a spiritual intermediary in Nature (2012)...Davies characterises... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, July 2026, Critics' Choice 2021
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2021
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Howard Skempton: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
RecommendedChristopher Yates (viola), Roderick Williams (baritone)
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Martyn Brabbins
[Skempton] judges the balance between reiteration and variety to perfection, while the typical Skempton traits – clarity, deceptive simplicity and apparently familiar yet fresh and capricious... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 5th May 2017
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Gramophone Magazine, June 2017, Editor's Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2017
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Gramophone Awards, 2018, Shortlisted - Contemporary
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Special offer. Davies, Peter Maxwell: Taverner
Martyn Hill (Taverner), David Wilson-Johnson (Jester), Stephen Richardson (Henry VIII), Fiona Kimm (Virgin Mary), Michael Chance (Priest/God), Quentin Hayes (White Abbot) & Peter Sidhom (Richard Taverner)
Fretwork, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta Voices, His Majestys Sagbutts...
The opera is full… bitterly ironic juxtapositions, such as the 'holy' chanting from monks heard against the cynical Realpolitik of the negotiations between King and the Cardinal. Making the... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 2010, Finalist - Opera
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Opera, April 2010, Recording of the Month
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New. Robert Laidlow: Reality Eaters
Vimbayi Kaziboni, Joseph Havlat, Bbc Philharmonic, Piatti Quartet
There is a marvellous sense of mindexpanding wonderment that characterises the experience of listening to Robert Laidlow's music. Yet while his compositions are often sparked by such knottily... —
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Deliberate and fresh exploration unique to this set of instruments is what this ensemble is all about – producing uncompromising and outstandingly mastered dynamics, slide control, multiphonics... —
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2024, Recording of the Month
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2025, Shortlisted - Premiere
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2025, Shortlisted - Newcomer
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Julian Anderson: Book of Hours
Lamberto Coccioli & Scott Wilson (electronics)
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Oliver Knussen, Martyn Brabbins & Sakari Oramo
The dazzling Book of Hours, composed for the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, is one of Anderson's greatest achievements so far, building from the simplest beginning - the first four notes... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 2007, Finalist - Contemporary
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Gramophone Magazine, November 2006, Editor's Choice
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This is, finally, the memorial that all of us who were admirers of Steve Martland’s music have been waiting for…Anyone interested in the variety of British music of the 20th century should explore... —
Awards:
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Sunday Times, 2015, Albums of the Year
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Gramophone Magazine, November 2015, Re-issue of the Month
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