Decca
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Britten: War Requiem, Op. 66
RecommendedGalina Vishnevskaya (soprano), Peter Pears (tenor), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone) & Simon Preston (organ)
London Symphony Orchestra, Melos Ensemble, London Symphony Orchestra Chorus, Highgate School Choir & The Bach Choir, Benjamin Britten
Britten was writing personally for three muses who had all shared the wartime experience...His incandescent commitment to pacificism and horror at the failure of humanism blazes forth...As you... —
Awards:
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Building a Library, November 2009, First Choice
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Presto Greatest Recordings of the 1960s
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Grammy Awards, 6th Awards (1963), Best Choral Performance
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Grammy Awards, 6th Awards (1963), Best Contemporary Classical Composition
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Grammy Awards, 6th Awards (1963), Best Contemporary Classical Composition
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[Firebird] It would be hard to deny Mäkelä his place in the top tier. He creates a vibrant mood in every episode, even the ones that fill in while pantomime takes place onstage in Fokine’s fairy-tale... —
Awards:
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Presto Editor's Choice, March 2023
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Gramophone Magazine, May 2023, Editor's Choice
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International Classical Music Awards, 2024, Nominated - Symphonic Music
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2024, Winner - Conductor of the Year
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Holst: The Planets, Op. 32
RecommendedOrchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Women of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal Chorus, Charles Dutoit
The Planets is Holst's most famous work, and its success is surely deserved.
The musical characterisation is as striking as its originality of conception: the association of 'Saturn' with old... —Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 1987, Winner - Engineering
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There’s a marble-statue nobility to his playing, a sense of his powerful technique being harnessed to expression, and a seriousness-of-purpose…To end, we hear three of Brahms’s Intermezzos:... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 17th March 2023
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Gramophone Magazine, April 2023
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Gramophone Awards, 2023 Finalists, Shortlisted - Piano
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2023
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Gramophone Magazine, Critics' Choice 2023
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This has to be the best-sounding Fourth on disc – a vivid sense of acoustic and scale but with thrilling immediacy, too. —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 16th August 2024
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Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2024
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalists 2024
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International Classical Music Awards, 2025, Nominated - Symphonic Music
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Chopin: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Benjamin Grosvenor (piano)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Elim Chan
Grosvenor takes a slightly old-fashioned approach that works both in his favour and disfavour here. With playing that can be quite big-boned, he occasionally sacrifices the elegance of his music... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, March 2020, Recording of the Month
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Diapason d’Or, April 2020, Nouveauté
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2020, Nominee - Conductor of the Year
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2020, Nominee - Instrumentalist of the Year
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Gramophone Awards, 2020, Winner - Concerto
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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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This year is (probably) the 500th anniversary of Palestrina’s birth and there will doubtless be quite a few recordings of his works in the following months. Few efforts will be better than these... —
Awards:
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International Classical Music Awards, 2026, Nominated - Early Music
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The New York Times, Best Classical Music Albums of 2025
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This is quite simply magnificent violin-playing, the sort that while you’re listening to it convinces you that the music couldn’t possibly be played any other way…you soon realise just how far... —
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Gramophone Magazine, November 2018, Recording of the Month
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2018
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Presto Recording of the Week, 21st December 2018
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A real meeting of minds, these CDs capture perfectly the insight and poetry that de Larrocha brings to this quintessentially Hispanic music, and Decca's warm but not oppressively close recording... —
Awards:
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Presto Greatest Recordings of the 1980s
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Penguin Guide, Rosette
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Grammy Awards, 31st Awards (1988), Best Classical Instrumental Solo Recording
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