Harmonia Mundi
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This is a great overall interpretation of one (or two, if you prefer) of the monuments of the piano repertoire, where Lugansky, like the composer, knows perfectly how to achieve each and every... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, March 2023, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine, April 2023, Instrumental Choice
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International Classical Music Awards, 2024, Nominated - Solo Instrument
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Building A Library, November 2025, Top Choice (Études-Tableaux)
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Paul Lewis conveys the music’s intimate nature admirably, and he’s also well attuned to the obverse side of Brahms - the intense passion of such pieces as the first of the Opp. 116 and 118 series…these... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 21st January 2022
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2022
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JS Bach: Johannes-Passion
RecommendedJulian Prégardien (Evangelist), Huw Montague Rendall (Jesus), Ying Fang (soprano), Lucile Richardot (mezzo-soprano), Laurence Kilsby (tenor), Christian Immler (bass-baritone), Etienne Bazola (baritone), Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon
You feel it in the gut like few other accounts, alongside unalloyed human observation and unyielding quality. Pygmalion have now served us with a trilogy of Bach masterpieces throwing down the... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 20th March 2026
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Gramophone Magazine, April 2026, Recording of the Month
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Elgar: Viola Concerto & Bloch: Suite For Viola and Orchestra
RecommendedTimothy Ridout (viola), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins
Ridout’s account of the opening movement is full of richly rhapsodic playing , although the viola suggests more of a wistful musing than the deeper, elegiac contemplation possible on the cello. —
Awards:
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Limelight Magazine, February 2023, Recording of the Month
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Presto Recording of the Week, 20th January 2023
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Gramophone Magazine, February 2023, Editor's Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2023
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International Classical Music Awards, 2024, Nominated - Concerto
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Gramophone Awards, 2023 Winners, Winner - Concerto
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Vivaldi: Le Quattro Stagioni (The Four Seasons)
Théotime Langlois de Swarte (violin), Julie Roset (soprano), Le Consort
Above all, it’s Swarte’s solo playing (on a 1733 fiddle by Carlo Bergonzi) that steals the show: pliant, expressive, wild and virtuosic. Particularly admirable is his elastic, almost jazzy flexibility... —
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, February 2025, Recording of the Month
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International Classical Music Awards, 2026, Nominated - Baroque Instrumental
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2026, Shortlisted - Concerto
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JS Bach: Violin Concertos
RecommendedIsabelle Faust (violin), Bernhard Forck, (violin), Xenia Loeffler (oboe)
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Faust's tone is both lean and exquisitely sweet, combined with consistent stylistic elegance which reaches the heights of eloquence in the slow movement of the E major Concerto. —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 15th March 2019
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Gramophone Magazine, April 2019, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine, June 2019, Concerto Choice
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Building a Library, November 2019, Also Recommended
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2019
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International Classical Music Awards, 2019, Nominee - Baroque Instrumental
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Gramophone Magazine, December 2019, Critics' Choice
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2020, Nominee - Instrumentalist of the Year
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Schumann: Piano Quartet & Piano Quintet
Isabelle Faust (violin), Anne-Katharina Schreiber (violin, Antoine Tamestit (viola), Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello), Alexander Melnikov (piano)
The Quintet is a brilliant virtuoso vehicle with a symphonic tone but these five musicians don’t turn it into a quasi-piano concerto with string quartet, as sometimes occurs. Rather, they meld... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 2024 Winners, Chamber
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International Classical Music Awards, 2025, Nominated - Chamber Music
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Gramophone Magazine, Critics' Choice 2024
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Britten: Violin Concerto, Chamber Works
RecommendedIsabelle Faust (violin), Alexander Melnikov (piano), Boris Faust (viola), Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Jakub Hrůša
Faust’s cadenza has real emotional involvement, and builds urgently towards the final Passacaglia, where conductor Jakub Hrůša leads the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra to a full-toned climax,... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 12th April 2024
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Gramophone Awards, 2024 Winners, Concerto
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalists 2024
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International Classical Music Awards, 2025, Nominated - Assorted Programs
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Special offer. Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea
Sonya Yoncheva (Poppea), Kate Lindsey (Nerone), Les Arts Florissants, William Christie
Cognitive dissonance reigns as gorgeous music engulfs a drama about moral implosion. —
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, November 2019, Opera Choice
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International Classical Music Awards, 2020, Nominee – Baroque Vocal
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2020, Nominee – Conductor of the Year
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Schubert: Octet
Isabelle Faust (violin), Anne Katharina Schreiber (violin), Danusha Waskiewicz (viola), Kristin von der Goltz (cello), Lorenzo Coppola (clarinet), Javier Zafra (bassoon), Teunis van der Zwart (horn), James Munro (double bass)
There is much to admire here: some exquisitely wistful clarinet phrasing from Coppola, and a frightening fierceness in the sudden outburst that heralds the finale, where Schubert seems momentarily... —
Awards:
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Presto Editor's Choice, May 2018
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The Times Records of the Year, 2018
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