The January/February 2019 issue of International Piano has a Five-Star review for Cordelia Williams‘ new Piano Music by J.S. Bach and Arvo Pärt recording: “This is a superb concept, enhanced by Michael Quinn’s fascinating notes. Both Bach and Pärt share a religious aspect and concision of expression. The sheer clarity of Williams’ Bach — two […]

Explore “…Dutch baritone Henk Neven and mezzo-soprano Kathryn Rudge… are excellently supported in turn by Barry Wordsworth and the BBC Concert Orchestra. Liverpool-born Rudge is in refulgent voice for the darkly passionate Op 60 diptych of 1910, while it’s hard to imagine more sheerly beguiling renderings of either ‘The Wind at Dawn’ (1888) or ‘Pleading’ […]

The British Music Society reviews the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea’s new recording in memory of the centenary anniversary of the end of the First World War, In Remembrance: “This issue marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the first World War in a highly appropriate and imaginative fashion. … the professional […]

Explore “…these ‘snapshots’ offer an unusually rounded portrait of Elgar. One strikingly effective song is ‘The Wind at Dawn’. Elgar’s 1888 setting of a poem by his soon-to-be wife Caroline Alice Roberts, heard in its magnificent 1912 orchestration, all the more memorable for mezzo Kathryn Rudge’s very distinctive singing. Indeed, Rudge generally has the best […]

Gramophone reviews the Dante Quartet’s recording of Charles Villiers Stanford: String Quartets Nos. 3, 4, & 7 in the October 2018 issue: “All three of the works on this disc are premiere recordings, an astonishing state of affairs for what must surely be the most significant quartet cycle by any British composer before Frank Bridge. […]

Gramophone Magazine reviews our Ariadne release of Bernstein: Broadway to Hollywood in the October 2018 issue: “[Iain Sutherland’s] Bernstein is strong and trenchant, often exhilarating, never sentimental. The dances from West Side Story blend energy with restraint, the opening bristling with tension, the Mambo hard-driven and electric, the ‘Somewhere’ Adagio clean and very reined in. […]

James Jolly adds both of our new Charles Villiers Stanford and Elgar releases to his weekly “Listening Room” playlist on Gramophone: “Sir Charles Villiers Stanford’s Seventh String Quartet came as quite a surprise – beautifully constructed (no surprise) but so eloquent and passionate. I’ve always loved Kathryn Rudge’s rich mezzo voice and have long wanted […]

Europadisc has a rave new and sale for our The Hills of Dreamland: Elgar Orchestral Songs recording: “Lovers of Elgar’s music have good reason to be thankful to the Somm label for a string of releases in recent years, ranging from rarities to some exceptional restorations of recordings by the composer himself. Now comes another […]

International Piano Magazine gives a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review to Peter Donohoe and his Stravinsky: Music for Piano Solo and Piano and Orchestra recording: “Peter Donohoe has a way with Russian piano music, as recent, highly esteemed recordings of Shostakovich, Scriabin and Prokofiev (SOMM) confirm. Here he proves that he is adept with the most mercurial of […]

Bernstein: Broadway to Hollywood is “fully recommended” “2018 marks the centenary of the birth of Leonard Bernstein – and doesn’t the musical world know it!… Sutherland’s grasp of the musical qualities of each score is impressive. Most notable is the symphonic suite ‘On the Waterfront’, which receives a performance of genuine insight. This is worth […]