The June 2020 issue of Gramophone Magazine features reviews of our new Treasures from the New World and British Violin Sonatas recordings:
“Howick’s flexible tone is well suited to the fragile dissonance of Walton’s harmony and the prevalence of seventh intervals in the composer’s thematic shapes (rather similar to the Violin Concerto of 1939) is prudently combined with some tasteful application of portamento. Callaghan’s clean accompaniment provides a sympathetic backdrop, especially in the substantial character variations of the second movement. Leighton’s Sonata, written when the composer was barely 19, provides further evidence of his prodigious talent as a young man. Both performers are at their best in the striking slow movement, whose more pulsating, melancholy strains contrast with the more passionate élan of the outer movements. The varied hues and shades of Howick’s timbral range are well suited to the array of short pieces that fill the rest of the disc. … there is much to admire in [Howick’s] pensive interpretation of [Alwyn’s] slow movement and the crispness of her bowing in the jaunty finale.”
—Jeremy Dibble, Gramophone (June 2020)
Full review on gramophone.co.uk
“Clélia Iruzun’s performance with the Coull Quartet is beautifully paced… [Amy Beach’s] 1893 Romance has no fewer than eight competitors but Iruzun and Coull need fear no comparisons. … Brazilian-born Henrique Oswald[‘s] … Piano Quintet (1895) is substantial, its four movements (the sparkling Scherzo placed second) more redolent of Schumann than Brahms, so makes a nice foil to the Beach. … [Marlos Nobre’s Poema XXI is] a delight, as is the disc as a whole.”
—Guy Rickards, Gramophone (June 2020)