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Rebeca Omordia’s African Pianism is “Richly Rewarding”

The May issue of Gramophone Magazine features a must-read review of Rebeca Omordia’s new African Pianism recording: “For her fascinating new Somm release, ‘African Pianism’, Nigerian-Romanian pianist Rebecca Omordia has chosen music from three Nigerian composers, Ayo Bankole (1935 76), Akin Euba (1935-2020) and Christian Onyeji (b1967); two Ghanaians, Kwabena Nketia (1921-2019) and Fred Onovwerosuoke […]

John Quinn’s In-depth MusicWeb International Review for Ian King: Music for Gloucester Cathedral

“I should declare an interest at the outset of this review. Towards the end of 2020 I conducted an extensive interview with Ian King and, following on from this, I was asked to write the booklet notes for this CD. Ian King was terminally ill by the time I first became involved in this project […]

Korngold Chamber Music is a BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Month!

The Eusebius Quartet and Alasdair Beatson’s recording of Korngold Chamber Music is a BBC Music Magazine Choice and January 2022 Recording of the Month! “The Eusebius Quartet and Beatson bring this heady score all the intensity it deserves, their lavish tone conjuring quasi-orchestral colours, sensitive to every twist of the rubato-laden canvas (and there are […]

Gramophone RAVE review for Cordelia Williams’ Nightlight

“What a pleasure then to encounter Schubert’s great C minor Sonata, the centrepiece of Cordelia Williams’s extraordinary new release, ‘Nightlight’, in a performance so fully inhabited, probative and heartfelt. Williams is at one with this music to the extent that physical constraints seem to disappear. For all the architectural grandeur of the opening Allegro, she brings […]

Playing for Beecham — 75th Anniversary Celebration

SOMM’s celebration album of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s 75th anniversary with the world premiere release of Sir Thomas Beecham conducting Sibelius’ Symphony No 1 with the RPO at the Edinburgh Festival also includes the first ever release of the same artists performing extracts from Sibelius’s Scènes historiques in a live concert and the first issue […]

Five Stars for the Carlock-Combet Duo’s Romantic Violin Sonatas

Classica Magazine’s Laure Dautriche gives ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ to the Carlock-Combet Duo’s new Romantic Violin Sonatas recording: “It’s not easy to make one’s mark in works which are such firm favourites in the romantic repertoire for violin and piano. However, violinist Guillaume Combet and pianist Sandra Carlock, a Duo resident in the United States, succeed in impressing […]

George Szell and The Cleveland Orchestra’s Forgotten Recordings Receive Diapason D’or

SOMM’s Ariadne release of George Szell & the Cleveland Orchestra’s The Forgotten Recordings album received a Diapason D’Or distinction in the July/August 2021 issue! “The recordings which come to us from SOMM were made in 1954 and 1955 for the Book of the Month Club, a subscription mail-order service. They demonstrate that the Cleveland Orchestra… […]

Gramophone reviews Dreams Melting

“Vocal lines serve the verse… In the ongoing recorded collaborations of tenor James Geer and pianist/musicologist Ronald Woodley… this collection most clearly gives an alternative view of 20th-century British music. The literary factor here is extremely high and diverse. … Arguably, Clarke’s songs are the most distinctive on the disc, including her ‘Cradle Song’, whose […]

George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra – The Forgotten Recordings a Gramophone Editor’s Choice!

George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra — The Forgotten Recordings is a Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice for Re-issues/Archives in the June 2021 issue: “newly released in an expert Lani Spahr transfer by SOMM as part of a two-disc programme of Szell/Clevland recordings… Two items could as well serve as benchmark examples of Szell’s art, Smetana’s […]

BBC Music Magazine Names George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra – The Forgotten Recordings a Historical Critic’s Choice

George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra — The Forgotten Recordings receives a five-star review and the Historical Critic’s Choice distinction in the June 2021 BBC Music Magazine: “…it’s fascinating to hear the partnership when their much-vaunted precision was well in progress, if not immaculate. … The stereo recordings… show how far the orchestra had come… […]