“It’s an attractive idea: a programme of chamber music by four mutual friends, Robert and Clara Schumann and Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn. Two D minor piano trios anchor the programme – by Fanny and Robert – while salon pieces by Felix and Clara fill out the running time very appealingly, as well as providing brief […]
Gramophone‘s Richard Bratby features his top recordings of Beethoven’s Chamber Music in the September 2019 “Gramophone Collector” column and Krysia Osostowicz and Daniel Tong‘s Beethoven Plus, Vol. 2 is part of his collection: “In their ‘Beethoven Plus’ series on SOMM, violinist Krysia Osostowicz and pianist Daniel Tong have found another [way of renewing Beethoven] — […]
“The eclecticism and stylistic contrasts characterising the works on Nathan Williamson’s newest release reveal this pianist’s knack for conceiving intelligent and freshly minted playlists of relatively unfamiliar yet worthy repertoire. Indeed, the contents and running order would make for a most satisfying and stimulating recital programme, with or without intermission. … In all, a stimulating […]
“[Peter Donohoe] and SOMM’s recording team return to the Birmingham Conservatoire and to a Bechstein piano that sounds ideal in this music — beatuifully sonorous… Donohoe takes each work at face value, keeping shifts of tempo and impromptu ornamentation to a minimum but still playing with the sensitivity that was palpable in Vol. 1. … […]
“It’s an elegant idea, and it has paid off. … aside from being very winning in its own right, Kurt Schwertsik’s Unterwegs nach Heiligenstadt prepared the way for Op. 30 No. 1 so effectively that I genuinely found myself listening to the Beethoven with new ears. Matthew Taylor’s Tarantella Furiosa emerges compellingly… David Matthews’s Sonatina… […]
“For a few years in the 1840s, the Schumanns and Mendelssohns crossed paths in Leipzig. Both lived in the city only a short walk from each other. it’s easy to imagine them playing their new pieces to each other after dinner, discussing works-in-progress, criticising a first draft. That feeling of a shared musical culture comes […]
“It’s not just the sparkle she brings to Massenet’s somewhat timeworn drawing-room songs — though that alone is worth the price of admission — it’s the slightly-knowing false-innocence that she injects into numbers like Passionément and Souhait. Sally sings like someone who knows the meaning of life and the value of each moment. The mezzo […]
“Nathan Williamson’s Colour and Light is a memorably enterprising programme of British piano music performed with unwavering commitment and intensity, including a first recording of Anthony Herschel Hill’s Litany and Toccata. … [which] contrasts a ‘spiritual, trnascendent world’ with trailblazing brilliance… No praise could be high enough of Williamson’s performances, where, as in his previous […]
“[Mozart’s Piano Sontatas] contain much great music, works of genius in many ways, and they demand an experienced artist of no little musical insight and technique to demonstrate their quality. Thankfully, in Peter Donohoe, SOMM has found an ideal interpreter, on whose structural command and expressive insight, combined with a superlative technique and innate mastery […]
“Nathan Williamson’s earlier SOMM CD of Great American Sonatas made a considerable impression and he follows that success with another disc of distinction in choice of music and performance. … Williamson raises the stakes of musical appreciation with little-known but superb music.…Williamson’s notes are excellent, a perfect complement to his admirable playing and SOMM’s fine […]