“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 […]
“it’s worth reiterating just what a debt of gratitude lovers of British music owe to SOMM and the Dante Quartet for their commitment to Stanford’s chamber music. Listening to this vibrant new recording, what struck me was… the freshness, the spontaneity, the instinctive ‘rightness’ of Stanford’s writing for strings. This might be the most satisfying […]
Gramophone Magazine’s January 2021 issue features a rave review for James Gilchrist and Nathan Williamson’s first volume of One Hundred Years of British Song: “James Gilchrist’s contribution is past praise in its probing range of expression and unfailing sensitivity to the text. What’s more, he enjoys immaculate support throughout from Nathan Williamson, who also provides […]
Andrew Achenbach reviews Roderick Williams and Susie Allan’s new recording of Sir Arthur Somervell: A Shropshire Lad & Maud in the August issue of Gramophone Magazine: “Superbly partnered by Susie Allan (whose deft touch and ingratiating tone are a constant source of pleasure), Roderick Williams gives an outstandingly sympathetic rendering, his consistently perceptive characterisation especially […]
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 […]
Gramophone Magazine’s Alexandra Coghlan gives a rave review for Papagena’s new recording, “Hush!” in the May 2020 issue: “Taking a King’s Singers approach to mixing repertoire, the group slip easily from Georgian and Sephardic folk songs to English part-songs, music by Scarlatti and Tchaikovsky and a generous selection of new works, with even a cheeky […]
The March 2020 Gramophone issue reviews the Dante Quartet’s Stanford: String Quartets, Volume Three recording with a rave for the whole set: “Hats off, folks: the completion of the first full recorded cycle of Stanford’s string quartets deserves a moment of acknowledgment. … the more you listen to this music, the more distinctively Stanford’s own […]
Gramophone Magazine reviews Leon McCawley’s second volume of Haydn’s Piano Sonatas in the November 2019 issue: “Light of touch, stylistically assured and brimful of intelligence and wit, Leon McCawley’s second instalment of Haydn sonatas for SOMM fairly sparkles with delight. This follows his 2016 recording of four sonatas plus the F minor Variations (2/17) and, […]
Gramophone Magazine’s Richard Bratby reviews the world premiere recording of Stanford: The Travelling Companion in the November 2019 issue: “This is a landmark: the first full-length commercial recording of any of Stanford’s nine completed operas. It’s all the more remarkable in having been brought about by the semi-professional New Sussex Opera, who last year revived The […]
“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 […]