Gramophone Magazine’s January 2021 issue features a review of Leon McCawley’s Haydn Piano Sonatas Volume III: “In McCawley’s vivid realisations …Each sonata emerges as a succinct, self-contained drama, with airtight plot and an endless variety of characters. In the exquisite Adagio of the A flat Sonata (HobXVI:46), for instance, McCawley is all artful simplicity, letting Haydn’s eloquent […]

A second “sparkling” review for Leon McCawley and his Haydn: Piano Sonatas, Volume Two; this time in International Piano Magazine: “There is an abundance of joy in McCawley’s sparkling acciaccaturas of the D major Sonata (No 59), maxilmally contrasted with the central Largo e sostenuto, a dignified post-Baroque sarabande. He is expert at finding underlying […]

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, […]

“a well-balanced selection of six sonatas… recorded with appropriate crispness and cantabile in Turner Sims hall. The sparkle of McCawley’s touch is instantly apparent… as is his evenness of fingering in the passagework… Most impressive throughout the disc is McCawley’s command of subtle nuance and rubato without ever sounding self-conscious or mannered. The impression, so […]