BBT Track Record
The success of our award winners is developing a valuable creative legacy for the Trust itself. Media recognition further emphasises the excellence and unique talent of our winners and the projects they choose to fund with their awards.
Here are some comments from selected critics on our BBT artists about the projects they chose to fund with their awards and fellowship monies:
Andrew Kennedy tenor - BBT Award 2006
"the promise shown by Andrew Kennedy has been confirmed by his rapidly developing international careeer. His voice has grown in strength, well beyond the sterotypical ‘English tenor’ bleat. Without sacrificing the classical elegance that serve him as Mozart’s Belmonte and Emperor Tito, he has acquired a clarion ring at the top that equips him for Tamino and bravura roles like Gluck’s Achilles."
Michael Scott Rohan, BBC Music Magazine June 2010
"I received much pleasure from listening to this CD. Whatever attributes songs demonstrate in a singer, they do not often call for the upper range of a tenor to be displayed, and those who have heard Kennedy only in the song repertoire may be surprised at how good his top is."
John T Hughes, International Record Review April 2010
"[Kennedy’s voice] is always clear in definition and often, as in Pylades’ aria and Tito’s three solos, gracefully poised. And it is good to hear him in an operatic recital for a change."
John Steane Gramophone, July 2010
"Kennedy’s bright, firm tenor is equal to the demands of Gluck’s haute-contre parts. He sings “J’ai perdu mon Euridice” … Simon Over and the Southbank Sinfonia are crystal-clear accompanists and the overture to Tito is splendid."
David Cairns, The Times 21 Feb 2010
Project: CD of Arias by Mozart, Gluck, Berlioz on Signum Classics
Vilde Frang violin - BBT Fellowship 2007
"This is an unusually potent debut recording from a prodigiously gifted artist... Frang's chemistry is disarmingly exquisite."
Ian Julier, International Record Review March 2010
"What makes this recording so special is not so much Frang's seductive, sinewy yet voluptuous tone, nor her effortless technical mastery; it is her startling emotional sincerity and inspired musical imagination that rivet the attention."
Julian Haylock, The Strad March 2010
"Impressive debut recording"
Geoff Brown, The Times
"Ushering the Sibelius with a sweetly tremulous whisper, Frang heralds one of the freshest and most vital accounts of this familiar and frequently recorded work in recent years."
Michael Quinn, BBC Online 16 February 2010
"In the first Prokofiev she substitutes flash virtuosity with an in-your-ear whisper. In the Sibelius she is fire on ice. Frang is my hot tip for 2010."
Norman Lebrecht, La Scena Musicale February 2010
Project: Debut CD recording of Sibelius and Prokofiev on EMI Classics, January 2010
Aronowitz Ensemble - BBT Special Ensemble Scholarship 2009
"this enterprising CD debut breathes sensitivity and purpose. The programme is a beautiful one, linked by a clearly identifiable national image."
Financial Times, 8 May 2010
"On the Sonimage label, newly founded by Paul Segar, the Aronowitz Ensemble... here demonstrates not only the players' superbly polished ensemble and intensity of performance but their flexibility too... superb playing and finely honed recording."
Edward Greenfield, Gramophone March 2010
"This is an auspicious debut for both the label and the septet of performers. There are spacious accounts of Vaughan Williams’ Phantasy Quintet and Elgar’s piano quintet, the smoothness and subtlety of playing surrendering little in emotional intensity"
Classical Music, 13 February 2010
"The premiere recording of Huw Watkins's Sad Steps (2008) – wistful yet lean and supple, written for pairs of violin, viola and cello with piano – complements the melancholy late-romanticism of Vaughan Williams's Phantasy Quintet (1912) and Elgar's Piano Quintet in A minor (1919). The players' exuberance keeps English nostalgia at bay and all stays in keen, bright focus."
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, 31 January 2010
Project: Climbing The Skies, CD released by Sonimage February 2010
Antoine Tamestit viola - BBT Award 2006
"spectacular work... a noisy tangle of tweed and punk, solildly worked, but with surprising threads and colours."
Christiane Tewinkel, Tagesspiegel, 2nd Feb 2010
"The work is entirely original, astoundingly complex and, ultimately, gloriously rewarding and uplifting."
Larry L. Lash, MusicalAmerica.com, 08 Dec 2009
"Antoine Tamestit played it with virtuosity and a heartwarming tone"
Salzburger Nachrichtung, 12th Oct 2009
Project: World premiere performance of Olga Neuwirth Remnants of Song... An Amphigory, viola concerto co-commissioned by BBT.
Jörgen van Rijen trombone - BBT Award 2006
"...fascinating portrait of a master trombonist... his virtuoso technique need fear no comparison with the best in his field."
Guy Rickards, Gramophone Magazine October 2009
"It's difficult not to warm to a disc called I Was Like Wow! ... In a glorious antidote to the trend of forcing instruments to do things they aren't meant to do, here van Rijen has simply produced a disc with some cracking music on it in a sexy and appealing way...Van Rijen's sound is rich, rounded and far removed from the laddish image his instrument is sometimes given...[he is] demonstrating that the trombone is capable of extreme expressiveness. Across a variety of standard pieces and specially commissioned works, he proves that the trombone can really make you go, like, wow."
Hazel Davis, MUSO, June/July 2009
Project: "I was like WOW!" Channel Classics CD released 2009
"The agility of his playing...is impressive...Fans of the trombone will no doubt find this of interest, but the music turns out to be far more worthwhile and rewarding than just a sackbut showcase"
David Vickers, Gramophone October 2008
Project: "Sackbutt", the first of two CDs on Channel Classics. Released 2008
Navarra Quartet - BBT Fellowship 2007
"...vivid sense of dramatic expression in an intensely detailed performance"
George Hall BBC Music Magazine September 2009
Project: Haydn Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross (Navarra Classics CD)
Quatuor Ébène - BBT Award 2007
"Akiko Yamamoto proves to be an ideal partner in the Piano Quintet, which achieves an extraordinary sense of drive and emotional abandon in the Finale."
Calum MacDonald BBC Music Magazine October 2009
Project: Brahms String Quartet No.1 and Brahms Piano Quintet CD (Virgin Classics). Released September 2009
"They have such an extraordinary range of tone colour combined with a suppleness of rhythm which gives their playing a kind of serendipity as though they had just chanced on one achingly beautiful sound after another. The result is unforgettable."
BBC Radio 3 Building a Library: Faure Quartet. No 1 RECOMMENDATION, 28 March 2009
"Three French masterpieces (Debussy, Fauré, Ravel) played by young musicians with a rare degree of expressive subtlety, blended sonorities and electrifying joy. The late Fauré quartet achieves a fine balance between sounding suave and pulsing with life. Debussy quivers with febrile emotions, while the Ravel soars to heaven with refinement and poise."
***** The Times, September 2008
"A virtuosic, highly intelligent performance"
Anna Picard, Independent on Sunday, 12 October 2008
Project: French String Quartets CD (Virgin Classics). Released September 2008
Martin Helmchen piano - BBT Fellowship 2004
"Helmchen gave a delightfully unaffected, affectionate, and note-perfect performance"
Classical Source, 27 April 2009
"a pianist...with all the virtues - vision as well as virtuosity and vim - stipulated by his calling, not to mention a warm presence."
Paul Driver, Sunday Times, 3 May 2009
Project: Shostakovich Piano Concerto No.2, Live concert recording with LPO/Jurowski for CD to be released in 2010
Martin Helmchen piano - BBT Fellowship 2004
Antoine Tamestit viola - BBT Award 2006
Marie-Elisabeth Hecker cello - BBT Award 2009
"This is a marvellous disc, one of the most enjoyable I have heard in a long time... a great line-up of soloists, who seem to know one another very well, or to have clicked miraculously, with results that, in the case of the 'Trout' Quintet, are more completely satisfactory than any account I have ever heard of this work."
BBC Music Magazine, July 2009
Project: Pentatone recording of Schubert's Trout Quintet, a collaboration between BBT Award Winners Martin Helmchen, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and Antoine Tamestit, with BBT Honorary Committee member Christian Tetzlaff violin, plus Alois Posch double bass
David Trio - BBT Fellowship Winner 2006
"Rarely do you get from so young a group of performers playing together for so short a period such sound, understanding and singing qualities. Their refinement and intonation complete the picture, giving us some of the most beautiful interpretations of the last 20 years."
Musica e Dischi, April 2009
Project: Schubert Complete Works for PianoTrio (Altara Classics CD)
Lavinia Meijer harp - BBT Fellowship 2007
"An enchanting and diverting harp recital that can leave you breathless....A bewitching recital from first note to last."
Andrew Farach-Colton, Gramophone, May 2009
"If you have room in your collection for only a single solo harp recital, then let it be this disc. It features magnificent performance of real harp music...She (Meijer) plays with consummate virtuosity...and with a positively luscious tone"
David Hurwitz, Classics Today, 10 November 2008
Project: Debut Solo CD "Divertissements" (Channel Classics). Released September 2008
Andrew Kennedy tenor - BBT Award 2006
"deeply felt performances which make the most of these songs...cleverly put together and sensitively performed"
BBC Music Magazine, November 08
"A great deal of thought has gone into this recital reflecting on the First World War and its legacy in British song and poetry. Fine musicianship too, with Julius Drake's accompaniments matching Kennedy's tenor in subtlety."
The Times June 2008
Project: The Dark Pastoral (first of two CDs recorded by Altara Music) with Julius Drake and Simon Russell-Beale. Released June 2008.
Andreas Brantelid cello - BBT Award 2008
"The best thing about Brantelid’s playing is his intonation, which matches any string player in the world in its effortless precision. Next is his unforced beauty of tone: always in perfect taste. When it is so easy to over-sentimentalise Schubert, Brantelid’s performance was striking in its expertly judged restraint."
Ying Chang, Classical Source
"His playing – warm and supple of tone – has the lyrical allure, lithe technique and discreet dramatic flair to give this familiar music a fresh impetus."
Geoffrey Norris, Daily Telegraph 21 June 2008
Project: Wigmore Hall London debut recital (28 June 2008) with pianist Bengt Forsberg in association with the release of his CD in the EMI Debut Series (Saint Saëns Cello Concerto No 1, Tchaikovsky Variations on a Rococco Theme and Schumann Cello Concerto with Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra/Michael Schonwandt EMI21303852).
Colin Currie percussion - BBT Award 2005
"Currie's virtuosic performance confirmed that the percussion repertory has been enriched."
John Allison, Sunday Telegraph May 2008
Project: world premiere of Simon Holt's a table of noises, specially commissioned for Colin Currie by BBT and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
"...this is ultimately Currie's disc and his playing, with its vibrancy and focus, is captivating throughout."
Daily Telegraph September 2007
Project: Borrowed Time music by Dave Maric (Onyx CD 4024)
Christian Poltéra cello - BBT Award 2004
"I was quite bowled over in discovering the Cello Concerto [Frank Martin], so eloquently and sensitively played here. It is no exaggeration to say that this rapt performance presents this noble concerto with an inspirational intensity to compare with the celebrated Du Pré/Barbirolli recording of the Elgar Concerto."
Ivan March, Gramophone April 2008
"Poltéra delivers an utterly compelling and committed performance…a wonderful disc [Christian Poltéra Plays Frank Martin]"
Erik Levi BBC Music Magazine April 2008 (BBC Music Choice)
"If you want a superb collection of Honegger's music for cello, both chamber and orchestral, then this CD is just the ticket... by any standard this is a sensational performance."
David Hurwitz, Classics Today November 2007
Project: A series of three CDs on BIS showcasing the cello works of Swiss composers Othmar Schoeck, Frank Martin and Arthur Honegger.
Simon Crawford-Phillips and Philip Moore piano duo - BBT Fellowship 2004
"Glanert whisks us on a journey through space - to Mars... The seed material is a little scale in thirds, running up and down... Glanert the magician turns it into a pulsing particle of matter, constantly mutating and exploding. Moore and Crawford-Phillips proved ideal spacemen, with Brabbins and the orchestra riding alongside."
Geoff Brown, The Times March 2008
"...an initial musical cell - in this case a simple scale in thirds - is varied or permutated to create a sequence of episodes of stunning diversity. The huge technical demands placed upon both soloists were met with great distinction."
Brian Davidson, International Piano Magazine May/June 2008
Project: world premiere of Detlev Glanert's Double Concerto specially commissioned for the Piano Duo by BBT and BBCSSO.
Antoine Tamestit viola - BBT Award 2006
"Tamestit's lively, historically informed manner extends through the earlier movements of the Partita, the rhythmic character of each dance emerging with great clarity. The performance of the Ligeti – a magnificent, enthralling piece that's already emerged as a peak of the viola repertoire - is extraordinarily clean and accurate."
Duncan Druce, Gramophone August 2007
Project: Bach Ligeti CD (Ambroisie AM111)
Soovin Kim violin - BBT Award 2005
"...these caprices are rich with feeling in addition to being fleet and dazzling in a pyrotechnic sense...Kim imbues his performance of each caprice with such dynamic contrasts that your ears keep up with it...it is a terrific recording, and is easily recommendable."
All Music April 2006
"Kim emerges thrillingly triumphant.[...] A thrilling debut disc"
Classic FM Magazine
Project: Niccolò Paganini: 24 Caprices Azica Records (ACD-71235)
Royal String Quartet violin - BBT Fellowship 2005
"The Fabryka positively exudes cool relaxation... The auditorium itself is more like a large cellar than a typical chamber music venue - a budding rock band or jazz quartet would readily feel at home there. Which is why the Royal Quartet's decision to launch their festival there in November 2004 might well have seemed daring, even reckless.. But the mix of venue and a handful of enthusiastic players really works, and draws a large appreciative audience of predominantly, but not exclusively, young people. Here, surely, is a classic case of Warsaw's ability to retain its history and respect its architecture and yet brings to it a fresh purpose of relevance to Varsovians and their visitors today"
Daniel Jaffe, BBC Music Magazine September 2006
Project: supporting the Quartet's annual Kwartesencja Festival in Warsaw at the Fabryka Trzciny
Christianne Stotijn soprano - BBT Award 2005
"Here's something special: a riveting solo debut recital from the young Dutch mezzo Christianne Stotijn"
BBC Music Magazine April 2006
"Stotijns voice - rich and suggestive, sly and sorrowful as required, with shades of Janet Baker's gravitas, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's candour, and Anne Sofie von Otter's playfulness - is tailormade for Mahler's Rückert Lieder and Das Knaben Wunderhorn"
Independent on Sunday 29 Oct 2006
Project: Recording two CD's with Onyx Classics - Schubert, Berg, Wolf Lieder (ONYX 4009) and Mahler - Urlicht (ONYX 4014)
Ralph van Raat piano - BBT Fellowship 2005
"...van Raat obtains a near-hypnotic control in the two early pieces, almost mechanical in its reliability, and he bubbles with life in the later two"
International Piano Magazine March/April 2007 Martin Anderson
"Van Raat made "Phrygian Gates" grippingly sing, breathe naturally, blindingly change colours, fill the space with sonorous sounds and whisper intimately. Breath-taking"
Anthony Fium, Luister, June 2007
Project: Recording of John Adams Complete Piano Music Naxos 8 559285
Viviane Hagner violin - BBT Award 2004
"...though obviously a splendid violinist, it's her musicianship and emotional involvement that continually stand out"
Gramophone May 2007
"Technically faultless and consistently interesting, this is an extraordinary recital"
Independent on Sunday March 2007
Project: CD recording with Altara - Bach, Bartok, Hartmann: Ciaccona (Altara ALT1016)
Leopold String Trio - BBT Award 2004
"This is an ensemble with a mission - to reignite the public's interest in the string trio repertoire. Long seen as a poor relation to the mighty string quartet, this concert made a real statement about the integrity of the string trio genre...The Leopold Trio's programming is inventive and thought-provoking"
Classical Source 11 November 2006
"Both programmes - the fifth and sixth of eight - characteristically combined established works with some interesting novelties [...] - in short, a thrilling performance that set the masterpiece (Mozart's E flat major Divertimento K563) in a new light"
Daily Telegraph 16 November 2006
Project: A series of 12 programmes over three seasons to showcase the string trio repertoire presented at London's Wigmore Hall and the Turner Sims Concert Hall in Southampton
Emma Bell soprano - BBT Award 2003
"Distinctive and individual, Emma Bell's soprano voice carries the blend of technical accomplishment and expressive richness required to exploit the musical and emotional variety of Handel's music"
Music Week 10 Sept 2005
"Bell delivers expressive, grief-laden accounts, restraining her big voice with remarkable musical refinement...This is an enjoyable debut from an artist of immense potential"
The Sunday Times, 25 September 2005
Project: Two CDs with Linn Records - Richard Strauss, Bruno Walter and Joseph Marx (Linn CKD238) and Handel Operatic Arias accompanied by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Richard Egarr (Linn CKD 252)
Martin Fröst clarinet - BBT Award 2003
"At all extremes Aho calls not just for techincal prowess but musical character and intelligence - the ideal challenge. Fröst rose to it brilliantly..."
Financial Times April 2006
"An atmospheric piece, it moves from a tempestuous opening via achingly beautiful solo passages and a vibrant scherzo to a dazzling, multi-phonic coda. The perfect showcase for the remarkable skills of the Swedish soloist Martin Fröst..."
The Observer April 2006
Project: Clarinet Concerto commissioned from Finnish composer Kalevi Aho, premiered April 2006 (BBC Symphony Orchestra, Osmo Vanska).
Hyunah Yu soprano - BBT Award 2003
"...mouth-watering evidence of significant potential"
Gramophone January 2007
"The lightness of her voice is tempered by the sheer physical beauty of the sound, a beauty that adds to the weight without overbearing it. One could listen with great satisfaction to her simply vocalizing. [...] Highest recommendations"
Audiophile Audition April 2007
Project: EMI Debut Disc Bach - Mozart Arias (EMI Debut 368255-2)