Borletti-Buitoni Trust
Schubert’s Complete Works for PianoTrio, CD on Altara Classics
“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
Schubert’s Trout Quintet, CD on Pentatone Classics,
with BBT Honorary Committee member Christian Tetzlaff violinand Alois Posch double bass
“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
Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross, CD on AltaraClassics
“…vivid sense of dramatic expression in an intensely detailed performance”
George Hall, BBC Music Magazine September 2009
Olga Neuwirth’s Remnants of Song… An Amphigory,
viola concerto co-commissioned by BBT
“spectacular work… a noisy tangle of tweed and punk, solildly worked, but with surprising threads and colours.”
Christiane Tewinkel, Tagesspiegel 2 February 2010
“The work is entirely original, astoundingly complex and, ultimately, gloriously rewarding and uplifting.”
Larry L. Lash, MusicalAmerica.com 8 December 2009
“Antoine Tamestit played it with virtuosity and a heartwarming tone”
Salzburger Nachrichtung 12 October 2009
Shostakovich Piano Concerto No.2, LPO & Vladimir Jurowski, Live CD on LPO’s own label
“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
I was like WOW!, CD on Channel Classics
“…fascinating portrait of a master trombonist… his virtuoso technique need fear no comparison with the best in his field.”
Guy Rickards, Gramophone 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
Brahms: String Quartet No.1 & Piano Quintet, CD on Virgin Classics, now Warner Classics
“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