Saxophone Concertos

“Lovers of the saxophone must welcome a CD that offers two stalwart works in such fine interpretations, as well as significantly extending the recorded repertory.” --Gramophone Magazine, July 2008

Yoshimatsu’s Albireo Mo de and Toshiyuki Honda’s Concerto du vent are showpieces of Sugawa’s burnished sound… The sinuous athleticism of Ibert’s Concertino da camera and Lars-Erik Larsson’s stunning, bluesy concerto are worthier tests of Sugawa’s virtuosity. --Classic FM Magazine

Sugawa’s playing is a marvel in its own right… he seems to have lungs the size of barrage balloons, and breath- and lip-control that produce melodic lines of infinite ductility – and which are moreover as secure at the extremes of his range as in its centre. --International Record Review

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Piazzólla: Tango Distinto

“A swinging, sultry collection of arrangements of the Tango King's music showcasing the exception talent of Greek trombonist Achilles Liarmakopoulos.” --BBC Music Magazine, March 2012 ****

"Piazzolla’s music appears in a variety of arrangements, but this is claimed as the first recording with a trombone as the constant element. I don’t recall having encountered the young Greek trombonist Achille Liarmakopoulos before, but he’s a fine exponent of the music, in combination with a variety of other instruments. You probably already know if you like Piazzolla’s music—and it’s very hard to dislike. If you don’t, this is as good a way as any to get to know it…" --MusicWeb International, May 2011

Legendary tango performer and composer Astor Piazzolla gained experience of jazz in New York and classical form and technique through studies with Alberto Ginastera. His work lends itself perfectly to arrangement for all kinds of ensemble, and this is the first recording with solo trombone. These popular pieces showcase the stunning playing of multi-award winning soloist Achilles Liarmakopoulos in a variety of moods, including the famous Oblivion, and Le Grand Tango, a virtuoso show-stopper originally written for cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.

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Casella: Triple Concerto; Ghedini: Concerto dell'Albatro

“Ghedini’s colours are so tastefully blended and applied that I found myself listening for a second time, and a third...Casella fans will want this concerto; the Ghedini is a real bonus, though.” --MusicWeb International, 9th January 2014

“a pair of radically different mid-century triple concertos...I Pomeriggi Musicali's fine live performances are scrupulously conducted by Damian Iorio... Violinist Paolo Ghidoni and cellist Pietro Bosna adopt a lyrical approach, in contrast to the more overtly virtuosic playing from pianist Emanuela Piemonti.” --The Guardian, 21st November 2013 ****

Both Alfredo Casella and Giorgio Federico Ghedini are featured in ongoing Naxos series of orchestral works, but this is the first release to couple the two of them. The pieces have much in common—not least, both are concertos using the rare combination of piano trio and orchestra, pioneered by Beethoven—but they are also beautifully contrasted. Casella wrote his Triple Concerto for his own Trio Italiano, who performed it five hundred times on three continents in less than a decade. Ghedini’s Concerto dell’albatro adds the voice of a narrator to the piano trio and orchestra, evoking, in words from Herman Melville’s sea story Moby-Dick, a remarkable encounter with an Antarctic albatross.

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Arwel Hughes: Anatiomaros

"If there is a Cambrian folk aspect to any of the music on this disc it must be deeply subsumed. I do not detect any heart-on-sleeve use of traditional songs. What is clear is that this is the work of a most accomplished modern romantic-nationalist."  --Music Web International, September 2011

“sumptuously recorded...The suite for orchestra and stirring 'legend' Owain Glyndwr demand more frequent concert airings.” Classical Music, 10th September 2011 ****

Owain Arwel Hughes conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in a tribute to his father Arwel Hughes, the Welsh composer and radio broadcaster.

A student of Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst among others, Hughes early on began to work for the BBC and had limited opportunity to compose. This CD brings together most of his oeuvre for orchestra, from Anatiomaros (1943) to the 'legend' Owain Glyndwr (1979).

As a broadcaster and conductor he was an untiring champion of his fellow Welsh composers.

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Piazzólla for Violin, Brass and Percussion

Astor Piazzolla’s much-loved tangos have been arranged for all manner of instrumental line-ups, this album presenting an exuberant selection specially arranged for the acclaimed Tuscan Brass and Percussion Quintet. The Quintet is joined by guest violinist Andrea Tacchi. The result is a thrilling new take on nuevo tango, passionate yet poised, sharp and shiny as a knife-blade. The centrepiece of this album, Piazzolla’s witty Four Seasons Suite takes Vivaldi’s famous violin concertos for a stroll through the docklands of Buenos Aires, the original home of tango itself.

Oleg Ledeniov
MusicWeb International, August 2011

Piazzolla’s music is all about passion. And what other instruments can convey passion better than a trumpet or a violin? Trumpet is the dark side of it: its raw force, its violence—but also its rapture and ecstasy. The violin is the sublime, tender, sensual voice of passion. Maybe that’s why Piazzolla’s music yielded surprisingly well to the arrangements that Donato De Sena made for his Quintetto di Ottoni e Percussion della Toscana—an ensemble of brass and percussion. In half of the numbers the violin was added as the leading instrument, with an excellent contribution from violinist Andrea Tacchi.

The tide of recordings of Piazzolla’s music does not retreat. Many of these discs repeat more or less the same program with minor variations: Piazzolla already has his “standards”. Some of the usual suspects can be found here as well—Libertango, Oblivion, La Muerte del Angel, all of The Four Seasons and one movement from Histoire du Tango. But Piazzolla’s output was huge, some say over 700 works. So, much more first-class music can be rediscovered and there’s some of it here—thank you!

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Casella: Symphony No. 2

“Francesco La Vecchia directs the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma in a committed and colourful performance, relishing these moments of darkness, but they are equally good in the rampant spikiness of much of the Concerto...Unreserved applause for Naxos and for La Vecchia and his orchestra.” --International Record Review, October 2010

“One of Casella's subtlest creations, it receives a fine performance from the Rome Symphony Orchestra and Francesco La Vecchia” --Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2010

From the very first notes, with their tolling bells, Casella’s Symphony No. 2 is deeply indebted to its model, Mahler’s own Symphony No. 2, whose Parisian première was championed by Casella during his years in the French capital.

A notte alta (‘In deepest night’), which Casella described as ‘the only piece of programme music I have ever composed… inspired by emotional events in my personal life’ (Casella’s love for his Parisian student Yvonne Müller), is a work of intimate self-revelation and sombre meditation on ‘the utter indifference of Nature to human passions’.

Casella’s Symphony No. 1 is available on Naxos 8572413.

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Debussy, Poulenc, Ravel & Francaix: Piano Concertos

“Debussy's unjustly-dismissed Fantasie and Francaix's pithy Concertino are the highlights of this programme, superbly interpreted by Florian Uhlig.” --BBC Music Magazine, August 2013 ****

“What an enticing programme this is...Uhlig proves a compelling advocate and the winds of the accompanying orchestra seem to gain in confidence as the work progresses...The über-compact Françaix Concertino is perhaps the highlight here, Uhlig and the orchestra vibrantly capturing the work's myriad moods, culminating in a rip-roaring finale.” --Gramophone Magazine, August 2013

A great program featuring the largely neglected piano concertos from some famous composers active in France between 1890 and 1951. Debussy's "Fantaisie" was created in a period of change, exploring how the piano could become a voice in the orchestra.

After an altercation with the work NOT being played at its scheduled 1890 premiere, the Fantasie had to wait until after Debussy's death for its first performance and is seldom heard in the concert hall today.

The contrast with the late romantic Debussy work, Ravel is represented with the bright, humorous G Major Concerto. Poulenc's Piano Concerto is a jewel of sounds and colors, yet still stands in the shadow of his Concerto for Two Pianos. Finally, there is Jean Françaix’s Concertino, composed for a short, witty ten-minute film. Charm and wit, and all the corresponding range of moods are at Florian Uhlig’s command; the result is an entertaining and musically ravishing CD.

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Carwithen: Orchestral Music

It was in 1947 that Doreen Carwithen’s career took off. Her Masefield-inspired overture ODTAA (One Damn Thing After Another) was premiered by Sir Adrian Boult. This meaty, confident and muscular work suggests the influence of Moeran, and relates readily to the film music that formed a substantial part of her output. The other overture, Bishop Rock, was inspired by the rock in the Atlantic that marks the western-most point of mainland Britain; the music is stormy in places, gently sinister in others. 

The charming Suffolk Suite uses melodies originally written for a film on East Anglia. The Concerto for Piano and Strings is a most ambitious work, with powerful virtuoso writing for the piano set against rich-textured strings. A deeply melancholy slow movement, in which the piano is joined by a solo violin, leads to a strong finale which in places echoes Ireland’s Piano Concerto. Howard Shelley is the persuasive soloist, with Richard Hickox and the LSO equally convincing in their advocacy of all four works.

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The Planets

Though Holst learned of the discovery of Pluto four years before he died, it probably did not occur to him to add another movement, especially since the work's last section, "Neptune, the Mystic," ends in an other-worldly, ethereal fade-out, enhanced by an off-stage wordless women's chorus. He would have been surprised by the latest development in Pluto's status, but undoubtedly pleased that his ultimately incomplete Suite-- which had become more popular than he had expected or thought it deserved--had inspired another British composer, Colin Matthews, to write a successful companion piece, "Pluto, the Renewer," in 2000. Moreover, the Berlin Philharmonic added to Holst's galaxy by commissioning four composers to write a movement each for a Suite called "Asteroids." 

This is its premiere recording.

The idea of "music of the spheres" goes back to antiquity; perhaps the most famous example of its influence is the slow movement of Beethoven's second "Rasumovsky" String Quartet. Holst gives each of his planets its mythological characteristics: "Mars" is forcefully war-like, "Venus" melodiously peaceful; "Mercury" is a fleet, skittish Scherzo, "Jupiter" rambunctious but suddenly songful. "Saturn" is a soft, solemn march, and "Uranus" murmurs and glitters. The work's most striking element is the scoring. A huge orchestra produces enormous contrasts (underlined by the recording), incredibly colorful sound effects and lush, dense, sonorities, with a lot of melodic doubling and undulating accompanying figures. The sound-world of the "Asteroids" is also based on instrumental colors and effects: whispers, shimmers, crashes and extreme registers. All this is just right for this virtuoso orchestra. --Edith Eisler

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Britten & Shostakovich: Violin Concertos

“Ehnes is a very fine violinist and there is barely a moment here when his playing is anything but silken in tone and sinuously refined...Karabits and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra make cultured colleagues but there is not much danger in their ostinato rhythms or edge to their attack.” --Gramophone Magazine, August 2013

“Ehnes is brilliantly supported by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, with Kirill Karabits totally at one with the soloist. This superb performance is coupled with one of the finest modern performances of Shostakovich’s glorious A minor Concerto that I have ever heard.” --International Record Review, September 2013

“it's the way that James Ehnes closes the opening movement [of the Britten] that most impresses, essaying a gossamer thread of such subtlety it becomes almost transparent.” --The Independent, 10th May 2013 ***

“Karabits and Ehnes share a powerful idea of [the Britten's] narrative, and each scene is vividly realised...Karabits draws searing clarity, balance and detail from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra...his treatment of the Shostakovich Concerto is riveting” --BBC Music Magazine, July 2013 ****

“The partnership between Ehnes, Karabits and the BSO comes across as a true meeting of minds, and these outstanding performances cannot be recommended highly enough.” --The Telegraph, 14th June 2013

“Everything hits the mark here...The Britten has never opened with such cool poise...the stuff of record critics’ dreams...Possibly the greatest recording that this concerto has received...Ehnes’s Shostakovich is just as good...Essential listening.” --The Arts Desk, 22nd June 2013

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Turina: Orchestral Works

“The fact that Turina was a skilled orchestrator is manifest throughout this disc in performances of La procesion del rocio and the Danzas gitans that have a shifting, subtle spectrum of coour delineating the music's light and shade, its sunshine and louring clouds, its sensuality and sinew... María Espada adds a  luminous glow to this homage to Seville in all its mystery and magic, exuberance and eerie phantasms.” --Gramophone magazine, August 2014

The works recorded here are filled with the inspiration Turina found in his native Andalusia and particularly the city of Seville. La procesión del Rocío, Turina’s first orchestral work, was inspired by memories of a procession held in the gypsy quarter of Seville and is filled with lively dance rhythms. Canto a Sevilla, a song cycle with orchestra, is a heartfelt tribute to Seville and its culture, taking on themes such as the vibrant Easter Procession, Seville beautiful ornamental fountains, and even a ghost that haunts the streets at night. Danzas gitanas, a collection of Andalusian gypsy dances, introduces a nocturnal atmosphere into a style normally characterised by bright orchestral colours and extravagant rhythmic intricacies. The Rapsodia sinfónica, one of his last works, represents a more mature, reflective composer. The use of piano and string orchestra limits the available palette of colours, Turina instead deciding to focus on the intimate relationship between the ensemble and soloist, a role here filled by Martin Roscoe.

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George Antheil’s Ballet Mécanique

"A must-hear disc for anyone with any kind of passing interest in the development of 20th Century music – decide for yourself if it represents prophetic music or a blind alley. For myself, I’m glad to be able to hear all of this music for myself in such fine performances. More discs from MusicMasters please Nimbus." --Nick Barnard, Musicweb-international.com

George Antheil's avant-garde signature piece, the Ballet Méchanique, created riots in Paris at the Theatre Champs Elysees in June of 1926, and the following April in New York's Carnegie Hall. Even though it was the focus of one of the most written about events in 20th century American music history,

it was not to be heard again for 62 years, until American conductor and musicologist Maurice Peress searched out the original score and restaged the 1927 concert in the very same Carnegie Hall on July 12, 1989.

This world premiere recording now makes it possible to hear the original which contained Antheil's most advanced ideas; a futurist, machine-age, ragtime inspired music, of a complexity beyond human playing capabilities and a conception beyond most music composed in 1925.

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Casella: Symphony No. 1, Etc

“The performances here are excellent. Francesco La Vecchia drives the orchestra hard in the symphony, with a big payoff in terms of emotional spontaneity and impact…This boldly engineered disc is the first of four surveying Casella's orchestral music. Recommended, without reservations.” --Classics Today, December 2010

“Casella’s Symphony 1 (1905) shows…striking dramatic effects. II is strongly constructed, and it is music of serious emotional fervor with long, sustained melodies. III builds to the main event with…highly effective sul ponticello string passages. The ensuing main theme is one of his most noble inspirations. After a flamboyant development, the music ends in a quiet elegy over bell-like harmonies.” --American Record Guide, November 2010

This first of four recordings of Alfredo Casella’s orchestral music couples his first and last purely orchestral works. Completed the day before his 23rd birthday, the Symphony No. 1, which here receives it world première recording, exudes a self-confidence few composers could match at such an age. Although it abounds in echoes of other music, at its best—above all in the beautiful central slow movement—the Symphony has a truly distinctive identity: Casella’s fondness for dark, even crepuscular sonorities can be heard in the sometimes stunningly imaginative orchestration. After that, the driving motoric rhythms and astringent harmonies and timbres of the Concerto, Op. 69 erupt like the work of a different man entirely.

Album Reviews

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Stravinsky: Les Noces, Oedipus Rex

“Ekaterina Semenchuk...[is] the contralto with the biggest range and lustre since Bernstein's Troyanos, and Sergey Semishkur's Oedipus blends clarion authority with youthful pathos...all the right musical phrases shine through. Even Bernstein's recording can't match it for earthy authenticity.” --BBC Music Magazine, August 2010 *****

“Ekaterina Semenchuk (Jocasta) sounds plummy at first but she and Sergei Semishkur (Oedipus) bring electrifying intensity to the duet where they realise their guilt. Overall this is a double-bill of at times shattering impact.” --Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2010

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Prokofiev: Complete Works for Violin

“I have not heard such a beautiful performance of the First Violin Concerto since Itzhak Perlman's 1982 EMI recording, and Ehnes enjoys the advantage of a more natural balance with the orchestra...Ehnes smoothes some of the First Sonata's rough edges...yet its menace and brutality emerge clearly enough...a real winner.” --BBC Music Magazine, December 2013 *****

Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice - October 2013

“Ehnes's particular combination of matchless virtuosity, sweet tone, flowing tempi and interpretative restraint suits all this music down to the ground. You sense that we are in for a special performance of the D major Concerto (No. 1) even before the soloist enters, Noseda eliciting a special quality of fairy-tale unreality.” --Gramophone Magazine, October 2013

This two-CD set offers all the works that Prokofiev wrote for the violin as solo instrument. One of the most sought after and acclaimed virtuoso violinists today, James Ehnes is accompanied by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Gianandrea Noseda and by the pianist Andrew Armstrong, with whom he has previously made a number of highly acclaimed Chandos recordings. The distinguished Amy Schwartz Moretti joins him in the Sonata for Two Violins.

The First Violin Concerto, begun in 1913 and completed in the summer of 1917, did not receive its first performance until 1923. There is much charm and gentle tunefulness in this work, written during a comparatively lyrical period in Prokofiev’s compositional life, though it is not without passages of bravura, especially in the brilliant central scherzo. The Second Concerto was premiered in 1935 and in feeling and atmosphere inhabits the world of the ballet Romeo and Juliet. The beautiful opening Russian theme is highly seductive, though in the first movement there is an undeniable hint of anxiety. The central movement contains many varied and contrasting ideas whilst the finale is notable for the flamboyant use of the bass drum, which adds both piquancy and drama.

The contrasting Violin Sonatas are closely associated with the violinist David Oistrakh, with whom the composer formed a close association. The Second Sonata (composed first) is a transcription of the Flute Sonata of 1943. Simple, expressive beauty is the hallmark of this work, Prokofiev’s mixture of high-spirits and sharp edges, notably in the finale, having made it a popular repertoire piece. Of the more serious First Sonata (1946), David Oistrakh wrote: ‘this was truly great music, and indeed for sheer beauty and depth nothing to equal it had been written for the violin for many a decade.’ The Sonata for Solo Violin (1947) was written with students in mind, the deceptively simple theme imbued with the composer’s characteristic twists and quirkiness. Prokofiev composed the Sonata for Two Violins (1932) for the Parisian chamber music society Triton, and the composer felt that, ‘in spite of the seemingly narrow framework, it seemed possible to make it interesting enough for the public to listen for ten or fifteen minutes without a sense of fatigue’. The Five Melodies are charming transcriptions by Prokofiev of his Five Songs, Op. 35.

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Shostakovich: Cello Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

“there is little doubt that the present performance of the First Concerto is even more incisive than its predecessor...Petrenko draws out a wealth of fascinating detail from the orchestral accompaniment...The Second Concerto, on the other hand, doesn't convince me to the same extent.” --BBC Music Magazine, July 2014 *****

“the cleanness and accuracy of the orchestral playing bring out in more than usual detail the remarkable economy of the scoring [of the First Concerto]...Mork is more forthright at the opening of [the first movement] than many of his rivals, but his playing is high on emotional content.” --International Record Review, May 2014

This is the premiere recording of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra under their new artistic director Vasily Petrenko.

Vasily Petrenko is renowned as a star conductor of the younger generation and one of the foremost interpreters of Shostakovich’s symphonies.

Truls Mørk is one of the most respected and prestigious cellists playing today, forged by a reputation of fierce intensity and grace in performances throughout the world. A committed performer of contemporary music, Mørk gave the UK premiere of Rautavaara’s cello concerto Towards the Horizon and whose recording on Ondine won both the Gramophone and ICMA Awards.

Shostakovich’s cello concertos were written for Mstislav Rostropovich during the 50s and 60s. Besides dashing virtuosity, the concertos also include substantial symphonic elements.

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Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet (Complete Ballet)

“Few can rival Valery Gergiev's pedigree in Prokofiev's music, and he is palpably aware of how this score works in the theatre. His pacing of events is masterly, with plenty of verve and passion… what really impresses… is the tenderness and poetry that are so often overlooked in Prokofiev, and not just in the love music. Gergiev frequently lets the strings and solo woodwind linger in a beguiling, natural rubato, whilst maintaining an architectural grasp of the tragic whole.” --BBC Music Magazine, February 2010 *****

BBC Music Magazine Awards 2011 - Disc of the Year & Orchestral Award Winner
Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice - March 2010

LSO Live celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2010. The label's first release of the year features Prokofiev's spectacular score for the ballet Romeo & Juliet conducted by Valery Gergiev. Gergiev is a tireless champion of Prokofiev's music. In 2004 he conducted the complete cycle of the composer's symphonies with the LSO which then won a Gramophone Award. Shortly afterwards Gergiev became Principal Conductor of the LSO and spent much of 2008 and 2009 touring Prokofiev's symphonies with the orchestra in Europe, Japan and the USA. Gergiev's Mahler cycle continues in February 2010 with the release of the Fourth Symphony. Other upcoming releases on LSO Live include a Rachmaninov symphony cycle as well as music by Ravel, Stravinsky, Debussy and Strauss.

“Gergiev is in his element and not just in moments of gritty angularity or romantic excess. The lighter numbers, sometimes taken more spaciously than usual, are equally memorable.” --Gramophone, March 2010

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The Film Music of Miklos Rozsa

“These performances by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Rumon Gamba, who have many a cinematic credit to their name, carry the conviction of an original soundtrack recording in state-of-the-art sound.” --Gramophone Magazine, May 2014

“This generously filled release is self-commending to every Rózsa fan. They will welcome new recordings of some much loved music but this will also speak to many others who simply enjoy fine, superbly crafted music.” --MusicWeb International, 16th June 2014

The Hungarian composer Miklós Rózsa began writing film music at the suggestion of Arthur Honegger after achieving only moderate success with his early concert music. He went on to score ninety-five films, including some of the most famous cinematic works of all time. Here Rumon Gamba, a great champion of film music, conducts the BBC Philharmonic in some of Rózsa’s best-loved scores.

The music composed for Alexander Korda’s London Films Company between 1937 and 1942 is imbued with an amazing freshness and magical melodic expression. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the colourful scores for The Thief of Bagdad and Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book, suites from which are presented on this recording. The first encompasses the major events of the plot in its seven movements. The second abounds with leitmotifs, the score being more than just background music as each character has its own theme. Rózsa’s score for the World War II film Sahara is appropriately hard-hitting and the suite encapsulates all the major themes of the film. The music for Ben-Hur is regarded by many as the composer’s magnum opus among the film scores, winning Rózsa an Oscar in 1960. Befitting the epic film production, it features a large orchestra and the suite comprises six key moments from the film.

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Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances & The Bells

“Lucid detail, refined shaping, polished instrumental solos and a shrewd way with texture and rhythmic ebb and flow contribute to an interpretation as astutely conceived as it is vital in execution.” --Gramophone Magazine, October 2013

“this Bells may be unsurpassable...The three soloists are superb, even if Dmytro Popov is a more heroic tenor than usual and Luba Orgonasova plays firm matriarch at the wedding rather than young bride. Mikhail Petrenko's bass is another quality voice, prefaced and mirrored by the most human cor anglais solo I've ever heard....a remarkable achievement.” --BBC Music Magazine, November 2013 *****

Gramophone Awards 2014 Shortlisted - Choral

“Rattle’s account of The Bells is very impressive: he has three excellent soloists and the choral and orchestral contributions are first class...I’m equally taken with his reading of the Symphonic Dances...the Berlin playing is simply fabulous...These are two of Rachmaninov’s greatest works and Simon Rattle has done them proud with this exciting disc.” --MusicWeb International, 22nd September 2013

“the choral singing [in The Bells] combines agility and heft – the third movement terrifies. Good soloists too – notably bass Mikhail Petrenko. Rattle’s characteristic ear for detail rarely derails the forward momentum...Rattle’s new Symphonic Dances take a while to work their magic...But you’re slowly won over” --The Arts Desk, 24th August 2013

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Grażyna Bacewicz: Violin Concertos, Volume 2

“All the first movements here have weighty matter at hand - the opening to the Fourth is especially portentous - yet Bacewicz's well-attested quickness of mind skips between subjects and moods like a distracted professor...I can't fault the technical address of Joanna Kurkowicz in thse first recordings but I wonder whether a less highly pressured approach would suit music that's quite intense enough on the page.” --Gramophone Magazine, October 2011

“what impresses most, throughout, is Bacewicz's continual inventiveness: she displays vital rhythmic energy in her fast movements and penetrating expressiveness in the slow ones...Anyone who loves the concertos of Szymanowski, Bloch, Martinu or Bartok will surely adore these works. Every one is a premiere recording, played with fire and passion.” --BBC Music Magazine, October 2011 *****

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