Reviews

'Pierce's voice is delicious: clear, strong, supple, with sparkling top notes and a warm, textured middle and low register. She's mistress of her words, bending vowels and clipping consonants to maximise rhetoric, whether desperate urgings or whispered promises.'

'There’s warmth, men­ace and crys­talline pre­ci­sion in this new record­ing of Richard Strauss’s Ein Helden­leben that beau­ti­fully cap­tures the tone poem’s af­fec­tion and sar­donic mock­ery in equal mea­sure.'

'...this is a recommendable performance of the Op.71 quartets with that of Op.71 No.2 standing out from the crowd...And nobody should miss out on their intensely beautiful epilogue, the lament, Griogal Cridhe.'

'The clarity of the performance makes this a real winner.'

La Clef: 'This new version easily reaches the top three alongside Trevor Pinnock and Marc Minkowski.'

'...a glowing and limpidly recorded account unfolds, awash with colors and rich in balletic grace and musical complexity...Ticciati’s performance here is a joy.'

'Kožena and Ticciati, while taking a lusher, operatic approach, rival the great recording of three of these songs made in 1977 by Janet Baker with the London Symphony Orchestra under André Previn. That is high praise...In every way, this is a superb production.'

'The Maxwell Quartet offers a balanced reading, both tinged with energy and breathing space…The story echoes the Scottish inspirations that sometimes also crossed the work of the great master.'

'Ticciati also seems to have brought with him some of the qualities we used to hear in his performances with the SCO, an essential lightness, quickness of the response, clarity of texture, as well as a wide range of colour and timbre. All of which pay dividends here...'