Reviews

Absolutely compelling. This is musical architecture at its highest, and Diana Boyle reads it very personally and with profound feeling and sincerity, while at the same time faithfully conserving the music’s universal quality. It is one of the most exciting and technically excellent interpretations I know.

This riveting, intelligently thought-through reading by the talented Diana Boyle includes the fourteen Contrapuncti and the Inversus sections of Contrapuncti 12 and 13, but not the optional Canons. Lovers of Bach’s keyboard music will find it competitive.

Boyle plays … in a slow, lyrical manner closer in feeling to the French Impressionists … genial, relaxed approach. Overall her performances have a relaxing, hypnotic, almost Zen feeling about them. I find myself completely engrossed in Boyle’s playing.

Any listener who has become fascinated by {this work] is likely to want a selection which can be enjoyed in different ways. It is good to hear a performance that is above all determined to capture the changing musical character of the work rather than simply to demonstrate the complexity and ingenuity of the fugal writing. I must note that Ms Boyle produces some very beautiful sounds and textures, and her speeds are well chosen. It may indeed appeal to anyone who has been put off the music previously because of its reputation or unsympathetic performances. I cannot deny the beauty and character that is given to the music – rather than extracted from it. At the right time and in the right mood you may find this irresistible – I can see it becoming a cult version in some circles.

Diana Boyle’s recording of Bach’s Art of Fugue is extraordinarily wonderful…also shocking, revelatory. More than anything, I had the feeling of history flowing backwards, as if Bach’s music had been waiting for later musical evolution to reveal its hidden nature. Her playing seems not so much an art of interpretation as a new creation. The […]

Pianist Diana Boyle well understands Bach’s sixteen Contrapuncti which step by step created The Art of Fugue as music beyond belief. She has made a very good performance and understands the nature of the music, but most of all, she is genuine.

A supreme masterpiece and here is given a brilliant and individual interpretation, in which Diana brings out classical-style emphasis and phrasing, to bring the music alive more than in traditional dry and academic accounts.

It is with particular pleasure that I welcome this outstanding new recording. The performances are uniformly admirable, and this important issue is a most welcome addition to the catalogue. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I am generally so fond of Anthony Goldstone’s playing, whether as soloist or as here in duet with his wife, Caroline Clemmow, that I enjoy reviewing every disc I can get my hands on. They do not disappoint here, giving us the warm, lyrical and ever-so-slightly modern, but mostly tonal, works of Hans Gal. There is nothing the least bit pretentious, overdone or underdone in their performances … they simply give one the music. Would that the classical world had more artists of this caliber

As with everything to come from Goldstone and Clemmow over the past several years, this is a marvellous release. It is full of new music performed and recorded to the highest standards.

Sheer joy … delightful music whose time has come; put it high on your piano recordings to buy list.

No one needs to be reminded of what a very fine duo Goldstone and Clemmow are… they are in the best in the UK and probably the best internationally. This CD is no exception as to quality. Their performances are so convincing, highly polished and show a maturity not hampered by fussiness. They make the music speak and often sing. Their touch and tone is impeccable and the sound is choice. There is admirable subtlety in their playing … and the clarity of the playing is quite superb! I hope young pianists will take note of the excellent and indispensable example that these two fine musicians give.
This is a real find.

Very welcome [reissue] and if you missed it first time around, now is your chance…for the most part this is Gál in unbuttoned mood, and a source of great entertainment and vitality.

Played with their customary skill by Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow

A lovely disc which may prove revelatory to some. I found it very rewarding… recommended.

This is a generously timed and attractively presented CD. The ‘Essay on DSCH’ is sonorous and gritty by turns, extremely well written for the piano in a style that will evoke Tippett in some listeners’ minds. It is a compelling work to which one wants to return. As for the performances, Robert Melling plays all three [piano] works with what appears to be total mastery and conviction. [The First Quartet] confirms the impression of a composer of great seriousness, uninterested in surface glamour and who expects his listeners to work at the music. Both [quartets] receive fine performances from the Edinburgh Quartet. This is a fine disc of uncompromising music from a little known composer. I recommend it to all those who like to stray from the beaten track.

All the works on this disc are substantial and repay careful listening. Well worth investigating.

It is fascinating to hear familiar music in this guise because it enables the attentive listener to concentrate on the inner workings of this music, and thereby acquire a deeper understanding of Tchaikovsky’s genius. The results are musically outstanding. ⭐️⭐️⭐️(⭐️⭐️)

Tchaikovsky’s orchestral music, not unlike Rachmaninov’s, lends itself wonderfully to piano transcriptions and paraphrases—magnificently colourful and contoured, immaculately graded and given to long-breathed gestures, which push ever forward in intensity to reach climaxes of enormous power and grandeur. Much of the composer’s romantic essence finds its way into piano versions and I can quite see why Anthony Goldstone has turned his attention, first to the orchestral and operatic music, and in the next instalment to the ballet music. The disc overall emerges as a creditable project, no doubt distracting Goldstone for some considerable time, not least in contributing to two of the four excellent transcriptions and in the writing of full, detailed booklet notes. His efforts are complemented by a warm, well-captured sound from Divine Art—I look forward to hearing Goldstone’s second instalment featuring Tchaikovsky’s ballet music.

A revelation from start to finish … the piano version of [Marche slave] is a staggering conception. Renditions are imbued with a high dose of exciting pianism but the lyrical quality of the music is dealt with gentle finesse and subtle expressiveness. Sound and Balance are first-rate.