Reviews

the performance has real flair and accomplishment

Professionally performed and comically expert

lively… enjoyable… spirited and polished performance

Recorded at a 1984 performance, this is the world-première issue of the original 60-minute Cox and Box. The performance is delightful. Leon Berger is a rough and ready Cox, and Ian Kennedy a mellifluous Box. Kenneth Barclay keeps the proceedings moving smartly on the piano. Highly recommended for all Savoyards

strongly recommended….⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In the course of his work, this reviewer is sent a few divine recordings, many good ones, too many so-so’s and occasionally a bizarre one such as this album, fondly described by its makers as – ‘Over 75 minutes of Victorian fun.’ Grossmith seems to have been a jack-of-all-trades (and I will refrain from the […]

George Grossmith was most famous as the creator of nearly all of Gilbert & Sullivan’s great clown roles… but he was also a successful composer for music-hall revues. This interesting disc gathers his most famous songs. It’s unfortunate that Grossmith never made any recordings (although enough of his contemporaries have so that we have a […]

If you like Gilbert & Sullivan, you will most likely enjoy the songs of George Grossmith. The songs are indeed witty and stand up well today. The music is well recorded and well performed

The booklet is very nicely presented and the CD which is well recorded and affords generous measure is generally very recommendable

Barnard is well up to the taxing demands in the outer movements – the mighty cadenza at the end of the first movement is a tour de force. You get the strong impression that by sheer force of personality, the accompanying Philharmonia under Sargent were galvanised into urgent response, so that Bliss is here receiving the best possible advocacy.

Barnard’s excellent performance… is… commanding.. a strong passionate reading.. and displays considerable virtuosity….thoroughly worthwhile CD reissue

Barnard..plays with….scintillating brilliance.. the central movement is beautifully handled… some of the most precious minutes I have spent in recent months

Though hardly cutting edge for its time, Bliss’s Concerto is a work of much ingenuity, and Trevor Barnard is a splendid soloist…..I enjoyed this reissue enormously

This superb double CD presents Chopin by a pianist of astonishing skill and musicianship … Bernard d’Ascoli’s interpretation of the Nocturnes is full of feeling, drama and serenity, demonstrating his genuine love for the music.

D’Ascoli has a sound that is clear, liquescent and very appropriate to Chopin. He is a pianist who sounds at one with the instrument, and conveys the feeling that this really is his music. [This release] is of considerable interest… whose totality upholds the distinction of its individual parts.

An artist of such exceptional sensitivity and tonal refinement in music that suits his style so well… a very considerable achievement. It is surely playing that the composer himself would have recognised

deeply probing, exploratory, performances… bold… persuasive… compelling. His rubato… makes his Chopin alive and self-renewing. Performance ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Sound ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This ranks among the most remarkable of Chopin Nocturne recordings… performances of a living, breathing presence. The recordings are vivid and immediate. A revelatory, probing disc… D’Ascoli announces himself as a top-flight pianist. GRAMOPHONE EDITOR’S CHOICE MARCH 2006

a fascinating and stimulating experience…assured and brilliant technique and a natural sense of poetry and sound. A joy to hear.

Loges is a sensitive interpreter, beautifully recorded with a warm toned piano behind him – his hushed singing of the second stanza of [the Brahms Lullaby] showing him at his finest