Presto Recordings of the Year, Byrd (composer)

Less dramatic [than Kit Armstrong's 2021 album] but more even-tempered and sometimes even delightfully sentimental, Momen’s approach is different but no less satisfying. I admired Armstrong’s... — Gramophone Magazine, September 2024 More…

Some may find the extensive spoken liturgy excessive but such is Simon Russell Beale’s compelling delivery that the sheer beauty of the words offers a musical diversion of a different kind.... — Gramophone Magazine, June 2019 More…

Five songs from Finzi’s incomparable Let us Garlands Bring see the tenor’s head voice floating sympathetically through the melismatic vowels and ever-shifting metres of Finzi’s most sensitive... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2016 More…

It’s the breadth – not just of repertoire but of sound, technique and approach – that makes it so arrestingly excellent… The musicianship here is dazzling, and nowhere more so than in Britten’s... — Gramophone Magazine, October 2020 More…

Combining Tallis and Gesualdo with modern/contemporary composers such as Sarah Rimkus, Gerda Blok-Wilson and the late Veljo Tormis can be tricky for an ensemble, but the Gesualdo Six and Owain... — Choir & Organ, May 2020, 5 out of 5 stars More…

The entire program is sung with the utmost restraint...Among the miscellaneous collections of Byrd’s music, this ranks near the top, an impressive presentation sung one voice to a part, beautifully... — Fanfare, Nov/Dec 2023 More…

Armstrong’s playing is both expressive and technically brilliant, a combination here in constant demand as the ornamentation is intricate and often dizzyingly fast. And they run the emotional... — BBC Music Magazine, September 2021, 5 out of 5 stars More…

The underpinning scholarship doesn’t just run to artful reconstructions, teasing missing viol parts out of extant organ sources…The grainy, dark hues of Fretwork’s viols lend extra introductory... — BBC Music Magazine, September 2020, 4 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 5 out of 5 stars (Recording) More…

The real beauty of these readings...is the singers’ poetic nuancing of the texts, which they articulate with glassy clarity. The members of Fretwork play with characteristic grace, weaving gossamer... — BBC Music Magazine, July 2021, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Contrapunctus really knows what to do with these pieces and from the very first item...the tuning is superb and the ensemble rock solid. Moreover, Owen Rees's interpretations are revelatory... — BBC Music Magazine, August 2015, 5 out of 5 stars More…