Presto Recordings of the Year, Chopin (composer)

Some extremely daring speeds guarantee excitement, pushing the technical limits in what are, of course, despite their generic title (Études , or Studies), so much more than technical exercises,... — BBC Music Magazine, July 2024, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Nothing in the entire literature of Etudes surpasses Chopin’s Op. 25, and the best interpreters not only clear all the technical hurdles but project the 12 pieces as a progressive sequence.... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2021, 4 out of 5 stars More…

The solemn Arpeggione is prefigured here by Isserlis’s arrangement of Chopin’s achingly beautiful ‘Nie ma czego trzeba’. Again in this Sonata, the duo offer graceful transparency, lithe refinement... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2018, 5 out of 5 stars More…

This is a highly considered collection of performances, with close attention paid to phrasing, articulation and voicing. Lapwood has successfully delivered an album that cements her status as... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2023, 4 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 5 out of 5 stars (Recording) More…

he really is phenomenal: this music seems to flow out of him with such relaxed and elegant perfection — BBC Music Magazine, March 2016, 4 out of 5 stars More…

They are all works requiring formidable technical ability, and pianist Alexander Melnikov brings clarity of touch and virtuoso flair to them all, transferring as if effortlessly from instrument... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2018, 4 out of 5 stars More…

The sequence works well as a recital-like experience, and also as a vehicle for Hough’s comprehensive mastery of his art...The idiom of his own ‘Vida breve’ Sonata, with its cogent sweep and... — BBC Music Magazine, March 2021, 5 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 4 out of 5 stars (Recording) More…

…his playing is unfailingly cultivated and his sound beautifully focused and poised.[Concerto in E minor]…Cho commands the work, and he leads the dance in the finale — BBC Music Magazine, May 2017, 4 out of 5 stars More…

The quality of this playing is altogether exceptional. Pianist Benjamin Grosvenor takes nothing for granted in music. Nor should we in listening to him...he plainly understands that every interpretation... — BBC Music Magazine, October 2014, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Both play [the Franck] with poetry and warmth but can turn solid where coolly patrician tone is needed, and the air only really clears in time for the floating, sweet lyricism of the finale.... — BBC Music Magazine, March 2020, 4 out of 5 stars More…