Presto Recordings of the Year, Monteverdi (composer)

Charlston's mezzo is as dark and full-bodied as a good claret, and she offers highly expressive readings of the texts, plumbing their depths with cut-glass diction and a glorious range of colours... — BBC Music Magazine, August 2022, 4 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 5 out of 5 stars (Recording) More…

This is perfect ground for Lindsey and Cohen, both extremely accomplished and transformative performers of Baroque music...Her extraordinary vocal evocations are complemented throughout by the... — BBC Music Magazine, September 2021, 5 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 4 out of 5 stars (Recording) 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…

Though the top of her voice is wiry under pressure, her coloratura is tightly sprung, her diction is flawless, and her phrasing of the often underrated poetry is sympathetic and sophisticated…Il... — BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2016, 4 out of 5 stars More…

This is an attractive addition to the vast array of recordings of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers collection. — BBC Music Magazine, November 2023, 4 out of 5 stars More…

This is a glorious addition to the Monteverdi 450 celebrations. — BBC Music Magazine, September 2017, 4 out of 5 stars More…

[Butt’s] flexible approach to the vexed question of the proportional speeds between duple and triple sections produces some surprisingly languid effects…but a dance-like vitality elsewhere…using... — BBC Music Magazine, October 2017, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Alessandrini’s Monteverdi interpretations resound with passion…a brilliantly conceived, scholastically sound and liturgically plausible sequence, burnished with spiritual sincerity. — Choir & Organ, January/February 2015 More…

Scotting borrows your heart in Monteverdi’s ‘Con che soavità’ when a lover asks how can one speak and kiss at the same time, while conductor Laurence Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music... — BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2023, 4 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 5 out of 5 stars (Recording) More…

Kožená teams up with crack period band La Cetra, whose virtuoso solo contributions are a delight, yet the voice isn't quite what it was - more diffuse, painting with broader tonal brushstrokes.... — Gramophone Magazine, April 2016 More…