Gramophone Awards, Birtwistle (composer)

these are among the most powerful orchestral pieces of recent years...Wigglesworth and the Halle give performances of amazing concentration, accuracy and passion, aided by recorded sound of... — BBC Music Magazine, September 2011, 5 out of 5 stars More…

This is a wonderful and important release of his powerful and often delicate works. Best, perhaps, to begin with On the Sheer Threshold of the Night, which is a kind of spin-off from The Mask... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2014, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Birtwistle's opera is about the Orpheus myth, but the familiar story has been fragmented. Each of the principal characters is represented by two singers and a (silent) dancer, and much of what... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Theseus Game (2002-3) offers clear visual contrasts: an ensemble of 30 players has two conductors, and there's a central space at the front of the platform for the succession of soloists who... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

From Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire to Boulez's Le marteau sans maître and Kurtág's Messages of the late RV Troussova, modernist composers have used the medium of voice with mixed instrumental... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Tomlinson pulls off the feat magnificently. There's a deep, grainy quality to his voice that catches the sorrow and cynicism of the Green Knight perfectly...Another strength of this recording... — BBC Music Magazine, October 2014, 4 out of 5 stars More…

…anyone listening to these discs will find many things to savour… It is, inevitably an eclectic mix, but, as in any well-planned song recital, the progressions and juxtapositions are continually... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2009, 5 out of 5 stars More…