Recording reviews

Recent reviews of AAM recordings can be found here. For more reviews, visit individual recordings in Recordings.

Monday 19 December 2011

Handel's Messiah (Hogwood)

25th greatest recording of all time - BBC Music Magazine

"Stodge no more. In Christopher Hogwood's hands, Messiah was no longer a ponderous and portentous work, but something tightly sprung and which demanded your attention. The period instrument specialist was spring-cleaning well-loved pieces even as his pioneering contemporary Roger Norrington had barely launched the London Classical Players."

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

Saturday 03 October 2009

Handel Trio Sonatas Opp.2 & 5

“The interplay between the AAM is Baroque chamber-playing of the very highest order: sincerely conversational, emotive and finely nuanced. Egarr and Crouch are an outstanding continuo team, providing attentive yet uncluttered support to the two upper instruments. Brown and Beznosiuk play together with touching eloquence.”

GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE

“The subtleties and nuances of the playing, coupled with the sheer variety of Handel’s fertile imagination, never pales during over two hours of continuous listening. These are outstanding accounts with impeccable intonation and consistently warm tone at every dynamic level, and excellent balance across a wide stereo spectrum.”

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

Sunday 07 June 2009

Handel Solo Sonatas Op.1

“A delightful double-disc set. Minus bowed bass, Egarr's harpsichord accompaniment is free and expressive. The soloists slide easily from austerity to opulence, and Brown's dewy-toned recorder is enchanting.”

THE INDEPENDENT

“The soloists here are stylish and imaginative. Decorations are a delight in slow movements; the Adagio from No. 8 (oboe) is positively dripping with them. The playing is highly expressive; Rachel Brown opens the Largo of No. 9, the weightiest of all the sonatas, with heart-rending pathos. Fast movements are so technically secure that they retain a sense of spaciousness, though there are sparkling moments of virtuosity.”

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

Saturday 12 September 2009

Handel Organ Concertos Op.7

“The ultimate raspberry to anyone who says baroque music is predictable. Soloist Richard Egarr gleefully bites into the gamiest and most raucous registrations, contrasting what sounds like a supernaturally possessed carousel organ with the Academy of Ancient Music's searing strings, plump bassoons and sensual oboes.”

THE INDEPENDENT

“A pleasure throughout. None of the other recordings I have heard of these pieces are as creative as Egarr is with the instrument's registers. The echo effects and contrapuntal dialogues that abound in them rivet your ear with their character and wit. No listener who likes Baroque music is surprised when the Academy of Ancient Music plays well, but they really outdo themselves here.”

BANGKOK POST

JS Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos

“I'm here to tell you that the new Egarr-AAM Brandenburgs really blow. In a good way. They blow centuries of library dust off these pieces, and they blow fantastic horn and trumpet lines. Egarr & Co. are in it to win it. Whew. The first disc had hardly played 10 seconds when I was grabbing for the remote control to play again the most amazing horn parts I have ever heard—wild, outdoorsy, jazzy, almost bebop horn parts. As the six concertos unfolded, there was no sense of letdown, just continuing pleasant surprises.”

STEREOPHILE

“This new recording, one-to-a-part, seems from a different world, not just in terms of improved technical command of period instruments — the excellent soloists here include violinists Pavlo Beznosiuk and Rodolfo Richter, flautist Rachel Brown and trumpeter David Blackadder — but also in terms of the interpretative imprint put on it by its director/harpsichordist, Richard Egarr.”

GRAMOPHONE