Chris O'Reilly

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Gramophone Editor's Choices - February 2025

2 months ago | prestomusic.com | Chris O'Reilly

A live recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 7 from Sir Simon Rattle and the Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks takes the laurels in next month's issue, with reviewer Edward Seckerson declaring 'this is music of the night for sure and it’s the play of light and shadow that Rattle and his players pull off so beautifully.' The recording follows accounts of Symphonies Nos.
Gramophone Editor's Choices - January 2025

Jan 8, 2025 | prestomusic.com | Chris O'Reilly

Italian countertenor Carlo Vistoli is first among equals this month, with a Vivaldi album entitled Sacro furore (featuring the Stabat Mater, Nisi Dominus and In furore iustissimae irae plus two concerti from the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin) on Harmonia Mundi: reviewer Edward Breen praised Vistoli's 'impeccably fast passagework and crisp diction' as well as the 'silvery tone and insatiable rhythmic drive' of the Akamus strings.
Recordings of the Year 2024 - Our Top 10

Dec 5, 2024 | prestomusic.com | Chris O'Reilly

After several rounds of highly enjoyable debate and many hours of listening, the Presto editorial team have finally decided on our Top 10 Recordings of 2024 and six special category winners - the albums which really made us listen afresh to core repertoire, told absorbing stories through their imaginative programming, or made compelling cases for music that was new to us all...
The Presto Chart - November 2024

Dec 2, 2024 | prestomusic.com | Chris O'Reilly

Steven Isserlis's Boccherini album with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (which featured as our first November Recording of the Week) proved our most popular title of last month: released on Hyperion on 1st November, Music of the Angels features two of the composer's twelve cello concertos plus a pair of sonatas, the string quintet G. 280, and of course the evergreen Minuet from the string quintet G. 275.
Recordings of the Year 2024 - Special Category Nominees

Nov 28, 2024 | prestomusic.com | Chris O'Reilly

As the Presto Awards panel embarks on a final round of detailed listening and impassioned discussion to decide on our Top 10 Recordings of 2024, we reveal the shortlists for the six special category awards: Debut Solo Album, two varieties of Premiere Recordings, Archive Project, DVD/Blu-ray, and EP.
Gramophone Editor's Choices - November 2024

Nov 25, 2024 | prestomusic.com | Chris O'Reilly

A box no Ravel-lover will want to be without is the Recording of the Month for November - François-Xavier Poizat (with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Simone Menezes) marking the composer's 150th birthday in an unmistakeable way and capturing 'all the best qualities characterising Ravel’s greatest interpreters'.
Classical Recordings of the Year - Finalists 2024

Nov 21, 2024 | prestomusic.com | Chris O'Reilly

After many hours of listening and discussion, the Presto editorial team have finally decided on our Top 100 Recordings of the Year: you can browse through the finalists below, and until 22nd January 2025 we're offering discounts of up to 25% on almost all of the featured titles (excluding downloads). Our Top 10 recordings and the winners in six special award categories will be announced on the evening of Thursday 5th December...
Fair play - How much do different streaming services pay?

Nov 5, 2024 | prestomusic.com | Chris O'Reilly

Since launching our streaming service in 2023, we’ve been stating that the combination of paying rightsholders per second (rather than ‘per play’) AND focussing purely on classical and jazz repertoire means that we’re often paying out up to 10x more than other major streaming services. Eighteen months on we feel it is time to start illustrating this with data from specific albums. We've picked a few prominent recent releases to demonstrate this here.
The Presto Chart - October 2024

Nov 4, 2024 | prestomusic.com | Chris O'Reilly

Pygmalion and Raphaël Pichon's Mozart Requiem with a twist proved our most popular title last month, after winning praise from The Times for the 'fiercely eloquent singing' of the crack French ensemble and being described as 'real breath of fresh air' by Limelight Magazine. Pichon uses the familiar Süssmayr completion of the Mass, but intersperses its movements with fragments and shorter works from earlier in Mozart's life which prefigure ideas developed in the Requiem.
BBC Music Magazine - December 2024 Choices

Oct 29, 2024 | prestomusic.com | Chris O'Reilly

'A Celebration of Women's Voices' from harpist Louise Thomson, the UK-based Corvus Consort and Freddie Crowley on Chandos takes the laurels in the December issue, with reviewer Ashutosh Khandekar describing the programme as 'a jewel-box of glinting, shimmering gems'.