Classic FM
CD of the week on John Suchet''s show on Classic FM

“The recording is an all-Berlioz affair, principally given over to a wonderful recording of the Symphonie Fantastique but also including the overture to the opera Beatrice and Benedict. Hear this new album for yourself, from Tuesday to Friday this week, at around 10.15.”

Sunday Times

Classical CD of the Week

A protégé of Colin Davis, Britain’s rising young star conductor, Robin Ticciati, has lost no time in presenting his credentials as an outstanding Berliozian in his first recording as music director of the SCO. This is no carbon copy of perhaps the foremost interpreter of “the best first symphony ever written”. Indeed, this Fantastique is remarkable for its fresh insights into one of the great orchestral warhorses, available on disc in a multitude of versions. Only 28 when the recording was made last October, Ticciati is just a year older than Berlioz was when he completed the work, and he makes a strong case for regarding this ever-astonishing, hallucinatory symphony as a young man’s music. The opening Rêveries — Passions is especially dreamlike, impressionistic almost, and Ticciati makes much of Berlioz’s revolutionary wind, brass and percussion writing in a March to the Scaffold that really makes the listener sit up: after the famous “thwack” of the guillotine blade falling, he pinpoints the pizzicato sound of the head falling into the basket, while the nightmarish sounds of the Witches’ Sabbath emerge in the most vivid colours thanks to the clarity of the string sound and the squealing high woodwinds. The veins of lightness he taps in the Waltz, and of melancholy in the Scène aux champs, also find their place in the delightfully airy account of the overture as an encore. Fantastique! Hugh Canning

Guardian – 6th April 2012

Andrew Clements

Few previous recordings of the Symphonie Fantastique will have used such a modest string section, but the transparency and lightness of touch Ticciati achieves is a real bonus.

Telegraph interview with Robin Ticciati – 2nd April 2012

“I’d done his Symphonie Fantastique quite a few times, but I hadn’t said quite what I wanted to say. I thought I could get closer with a chamber orchestra, because after all the second movement is a waltz on a Mozartean scale. And in the first and third movements there’s a special kind of grace, to do with the uplift on the quaver upbeats, which I could never get with big orchestras. But I thought with these players I could.” And even if he hasn’t, he’ll have got a step closer. With Ticciati it’s the journey that matters.

Kerrang K K K K
#31 in the Artist Chart
#3 Rock & Metal Albums Chart
#5 Independent Albums Chart
When Alter Bridge played Wembley Arena on November 29, 2011, it was truly momentous show. This live CD and DVD set slickly documents that moment; the pinnacle of a Trans-Atlantic love affair that while not surprising, seemed unlikely. In 2004, Alter Bridge rose from the wreckage of multi-million sellers Creed and few expected them to last, let alone introduce the world to one of rock’s most talented and charismatic frontmen, Myles Kennedy. Still, they did both. While Live From Wembley sensibly reminds you that there are four vital parts to Alter Bridge, Myles remains the focal point thanks to this rookie-ish excitement, booming: “Hello Wembley…I always wanted to say that” ahead of opening Before Tomorrow Comes. The live CD portion of the set confirms that Alter Bridge are among the tightest mainstream rock bands touring today, with Ghosts Of Days Gone By and Rise Today rendered flawlessly.
Likewise the DVD showcases the sheer pyro pumping spectacle of it all, while a one-hour documentary reinforces just how significant this show was. Whether you where there or not, Live From Wembley is an essential document from a truly historic night, by a fantastic band.

“In a welcome if rare excursion into contemporary music, and recorded with tinglingly immediate atmosphere, the Hallé under Ryan Wigglesworth sound on top form throughout” Gramophone Magazine, October 2011

“The Pavel Haas Quartet play with plenty of feeling and they also relish the rhythmic cut and thrust of the Molto vivace third movement, capturing to perfection the more relaxed Trio''s sunny spirit.The final opens to a gentle smile then keys up for some dancing exuberance...there''s an abundance of varied drama” Gramophone Magazine, December 2010

Anne-Akiko Meyers, who broke into the US Amazon top ten last week with Bach concertos two spots behind Bob Dylan, has come out on top of the Nielsen sales charts in her first full week of release.

She’s #1 on Classical Traditional, #2 Classical Overall, #3 on Current New Artist – Heat Seekers.

In the Classical Overal chart – mostly crossover – she’s neck-and-neck at the top with croonster Andrea Bocelli.

Well done, that violinist.  Norman Lebrecht - Slipped Disc