IAN WATSON AUDIO PRODUCTION
Some Reviews of recordings I have produced
Steve Reich: Different Trains
London Steve Reich Ensemble
Benjamin Britten: String Quartets
Endellion String Quartet
"These performances have a musical understanding that bespeaks a lifetime of engagement with these works."
The Sunday Times Album of the Week, Nov 2013 CD: Britten Quartets (Warner Classics)
“… These three master pieces, which Britten gave to the world, deserve performances from top-ensembles… The Endellion String Quartet has lived with these works for 30 years. Their first recording, on EMI and dating from 1978, was already awarded several prizes back then. This new version has an even richer sound, is rhythmically even more accurate and has a togetherness of ensemble which is unsurpassed. The incomparable individualities of each of the three quartets […] is being brought out to the full… Quartet playing at top-level.”
Luister Magazine, Holland’s premier Record Magazine, February 2014
CD: Britten Quartets (Warner Classics)
Beethoven/Barry: Symphonies, etc.
Britten Sinfonia/Thomas Adès
“I think that his approach to Beethoven is all about Adès the composer meeting Beethoven the composer, about that amazing startling invention, it looks afresh you know at how could a human being actually come up with these extraordinary ideas and that’s what comes over in all of the Beethoven symphonies for me in this recording”
BBC Radio 3 – Record Review
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“In all these live recordings, the engineers manage to give the best possible sound quality…Thomas Adès’ Beethoven cycle stands along with the finest available and betters many cycles by more celebrated ensembles. It will prove a memorable addition to anyone’s collection”
Musicweb International
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“The performances of both symphonies are terrific from start to finish…I love the outdoor, festively martial quality he [Adès] gives to the Fifth, and how the coda generates tremendous excitement while remaining light on its feet…under Adès the Britten Sinfonia play both scores for all their worth… Heartily recommended.”
Gramophone
Oda Voltersvik: Neo
Scriabin’s rarely heard Fantasie in B minor sets the scene, a one-movement piece of pure late Romanticism, the love-child of Chopin, Liszt and Wagner. Voltersvik allows its lyricism to shine through the virtuosic demands.
BBC Music Magazine