This year's Limelight Recordings of the Year nominations have been announced, with recent discs by conductor Paul McCreesh and Jennifer Pike amongst the list of recordings picked.
Paul McCreesh recent disc of Purcell's King Arthur with the Gabrieli Consort & Players is nominated in the Opera category. The recording has been praised for being "as accomplished and richly satisfying an experience as anyone could hope for" by Brian Robins for Opera Magazine. In BBC Music Magazine, for which the CD won Recording of the Year, Berta Joncus wrote "McCreesh’s new performing edition, which contains re-ordered numbers and a finale forged from other works by Purcell, is the catalyst for this intimate, intensely energetic production." You can read more about the disc here, and find further outstanding reviews here.
Jennifer Pike's latest disc of violin sonatas by Elgar and Vaughan Williams, released on Chandos with recital partner Martin Roscoe, is nominated in the Chamber category. Reviewer Phillip Scott wrote in his five star review of the disc: “This new recording is a must if you don’t know these great pieces...A benchmark recording of the two sonatas is that from 1978 by Yehudi and Hephzibah Menuhin. Yehudi had a strong affinity for this music and is highly expressive, but his intonation is neither as secure nor his tone as pure as Pike’s, while Roscoe is the more imaginative pianist”. The disc has received wide critical acclaim as "an irresistible release" (The Strad), and has also been awarded five stars from Gramophone Magazine, BBC Music Magazine, and Music Web International. To find out more about the recording, click here. To watch the trailer for the disc, click here.
The winners of each category will be announced in Limelight's December issue, released 23rd November 2020.
More information about the nominations can be found here.
