A most unexpected and heartwarming New Year gift arrived today in the form of a comment made in a Times book review by the distinguished cellist Natalie Clein. Reviewing a new book on Bach’s cello suites, she muses on the difficulty of writing about music, and says, ‘The most successful writers are often musicians themselves […]

Still feeling cross that the Guardian, in its review of classical music in the past decade, did not say a single word about chamber music. Guardian writer Tom Service devoted almost his whole summary to opera and orchestral music. This happens year after year, no matter who the writer is. Each Christmas I have to […]

At last Gramophone, the UK’s leading classical record magazine, has reviewed the Florestan Trio’s latest Hyperion disc of Haydn Trios (volume 2). Here’s an extract: ‘The Florestan Trio display their customary virtuosity, elegance and caprice, once again capturing the full emotional range of what may, on the surface, appear to be merely domestic entertainment music… Peter Quantrill […]

When I got back from Lisbon this afternoon, I looked at my website statistics and saw that an awful lot of people had looked at the website on Saturday while I was away. I realised later that it must have been because of the Guardian’s heart-warming review that day of the Florestan Trio’s Wigmore Hall concert. ‘Every […]

The critics of Gramophone magazine have been choosing their favourite discs of the year for the December issue, and Peter Quantrill has chosen the Florestan Trio’s latest disc, of Haydn Trios (volume 2), as his personal favourite of 2009.  He writes: ‘I can’t remember a disc of more good, serious fun than the envoi to Haydn […]