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 Year from the Florestan Trio… Not a phrase is left to chance. It’s a disc full of bushes and briars, and the cold fresh wind of sense on a sunny winter morning.’  We’re slightly perplexed by the reference to bushes and briars, but we’re also mysteriously pleased by the image.