"Unlike some conductors who specialise in early music, Pickett produces performances as fresh sounding as his scholarship is impressive."
New York Times |
"Pickett brings it all to life with such verve and with such beauty that academic ‘authenticity’ pales into insignificance."
Sunday Times |
"Scholarly as Pickett is, the results are anything but esoteric or pale."
The Guardian |
"Philip Pickett intelligently sustained momentum and obtained beautiful instrumental playing."
Evening Standard |
"Pickett‘s various recordings have already achieved the status of reference versions, combining respect for the original aesthetic with an intelligent interpretation."
Diario 16 (Spain) |
"Pickett has concentrated on recording unusual repertoires, with an interest in popularisation and a touch of the spectacular. He aspires to bring early music to large audiences through performances that are accessible and immediate. The results are dazzling and the richness of timbre astonishing. Pickett’s work is excellent and his realisations of the music are very attractive. His imaginative and illuminating presentations must be heard."
Ritmo (Spain) |
"Pickett’s recordings represent an outstanding marriage of scholarship and practice, creating definitive and absorbing performances."
BBC Music Magazine |
"Pickett’s investigations give his performances a freshness that too many period versions lack. Uniquely colourful and dramatic, his performances are very much alive."
The Independent |
"Fun plus scholarship plus exemplary musicianship: a winning combination."
The Times |
"Philip Pickett is among the most eminent of Baroque directors, with an enviable reputation for his researches into performance practice."
Le Temps [Switzerland] |
"Philip Pickett is the ultimate Inspector Morse figure amongst the distinguished band of scholars working in this area. He is in his element when there is a code to crack and when his eager imagination can be exercised alongside a keen knowledge of early performance practices."
Gramophone |
"Philip Pickett doesn’t think like other early music specialists. Confronted with a wayward hypothesis flying in the face of tradition, Pickett doesn’t back off in case it upsets the whole musical establishment applecart. He just wades right in. Relentlessly, Pickett patches together symbols and significances from mythology, literature and art, until the jigsaw falls into place. And the real benefit of all this historical detective work is in what music archivists must now, presumably, be calling the digital encodings."
Q Magazine |
"Philip Pickett can unarguably call himself one of the world’s leading interpreters of early music. Not only does he show impeccable taste and imagination in his editions and performing versions, he manages at the same time to splatter his enthusiasm over all who hear him. One of his special skills is a steadfast ability to spot a great tune - and then put together programmes of strong contrasts and exquisite surprises."
CD Review |
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