Quarterly Critic’s Choice
The best and most interesting new releases of the previous three months are awarded a place on the Quarterly Critic’s Choice. Evaluation criteria are artistic quality, repertoire value, presentation, and sound quality. From 2014 onward, the Long Lists are stored directly with each Quarterly Critic’s Choice.
NEW: Long List 2/2024, published on 5th April 2024
Crossover Productions
BartolomeyBittmann: Zehn
Preiser Records PR91560 (Naxos)
Anyone who has missed the force of their stage presence believes to hear a Mahavishnu Orchestra or at least a half-dozen multi-instrumentalists. Klemens Bittmann (violin) and Matthias Bartolomey (violoncello) have released four CDs in ten years and count among their fans, among others, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Arik Brauer. »Zehn« is their newest road movie, set in motion with the time machine, which sets epoch markers in vibration, rhythmically supplemented by plucked mandola and percussive use of the bows. This duo has the blues, as well as a remarkable virtuosity: HipHop from the late Renaissance, a passacaglia that rocks off, and an acrobatic tight-rope walk at an exceptional level. For the jury: Nikolaus Gatter