Absolutely outstanding, from first bar to last
Boyd Duo at the Purcell Room 4/6/2019
The cello and piano recital given by brothers Alexander and Nathaniel Boyd at the Purcell Room on June 4, under the auspices of Lisa Peacock Concert Management Ltd was notable throughout for the high degree of musical and interpretative understanding these gifted musicians brought to three masterpieces of the repertoire……….Throughout, the Boyd brothers’ account demonstrated their total grasp of the work: its unique structure, relatively wide emotional range and organic expression were all demonstrated through a performance of rare quality……….Brahms’s Sonata plumbs considerable depths but one often encounters performances that merely ‘go through the work’. In this instance I have no doubt that the Boyds’ view of this masterpiece has been refined over many years, producing the finest account I have heard for a long time – absolutely outstanding from first bar to last.
Robert Matthew-Walker
Musical Opinion Quarterly, July-September 2019
The highly-gifted Boyd Duo (brothers Nathaniel, cellist, and Alexander, pianist) presented an exceptional recital of four Sonatas at the Purcell Room on January 31st, their filial characteristics extending to their musical qualities. They began with Debussy’s Sonata, a very difficult work with which to open any recital programme but which, on this occasion, received a performance of notable distinction, in technical command, musical insight and instrumental balance. The Prokofiev Sonata…was honoured with a similarly outstanding performance, the players’ seemingly instinctive insight revealing this piece to be an unjustly unfamiliar masterwork for most audiences. Rachmaninoff’s large scale G minor Sonata, which tests the pianist rather more than the cellist, concluded the evening in a gripping and totally involving reading. Here are two outstanding musicians and we hope that it will not be long before we hear them again.
Musical Opinion
I’ve rarely felt such a glow of love from the less familiar E major Quartet, Op 80, the opening piece on this second disc in (let’s hope) a series devoted to Dvořák from this young British ensemble.
…But anyone who thinks that the new generation of super-quartets are merely about virtuoso brilliance should hear the myriad shades of russet and gold that the Albion Quartet find in these two enchanting works. This, surely, is how Dvořák’s chamber music is supposed to sound: luminous, playful (there’s a real kick to his dotted dance-rhythms), and simultaneously generous and touchingly intimate.
Gramophone Magazine Editors Choice
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The playing, by the excellent Albion, is masterly in its vividness, freedom and sensitivity
David Cairns
Sunday Times, 16.2.2020 (CD review, Dvorak Quartets 8 & 10)
The most vivid and passionate account I have ever heard of Mozart’s Prussian Quartet
Five star review by Michael Church
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The Independent: London’s first ‘Ragged Music Festival’