Sinfonia of London, John Wilson
Chandos · CHSA5291 · 65 minutes
There’s something about British string writing that lives in a very particular emotional weather — overcast skies, damp earth, something aching underneath the surface — and John Wilson gets that completely with the Sinfonia of London. His reading of the Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis finds both the dreamy, layered polyphony and the sharp impassioned moments that can get smoothed over in more reverential accounts. Throw in Howells, Delius, and Elgar alongside it, and you’ve got 65 minutes that feel genuinely necessary.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 3rd February 2023
- Gramophone Magazine — March 2023 — Editor’s Choice
- BBC Music Magazine — April 2023 — Orchestral Choice
- Gramophone Awards — 2023 Finalists — Finalist – Orchestral
“The sound, engineered by Ralph Couzens, is magnificent…While fully relishing the at times dreamy polyphony of Vaughan Williams’s textures, Wilson’s Fantasia has sharp, impassioned edges too,…”
— BBC Music Magazine, April 2023,5 out of 5 stars
Sinfonia of London, John Wilson
Chandos · CHSA5220 · 59 minutes
Korngold’s Symphony in F sharp is one of those pieces that sounds like it shouldn’t work — late-Romantic lushness written in 1952, completely out of step with its era — and yet it’s an overwhelming, unapologetic masterpiece once you surrender to it. John Wilson conducts with total conviction, and the Sinfonia of London strings have this rich, almost cinematic warmth that makes complete sense for a composer who spent years writing Hollywood scores. The Straussiana is a delightful bonus too, Korngold playfully weaving Johann Strauss melodies into something that feels both nostalgic and completely his own.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 30th August 2019
- Gramophone Magazine — October 2019 — Editor’s Choice
- BBC Music Magazine — November 2019 — Recording of the Month
- Diapason d’Or — November 2019 — Nouveauté
“The playing of the Sinfonia of London is astonishingly brilliant, with Hollywood-dream glories in the string tone.”
— BBC Music Magazine, November 2019
Sinfonia of London, John Wilson
Chandos · CHSA5261 · 60 minutes
Respighi’s Roman triptych is shamelessly, gloriously cinematic — brass fanfares, gurgling fountains, pine-scented night air, the whole spectacular package — and John Wilson leans right into that DNA without letting it tip into bombast. The Sinfonia of London plays with a balletic lightness that keeps everything dancing even when the decibels are climbing, and the Triton Fountain movement shimmers with the kind of crystalline detail that makes you feel the spray. If you’ve ever written Respighi off as kitsch, this is the recording that might genuinely change your mind.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 31st January 2020
- BBC Music Magazine — October 2020 — Orchestral Choice
- Gramophone Magazine — October 2020 — Editor’s Choice
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2020
“Wilson takes an altogether more balletic approach [than Tortelier]. But there is no lack of wallop: the opening of ‘Circenses’ has tremendous adrenaline…The Triton Fountain sparkles with vitality…There…”
— BBC Music Magazine, October 2020
Susan Gritton (soprano), Thomas Hobbs (tenor) & Iestyn Davies (countertenor)Trinity College Choir Cambridge & Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Stephen Layton
Hyperion · CDA67926 · 74 minutes
Handel wrote the Chandos Anthems for a small, intimate country-house chapel, which makes Stephen Layton’s challenge here genuinely fascinating — he’s working with a full choir of 30-plus singers and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, yet somehow the music never loses that warm, almost domestic glow Handel built into it. Iestyn Davies brings a real silkiness to the countertenor lines that feels entirely at home alongside Susan Gritton’s poised soprano and Thomas Hobbs’s clean, bright tenor. The OAE’s period textures keep everything transparent enough that you can follow individual voices weaving through Handel’s intricate part-writing, which is exactly where this music earns its keep.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 8th July 2013
“It says much for Layton’s skill that he has managed to retain their companionable intimacy despite super-sizing his own resources to a choir of more than 30 singers with orchestra to match…Layton…”
— BBC Music Magazine, October 2013,4 out of 5 stars
Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen
Alpha · ALPHA1153 · 74 minutes
The Chandos Anthems occupy this glorious in-between space in Handel’s output — written for the Duke of Chandos in the early 1700s, they’re intimate enough to feel personal but grand enough to fill a room with genuine drama. Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo lean into that tension beautifully, and having every vocalist be a genuine Baroque specialist means the ornamentation and phrasing feel earned rather than applied. Those opening instrumental Sonatas especially shine here, the eleven-piece ensemble playing with real character and momentum before a single voice has entered.
Awards:
- BBC Music Magazine — September 2025 — Choral Choice
- International Classical Music Awards — 2026 — Nominated – Baroque Vocal
- BBC Music Magazine Awards — 2026 — Shortlisted – Choral
“Each member of Jonathan Cohen’s vocal lineup is a Baroque specialist…Each anthem begins with an instrumental Sonata which the 11-piece orchestra delivers with fine despatch.”
— BBC Music Magazine, September 2025,5 out of 5 stars
Sinfonia of London, John Wilson
Chandos · CHSA5264 · 64 minutes
Frank Bridge’s Lament opens this program, and it immediately tells you everything you need to know — Wilson coaxes an ache out of the Sinfonia of London strings that feels utterly unforced, like grief that’s been sitting quietly in the music all along. The repertoire here draws from that rich, bittersweet English string tradition — Elgar, Britten, Finzi — where restraint and emotion aren’t opposites but the same thing. BBC Music Magazine called it “heartfelt precision,” and that phrase really does nail what Wilson does: the beauty of tone is immaculate, but there’s always a living pulse underneath it.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — July 2026 — Critics’ Choice 2021
- Gramophone Magazine — February 2021 — Editor’s Choice
- Presto Recording of the Week — 29th January 2021
- Gramophone Awards — 2021 — Shortlisted – Orchestral
“Here in [the Bridge Lament] is a prime example of the heartfelt precision and beauty of tone that typifies John Wilson’s Sinfonia of London. There’s plenty of heart, too, in their superlative…”
— BBC Music Magazine, March 2021,4 out of 5 stars
Sinfonia of London, John Wilson
Chandos · CHSA5280 · 83 minutes
Ravel’s orchestral music lives or dies on transparency — every inner voice has to shimmer at exactly the right temperature, and John Wilson seems to understand that bone-deep. The Sinfonia of London plays with a kind of focused luminosity here that makes Ma mère l’Oye feel genuinely enchanted rather than merely pretty. It’s the sort of recording where the spatial audio isn’t a gimmick but actually serves the music, letting Ravel’s layered textures breathe the way he always intended.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 28th January 2022
- Gramophone Magazine — March 2022 — Editor’s Choice
- Gramophone Awards — 2022 — Winner – Spatial Audio
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2022
“this superbly played and sumptuously recorded disc from the Sinfonia of London and John Wilson amply demonstrates the profound benefits of trusting Ravel. Has Ma mère l’Oye ever sounded more…”
— BBC Music Magazine, March 2022,4 out of 5 stars(Performance) /5 out of 5 stars(Recording)
Sinfonia of London, John Wilson
Chandos · CHSA5252 · 79 minutes
Jacques Ibert wrote Escales — “Ports of Call” — as a kind of armchair travelogue, and the piece has this gorgeous, sun-warmed sensuality that demands playing of real finesse rather than just atmosphere. John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London absolutely nail that balance, with the woodwind work in particular sounding almost impossibly precise and alive. It’s the kind of performance that makes you feel the heat of Tunis and the glitter of Palermo without a single moment tipping into postcard kitsch.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — February 2020 — Recording of the Month
- BBC Music Magazine — April 2020 — Orchestral Choice
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2020
- Gramophone Magazine — Critics’ Choice 2020
“Orchestral players will travel long distances to make music with [Wilson] and this recording shows why…It’s far from being all noise, the woodwind in particular being exquisitely agile…All the…”
— BBC Music Magazine, April 2020,5 out of 5 stars
