Latest news

February 2012 - BBC Radio 3 broadcast on Sunday 26 February
 

Our concert of Polish Baroque music recorded at the Lufthansa Festival in St John's Smith Square in May 2011 will be featured on BBC Radio 3's Early Music Show on Sunday 26 February at 13.00.  The programme features rarely heard vocal and instrumental works by Zielenski, Jarzebski, Gorczycki, Szarzynski and Stachowicz.
 

January 2012 - Review of New Year's Eve concert at Wigmore Hall
 

Sunday Times Culture section, 15 January 2012:

Even the New Year’s Eve event did not slip below the level of the vividly arresting. Matthew Halls’s Retrospect Ensemble offered an all-Bach programme whose crisp realisation involved a rather more than chamber-sized ensemble on the exiguous platform, even if the cantata Unser Mund sei voll Lachens (BWV 110) and the Magnificat in D (BWV 243) were given in the modern, period-conscious way, grouping the vocal soloists together as the chorus. Among the solo singing, the alto of Christopher Ainslie was notably textured and expressive. Halls’s own harpsichord-playing in the other item, Brandenburg Concerto No 5, was magnificently businesslike, and Rachel Brown’s flute-playing exquisite. One noted how the mere addition of a flute to a string quintet made the accompaniment plausibly orchestral.

August 2011 - New Purcell Recording
 

We are delighted to announce the release of our latest CD featuring the sublime music of Henry Purcell. This second volume of Purcell Sonatas by Retrospect Trio has been hotly anticipated since its debut recording, a Finalist at the 2009 Gramophone Awards, was released; BBC Music Magazine described the follow up as "a mouthwatering matter of urgency". You can find more information on this recording on the Linn Records website.

 

September 2010 - Details of our forthcoming London Concert Series

Our 2010/11 Patrons' Preview Brochure, including full details on all our forthcoming London concerts and information on how to become a series supporter is now available to view online.   

June 2010 - Retrospect Ensemble 'Dazzles' at major Portuguese Festival
 

Thanks to an eleventh-hour reprise by air-traffic controllers in the wake of the Icelandic ash cloud the group was able to travel to Lisbon for a series of concerts at the Dias de Musica Festival. Opening the festival in the Centro Cultural (Belem) with Handel's great pastoral ode, L'Allegro Il Penseroso ed Il Moderato, the group received a rapturous reception for its major contribution to the 2010 festival. You can read a review of the weekend's concerts here.

 

March 2010 - NEW CD RELEASE: Bach's Goldberg Variations

 

We are delighted to announce the release of Matthew Halls' debut solo recording on the Linn label, showcasing Bach's great masterpiece for the keyboard. Also included on this double-disc are two other exquisite variation sets by Bach. For further information and reviews visit the Linn Records website
 

February 2010 - Bach Oratorio release planned for early 2011
 

Fresh from the recording studio we are proud to announce that the group's first large-scale recording in collaboration with Linn Records is safely "in the can"! With a first-rate quartet of soloists and the full forces of the choir and orchestra revelling in two of Bach's great seasonal oratorios (Easter and Ascension) this promises to be an extremely exciting release for the New Year. Watch this space for further details nearer the time...

 

31st October - New concert season brochure
 

Take a look at our 2009 - 2010 concert season brochure with details of all upcoming concert programmes and booking information.

 

10th June - Purcell CD enters Classical Charts.

Featured on Radio 3's CD Review as 'one of the best new contributions to Purcell's discography in this 350th anniversary year', we are proud to announce that Retrospect's debut CD has this week entered the charts at Number 16!
More information can be found here.

 

8th June - CD of the Week!

Retrospect's debut CD of Purcell's Sonatas was selected as Classical CD of the week and awarded five stars in last week's Sunday Times.

'The playing is immaculate — expressive and alert to all the nuance and variety of this superb music. An absolute winner for the Purcell year.'

read the complete five-star review.

9th May - Parnasso in Festa wins International Recording Prize

We are very proud to announce that Parnasso in Festa has just been awarded the 2009 Stanley Sadie Handel Recording Prize. An official presentation is to be made by the chairman of the jury at our opening concert of the next London season in Wigmore Hall - more about this recording

Read the full reviews on our press page.

 

Retrospect sign record deal with Linn Records

The first recording in this collaboration, Henry Purcell: Ten Sonatas in Four Parts, was released in April 2009.

Released to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the birth of Henry Purcell, Ten Sonatas in Four Parts is performed by Retrospect Trio, a group formed under the umbrella of the larger Retrospect brand. The members of the Trio are all distinguished international performers in their own right, with a shared passion for historically-informed music making.

The recording, produced by Philip Hobbs, is being published as a conventional CD, and also through Linn Records' DRM-free, high resolution download technology for which the company is world-renowned.

The intention is to produce two or three releases each year and later this year, the group will undertake a large-scale recording of a major choral and orchestral work.

At the signing of the deal, Caroline Dooley, Business Director of Linn Records, commented:

'We are very much looking forward to working with an ensemble of such high calibre as Retrospect Ensemble. The partnership will allow two parties known for their innovative and fresh approach to music to collaborate on recordings of the highest quality, both in artistic and technical terms'.

Matthew Halls said:

'We are thrilled to be working with Linn Records and this marks the start of an exciting longterm artistic project. The company's legendary audio expertise and ground-breaking download technology leaves us in no doubt that Retrospect Ensemble's recording future is in the best possible hands'.

For further details and the opportunity to hear and purchase the recording please visit Linn Records' website.