★★★★★ Phibbs Quartets 2-4 CD review “…they master these challenges with technical finesse and deepening verve in their performance, so that they intensively explore and present the life-affirming and sometimes downright lively movements, without failing to characterize the passages with lyrical warmth and rich playing.” Remy Franck, November 2024

Oxford International Song Festival ★★★★★ “The finale, on Saturday at SJE Arts, opened with Gabriel Fauré’s La bonne chanson, settings of poems by Paul Verlaine for voice, piano and string quintet. Spence, joined by Julius Drake (piano), the Piatti Quartet and Leon Bosch (double bass), revelled in the delicate, impressionistic textures of the nine songs, so adored…

“Like Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale or Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, this quartet miraculously cohered into a satisfying whole, despite wildly differing material (Phibbs Quartet No.4 premiere). Each sharply defined movement added a vital element to the work’s cogency and sense of inevitability and the Piattis captured its various moods with poetry and a firm grasp of…