Two discs featuring Tashmina Artists have been shortlisted for the 2024 Presto Awards.

Recordings by Ensemble 360, violist Rachel Roberts and clarinettist Robert Plane have been shortlisted for this prestigious award, which comprises the top 100 new classical recordings of the year. Presto Music editor Chris O’Reilly writes that “each year we celebrate the vibrancy, quality and range of new recordings… The past 12 months has seen an abundance of outstanding new releases across all periods and genres of classical music, and from the whole gamut of record labels, so it has been a real challenge to select 100 finalists before we even get to choosing the winners!”

Ensemble 360’s ‘Pierrot Portraits’ with soprano Claire Booth (IMG), released in September on Onyx, has received outstanding critical review since its release, being awarded a five-star review by BBC Music Magazine and called “a fascinating, well-recorded release” by Gramophone.

The album is inspired by the commedia dell’arte figure Pierrot, with works by Thea Musgrave, Schumann, Joseph Marx, Debussy, Amy Beach, Poldowski, Max Kowlaski and Korngold following Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, recorded here in the 150th anniversary year of the composer’s birth.

Both members of Ensmble 360, Tashmina artists Rachel Roberts and Robert Plane can also be heard on Michael Berkeley: Collaborations, released in June by Orchid Classics.

Their recording of Berkeley’s The Magnolia Tree with pianist Chris Hopkins was called “a superbly compelling rendering” by Gramophone Magazine, which described the disc as “a marvellously stylish showcase for some eclectic and characteristically communicative repertoire.”

The results of the award will be announced on 22nd January 2025, with Presto offering up to 25% off the Presto Awards 2024 Classical Top 100 Finalists, on CD, Vinyl, DVD, Blu-ray until this date. Further details and the full list of finalists may be found here.