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Everything about this Firebird is exceptional: Litton's again electrifying conducting, BIS's superb engineering, and a bass drum that won't disappoint anyone. The very end of the ballet is a room shaking, mirror-cracking experience, unlike any other. Bergen Philharmonic; Stravinsky: The Firebird

Litton, a fine pianist himself, is one of the best orchestral accompanists on the planet, following Hough's every nuance with pin-point prevision and lovingly shaping the many woodwind and string solos. Superb performances, beautifully engineered. Bergen Philharmonic; Liszt/Greig Piano Concertos

The High Definition PCM Stereo and DTS HD Master Audio 5.0 audio tracks on the Blu-ray however really work marvellously, the mixing giving the voices adequate space, while putting across the full splendour and luscious beauty of a score that, superbly performed by the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper under Andrew Litton, ranges from delicate, sparkling playfulness to brooding, contemplative melancholy. Consummately Richard Strauss then, and this performance amply demonstrates the qualities and strengths of an opera that, like much of the composer’s late work, remains largely unknown, underperformed, underrated and surely ripe for rediscovery. Deutsche Oper Berlin; R. Strauss: Die Liebe der Danae

Wave after wave of gorgeous music, vividly conducted by Andrew Litton. Deutsche Oper Berlin; R. Strauss: Die Liebe der Danae

I'm not sure that there exists a performance of either Liszt concerto more scrupulously adherent to the composer's every indication of expression, articulation, and dynamics. With these, as with the Grieg Concerto, it is not as though interesting interpretations have been imposed upon them. Rather, one feels that their scores were so thoroughly scrutinized, understood, and then imaginatively realized that they have yielded fresh riches. It may be that the full measure of Andrew Litton's extraordinary talent as a conductor has yet to be taken. Bergen Philharmonic, Stephen Hough; Liszt: Piano Concertos No. 1 & 2; Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor

Koussevitsky was the unifying inspiration behind this programme but the Prokofiev 4th Symphony he commissioned was very different from the bigger and grittier revision Litton offered here with terrific panache, feverish ostinati pulled up short in ice-breaking climaxes with ominous wood-block marking time. What a challenging programme to prepare and to perform. Hats off to the RPO who sounded reborn. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Prom 43; Prokofiev: Symphony No. 4; Stravinsky: Petrushka; Bax: Symphony No. 2; Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man

Conductor Andrew Litton has a growing reputation as a Strauss interpreter, and the Minnesota Orchestra sounded terrific as it brought out the opera's interwoven laughter and loss, the waltzes buoyant, the elements of fast-paced farce. Sommerfest; R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier

Litton was effective in creating splashy musical effects, investing the score with magic and mystery, but not shying away from its coarseness. He was particularly successful in emphasizing Petrushka's tragedy, from his despair in his grim cell, to his humiliation by other puppets, to his death and ghostly reappearance. Sommerfest; Stravinsky: Petrushka

Recording of the month. Both through the accuracy of the playing and detail in the recording there is much new to be discovered under Andrew Litton's baton. Litton brings the best of all worlds in a performance which has all of the fresh-minted sense of discovery, technical perfection and passionate delivery you could ask for. Bergen Philharmonic; Pétrouchka and Le Sacre du Printemps

[Litton], who was influential in his time as Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, displayed a firm comprehension of the score from its outset, setting an unsentimental tempo that accentuated the work's iciness. Litton doesn't sugar-coat his demands and the CBSO responded with great flexibility, shaping the first movement's giant crescendo into a terrifying, muscular climax. City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10

For the sheer impact of performance and recording, Litton's BIS disc is hard to beat ... Definitely one to try if you're an SACD or surround fan. Bergen Philharmonic; Stravinsky: Rite of Spring and Petrouchka

This is a thoughtful reading [of the Bruch Violin Concerto] that is almost insouciant about its outrageous beauty. Andrew Litton and the Bergen Philharmonic show their own strengths as accompanists; Litton is very good at big energetic music, and the orchestra sounds great. Bergen Philharmonic; Bruch: Violin Concerto

There's a real astringency to many of the textures in [Rachmaninov's] Third Symphony, a bittersweet terseness that Litton clearly relished. He took delight in the sonorities that it contains, some of them just as wondrous in their way as anything in the performance of Szymanowski's First Violin Concerto that had preceded the symphony. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; Liszt: Les Preludes, Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No. 1, Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 3

(Litton) is a musician of real depth, character and calibre. And the evidence for that was all over his work with the SSO on Thursday. He captured exactly the stillness that, it seems to me, lies at the core of Wagner's Parsifal Prelude, allowing the strings to glow softly and the brass to gleam, with an astonishing purity of playing at the peak of the music from trumpeter Mark O'Keeffe. BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; Wagner: Prelude to Parsifal, Elgar: Cello Concerto, Sibelius: Symphony No. 1

Andrew Litton has the Bergen Philharmonic playing at a world-class standard. Sure, they don't have the crushing power of the biggest American or European orchestras, but Litton compensates by turning in high-voltage readings of both works, full of excitement and textural nuance. In The Rite he reminds us that despite the extremes of volume and dissonance this is still a folk-music-based work. The tunes really sing, with such vibrancy and freshness that you might think you are hearing them for the first time. Bergen Philharmonic; Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring and Petrushka