Christmas Oratorio at the Barbican, London
"Directed by Stephen Layton, the [Britten] Sinfonia and the dozen singers of Polyphony warmed up the chilly Barbican stage with a reading of the Oratorio (Parts one, two, three and six) that brought a sense of ritual togetherness to the Brutalist auditorium. The choir, stage left, supplied all the solo roles, with singers stepping out and back for their numbers. The (excellent) woodwinds sat in front of them while, far across the stage, the trio of valveless trumpets stood up and sparkled. What resulted was a collective, congregational mood of equal-opportunity festivity, with no sense of the solo parts as front-stage star turns and – conversely – a drama and excitement to the chorales that avoided any hint of the dutiful dirge. Layton found a bracing drive and swing for each section and kept a dancing lightness to the overall tone that made the evening fly by. I know that this truncation has become the standard edit, but in these hands I would happily have heard all six parts back-to-back."