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I’ve had nothing but good things to say about Polyphony in works by Rutter, Whitacre, and maybe a few others. Still, I wasn’t prepared for the excellence of this program. Bruckner, of course, is grandly symphonic even when he’s not writing symphonies; and his motets and masses are no exception. Polyphony, you’ll recall, is a co-ed British chamber choir, with accents on both “British” (clarity...
Blending is the secret of great choral singing. Stephen Layton's fine chamber choir, Polyphony, has mastered this elusive art to perfection, as was amply demonstrated at a lunchtime Prom at Cadogan Hall, in a range of Shakespeare, Blake and Auden settings.
Using little or no vibrato, the group conjures a smooth, unblemished timbre like alabaster rendered in sound. Singers are hand-picked to...
Alabaster rendered in sound
Stephen Layton's choir, Polyphony, have mastered their elusive art to perfection, as was amply demonstrated at a lunchtime Prom at Cadogan Hall.
Blending is the secret of great choral singing. Stephen Layton's fine chamber choir, Polyphony, has mastered this elusive art to perfection, as was amply demonstrated at a lunchtime Prom at Cadogan Hall, in a range of...
Twentieth-century music may have a bad reputation, but a few extra chairs had to be put out at the National Gallery on Thursday for the latest, 20th- and 21st-century programme in the National Chamber Choir's Eternal Feminine series.
Some members of the audience were moved to give a standing ovation at the end of Messiaen's Cinq Rechants .
Cinq Rechants is actually the least well-known of...
Members of the audience who arrived with cushions, to counter the unforgiving Maltings seats, must have felt quietly satisfied with themselves upon discovering that this performance of St John Passion was to be given without an interval. In the event, they needn't have bothered: such was the power and drama of the interpretation, any thoughts of one's own bodily sufferings were completely...
'This is great stuff, and it's given its best imaginable realization by Stephen Layton and his crack vocal ensemble Polyphony... The sound, recorded in two different London churches in 2006, has a pleasing resonance that preserves the essential detail among the voices while offering proper balance with the instruments. For choral - and especially Lauridsen - fans, neglecting this disc is not an...