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'The Polyphony Messiah' as I have taken to calling it, has been the final concert of the year for me for the past five years, and it never creases to be a highlight of the musical calendar: a glitch this year meant that my request for tickets was not seen until November 30th, by which time, I was informed, there had already been a run on Press Tickets, with an exceptionally long list. Fortunately...
This world-renowned festival (happily on our doorstep) entered its second week with two exciting and rewarding concerts.
Conducted with flourish and style by Stephen Layton, Polyphony sang an imposing and uninterrupted programme of Austro-German pieces to an exacting and demanding degree.
Opening with a couple of motets by Schutz, it provided for a bright and cheerful start on a glorious summer's...
Villette: Choral Music - Classic FM Magazine
'Shades of Messiaen, Duruflé, Gregorian chant and jazz tinge Villette's elegant, unpretentious motets, sensitively performed here'
'The Holst Singers create great clouds of texture, which surge, form, and melt before your ears … For a bag of musical bonbons à la violette, this disc can't be beaten'
'Whether chant-inspired, leaning towards a jazz idiom or chromaticism, the music is an unusual hybrid. The Holst Singers are eloquent and beguiling under the thoughtful direction of Stephen Layton'