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The Holst Singers - Stephen Layton's 'other' great choir - is every bit as skilled, sonorous and sensitive as his better-known group, Polyphony. Very few conductors manage this sort of exquisite phrasing, subtle nuance, gleaming sound, and absolute control that you hear from any of Layton's choirs. Hyperion records them beautifully and offers its usual complete and classy booklet'
'This recording offers the most comprehensive compilation of Villette’s choral music in print. Layton’s interpretation skillfully supports the composer’s intent, especially in terms of text-music relationships. The Holst Singers’ diversity of tone color, pristine intonation, exploration of dynamic range, and nuances of rhythmic flexibility are consistently excellent…Layton’s balance of every tone...
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'
'This is simply gorgeous music which has not so much moments of sublime beauty as virtually no passages which aren't, both singly and cumulatively, utterly enchanting'