Reviews
Review Search
Best buy (opera/vocal) September 2005
In the decade since Stephen Layton’s Polyphony made the premiere recording of MacMillan’s Seven Last Words, choir and conductor have matured in all the best ways. This new Hyperion disc, which includes the first recordings of the Scottish composer’s recent Te Deum and On the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, offers an emotionally charged counterblast to...
'an intense, deeply felt interpretation, full of beautiful and affecting singing, with all the elements - string orchestra, featured violin, choir and soloists - nicely balanced … As ever, MacMillan incorporates all his allusions, including those to Scottish traditional music, into an utterly individual style. The performance confirms Polyphony's place in the front rank of choirs'
Stephen Layton is on a roll. After his triumphant recordings of Pawel Lukaszewski's choral works he returns to Handel and three of the Chandos Anthems, "O Praise the Lord with One Consent", "Let God Arise" and "My Song Shall be Alway". His inspirational direction and choice of top soloists make this a welcome addition to earler recordings. The choir sings with their usual purity of tone and clear...
You've never heard anything quite like Sir John Tavener's "The Veil of the Temple." The work originated as an all-night, seven-hour Easter "vigil," in which form it received its U.S. premiere in July at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York. The British composer has condensed it to two hours for this first recording, taped live in London's famous Temple Church, which commissioned it and where...
'Stephen Layton's feel for the inner line and structure melts the heart, as does the impeccable, unforced singing of Polyphony. Their music-making remains in heavenly realms throughout the virtuoso Madrigali: pure choral gold'