GRAMOPHONE AWARD NOMINATION 2008
GRAMOPHONE EDITOR'S CHOICE
GRAMOPHONE CRITICS' CHOICE

'From the very outset of the Gloria it's clear that this is a performance of real distinction … The 38 voices of Polyphony are augmented by 31 from Trinity College, Cambridge, while an unusually hefty contingent of orchestral players makes up the Britten Sinfonia on the disc. What results is not only music-making of immense power and vibrancy - but also an ability, brilliantly directed by Layton, to capture Poulenc's 'half hooligan, half monk' musical persona … Then, in the final chorus of the Gloria, after the boisterous start, we have a moment of profound sanctity and another, crowned with incredible delicacy by Susan Gritton, of mouth-watering enchantment … It is the vivid sense of unfettered joy in the Gloria and the matchless intensity of feeling revealed in the motets that make this such a gloriously distinguished disc' (Gramophone)