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St John Passion at St John's Smith Square: review, The Arts Desk
St John Passion, Polyphony, OAE, Layton, St John's Smith Square review - defiant performance reveals Bach masterpiece anew. Every opportunity taken to point up the jagged emotions in the text and music. The turbulence and agitation of betrayal could be felt from the word go in this galvanising performance of the St John Passion, which administered a jolting urgency to Bach’s radical portray
St John Passion at St John's Smith Square: 5 star review, The Guardian
St John Passion review – Polyphony and OAE deliver an outstanding, vivid rendition. An extraordinarily moving Bach passion contained intensity, radiance and, from Nick Pritchard, the finest live account of the Evangelist this critic has heard. Stephen Layton’s annual performance of Bach’s St John Passion with his choir Polyphony and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment has long been establi
Messiah at St John's Smith Square, December 2022
“I come to hear this every year. For me this is when Christmas begins.” So said the man sitting next to me, as we waited for the performance of Handel’s Messiah that by tradition ends the Christmas Festival at St. John’s Smith Square – the beautiful, glowingly white Baroque deconsecrated church that is so utterly right for this work. So many cherish Handel’s great oratorio at Christmas time, and t
Stanford: Choral Music (Concert Review - Gramophone, 2017)
GRAMOPHONE EDITOR'S CHOICE JULY 2017 If a disc of sacred Victoriana conjures images of kid gloves and more-tea-vicar, then this is the recording to banish them once and for all. Tea cups are shattered along with prim liturgical proprieties in a recording that reclaims this repertoire as the full-blooded Christian battle cry that it is. Recordings of Stanford’s great choral anthems are not short on
Stanford: Choral Music (Concert Review - ResMusica, 2017)
La tradition chorale en Angleterre est fort ancienne et l’excellence des chœurs issus de ses collèges n’est plus à faire. Depuis le règne de la reine Victoria (1837-1901), quantités de compositeurs écrivirent à leur destination, essentiellement pour la liturgie de l’Église anglicane. C’est le cas de Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, compositeur prolifique né en Irlande, qui fut organiste au Trinity C
Handel: Messiah (Concert Review - The Adelaide Advertiser, 2016)
As composers go, Handel is a bit like Bach in that it is absolutely essential for any serious exponent of his music to have views about the performance. Visiting conductor Stephen Layton, of City of London Sinfonia fame, not to mention the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, most definitely fits the bill. Layton’s approach to Handel’s popular masterpiece is full of insight, and the result a perfo