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The peerless choir offer meticulously blended and shaped performances of 20th-century a cappella American choral works. The recital is topped and tailed by Randall Thompson - the contemplative wartime Alleluia and the poignant De La Mare setting Fare Well. In between, we get Barber part songs, Bernstein's Missa Brevis and some decidedly Gallic student Copland.
With the USA having just celebrated Independence Day, it seems fitting that this week it should be American composers in the spotlight – specifically, mid-20th-century composers of choral music. Stephen Layton's chamber choir Polyphony are one of the yardsticks against which today's choral music-making is measured, and their latest disc features a varied mix of works from four composers – Samuel...
Incandescent choral glory - Polyphony is revelatory in American repertoire
Performance: 5 stars * * * * *Recording: 5 stars * * * * *
It's often the familiar, hackneyed pieces which most fully reveal the character of an ensemble or performer, the mirror in which their interpretive mettle is most fully reflected. In that respect I've no hesitation in saying this is the finest performance of...
Stephen Layton tells Rebecca Franks how he came up with an all-American programme for his choir Polyphony.
What inspired this programme?
It was the realisation that the latest American choral composers, such as Morten Lauridsen and Eric Whitacre owe everything to the real giants before them: Copland, Bernstein and Barber. I have performed Barber's Reincarnations many times. There aren't many...
Distinguished English conductor Stephen Layton led Seattle Symphony players and vocalists in a stellar program of Vivaldi, Bach, Purcell and Handel on Friday.
The “sleeper” series at the Seattle Symphony just might be the “Baroque and Wine” presentations. Loaded with international talent, but not usually well attended, the baroque programming seems slightly underappreciated at Benaroya Hall – and...
Haydn’s oratorio The Creation, presented here as the finale to the brief BBC season on the subject, was a work of his old age written after he had emerged onto the European stage as a figure of genius who was able to have his music performed on the grandest scale. He had essayed the oratorio form once before, but his Return of Tobia – good in parts although dramatically diffuse – lacked the sheer...