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I was 13 or 14 years old when I first heard Poulenc’s Gloria. Not knowing anything by or about this composer - the programme book for the concert only gave the text of the work and no notes on the composer - I couldn’t understand why this liturgical music was so damned enjoyable. It seemed positively sinful actually to derive delightful pleasure from a setting of these words. Now, only a few...
Whenever you're in the presence of the vocal ensemble Polyphony and their conductor Stephen Layton you begin to understand what authenticity is really about. And it has little to do with period performance. Their St John Passion certainly was historically informed - and they sang with the period instruments of the Academy of Ancient Music. But the authenticity here went deeper, to the core of...
If audience participation muddies the join-in carols in the King’s disc, here’s something cool, poised and honed to perfection. The breathtakingly precise Polyphony under Stephen Layton sing my favourite performance of these exquisite motets. Poulenc gives us the eery depth in ‘O magnum mysterium’, the inimitable delicacy of ‘Videntes stellam’ and breaks into peals of robust joy with ‘Hodie...
The Choir of Trinity gives an immaculate performance of the seductively beautiful spiritual music of the young Polish composer Pawel Lukaszewski. The composer has an enormous range, conveying a unique soundworld for each piece with every vocal device available. New music at its best.
Vocal effects including susurration are used by the 40-year-old Polish composer, but it is the emotionality permeating every syllable of his religious settings that is the most impressive. The singers' performance is immaculate.