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Passions abound at Easter - chiefly, but not exclusively, Bach's, after the gospel accounts. On Sunday I heard Bach's St Matthew in the Barbican Hall, from Paul McCreesh's Gabrieli Consort and Players; a few days earlier, I'd heard Arvo Part's austere 1982 Passio after St John, performed by the Hilliard Ensemble, Stephen Layton and his Holst Singers, at St John's, Smith Square. Both performances...
St John's is the most direct of the Passions, some would say the most tendentious: a couple of years ago there was a great kerfuffle following Deborah Warner's operatic production of Bach's version at ENO, where the dramatised, Englished narrative made it uncomfortably clear exactly where the evangelist was placing the blame for Jesus's fate. It makes you thankful for the general irreligion of...
This collection of some of Britten’s a cappella choral music is wide-ranging – from the Hymn to the Virgin (1930) composed at the age of 16 to the late cycle of medieval poems, Sacred and Profane (1975) composed shortly before Britten’s death. Along the way we hear the difficult setting of Gerald Manley Hopkins's AMDG (composed in 1939 at the beginning of Britten’s sojourn in America, but not...
AMDG presents as formidable a challenge to its singers as any of Britten's compositions for unaccompanied choir. In fact that is sometimes suggested as the reason why, having written it for an expert group in 1939 and realising that its chances of frequent performance were slim, Britten never prepared the work for publication. It's a pity he couldn't have heard Stephen Layton's Polyphony! Even...
Après un formidable récital Cornelius (chez le même éditeur), Stephen Layton revient en Angleterre pour fêter Britten. Encore chosit-il un Britten moins connu qu’à l’ordinaire dans ce programme essentiellement consacré à la musique chorale profane. On peut s’interroger sur cette relative désaffection. Difficulté des oeuvres ? Certainement. Mais il n’empêche : les quatre recueils et les deux...
After hearing their latest CD of choral works by Britten, nothing will dissuade me from the conclusion that Polyphony under Stephen Layton is the best chamber choir in the country. Listen to the pinpoint articulation in I mon waxe wood from the collection Sacred and Profane Op91. The high sopranos are lithe, strong and young. They rattle out the semiquavers even at altitude with precision and...