Mark Padmore - download (MP3 & FLAC)

“the singing is first-rate, and the instrumental line-up, with two cornetts and up to eight trombones, often sounds glorious in the spacious acoustic of the Reformierte Kirche Arlesheim in Switzerland.” Irish Times, 13th January 2012 ****

“…the opening chorus of BWV 148… It's just the kind of piece at which the Monterverdi Choir surpasses its rivals, and the instrumental support from the English Baroque Soloists is splendid. John Eliot Gardiner brings his accustomed fervour to the music, enlivening it at every turn. Altogether, this is one of the strongest releases in Gardiner's series so far.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2009 *****

“…BWV148… includes the aria "Wo wird in diesem Jammertale", a model of the extended soul-searching tableau in which, here, the singer and obbligato flute are co-subsumed within a vale of sorrow. It is beguilingly delivered by tenor Mark Padmore and flautist Rachel Beckett, the highlight of the Swedish programme... an electrifying account of the Sinfonia of BWV169... heralds Bach's least celebrated but, arguably, most refined and mature alto cantata. Nathalie Stutzmann sails through each portion with her inimitable diction and plush allure.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2009

“There's more to Padmore's performance: fine tone, a strong sense of pitch, crystal clear enunciation and a wonderful feeling for long lines.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2008 *****

“Padmore is something special in Wenlock, while the Quintet is striking. ” Gramophone Magazine, June 2008

“Fifty years after his death, Vaughan Williams is accorded the affectionate respect he deserves in this version of his poignant rural song cycle by one of our finest dramatic tenors, Mark Padmore. AE Housman's words have rarely rung so clearly above the haunting accompaniment of piano and quartet, notably in the central song 'Is my team still ploughing?'” The Observer, 4th May 2008

“It is hard not to see Vaughan Williams's On Wenlock Edge as the first great English song cycle, especially when its heart and soul come to the fore in performances such as this one. AE Housman's combination of folk-like innocence and knowing irony is powerfully conveyed in the singing of Mark Padmore.” The Telegraph, 19th April 2008

“Few period bands have tackled this late, great work, and it comes up gleaming in the care of Collegium Musicum 90 under Richard Hickox's direction. Hickox's soloists are superb, too.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2008 ****

“Long the Cinderella work of Schubert's miraculous final year, the E flat Mass is now acknowledged as a powerful masterpiece that mingles liturgical grandeur with the composer's own subjective Romanticism. The apocalyptic Sanctus, with its daring harmonic shifts and heavenstorming crescendi, is a musical counterpart to Turner's molten canvases, while the Agnus Dei has a violent, contorted anguish unmatched in a setting of this text. The least personal, and most problematic, sections of the Mass are the monumental set-piece fugues at the end of the Gloria and Credo, where Schubert ostentatiously displays his contrapuntal credentials, probably with an eye on an official church appointment. At the worthy tempi prevalent 20 and more years ago, these could seem interminable, and were often cut.
Hickox chooses broad tempi, balancing dignity and vitality, and building thrillingly to the climaxes.
In the Kyrie, at a mobile tempo, he combines gravitas with a Schubertian lyrical ease, and later he manages the tempo fluctuations far more naturally. You hear how this heavenly music should sound, with the three soloists (Mark Padmore, James Gilchrist – an ideally matched tenor pairing – and soprano Susan Gritton) singing with pure tone and wondering tenderness.
Hickox scores over most rivals with his extra choral firepower at climaxes, and the wonderfully pungent sonorities of Collegium Musicum 90, whether in the dry, fearful rattle of period timpani in the Credo, the lovely 'woody' oboe and clarinet in the 'Et incarnatus est' or the steely, scything trumpets in the Agnus Dei.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Turn to Hickox and you'll hear how this heavenly music should sound, with the three soloists (Mark Padmore, James Gilchrist - an ideally matched tenor pairing - and soprano Susan Gritton) singing with pure tone and wondering tenderness.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2008

“Richard Hickox directs his crack period forces in a strong, sympathetic performance, glowingly recorded. Among rival conductors, Nikolaus Harnoncourt (Elatus) uncovers more disquiet in, say, the Kyrie. But Hickox's pacing and shaping are always convincing, not least in the monumental - and potentially interminable - fugues of the Gloria and Credo. The chorus blaze with white-hot intensity in Schubert's many fff climaxes, while the soloists sing with tenderness and grace in the Benedictus and the ravishing "Et incarnatus est".” The Telegraph, 19th April 2008

“Few other conductors on disc convey so happily the drama, symphonic power and spiritual exhilaration of these glorious works than Richard Hickox. He's fully alive to the ominous unease that permeates the great Mass in Time ofWar, but while others strive for maximum dramatic and rhetorical effect, he directs the Mass with a natural, unforced sense of phrase and pace. The playing of Collegium Musicum 90, led by Simon Standage, is polished and athletic, with detail sharply etched, while the chorus sings with fresh tone and incisive attack. The four soloists are well matched in the anxious C minor Benedictus; elsewhere Nancy Argenta brings a pure, slender tone, and a graceful sense of phrase to the Kyrie, while in the 'Qui tollis' Stephen Varcoe deploys his mellow baritone with real sensitivity.
The fill-ups are imaginatively chosen. The two Te Deum settings epitomise the immense distance Haydn travelled during his career, the rococo exuberance and strict species counterpoint of the little-known early work contrasting with the grandeur and massive, rough-hewn energy of the 1799 setting.
The two numbers of incidental music Haydn completed for the play King Alfred in 1796, shortly before embarking on the Mass, are a real collectors' item. Argenta sings the first hymnlike E flat aria with chaste elegance, while choir and orchestra palpably enjoy themselves in the following number, a rollicking, brassy celebration of the Danes' victory over the Anglo- Saxons. Invigorating performances and firstclass recorded sound, with an ideally judged balance between chorus and orchestra.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Hickox and Collegium Musicum 90 are especially fine in the exultant, springing Gloria and the rough-hewn vigour of the Credo… Led by the sweet toned Janice Watson, the soloists sing with a chamber-musical grace and intimacy in the 'Et incarnatus est' and the Benedictus, while their supplicatory tenderness in the 'Dorna nobis pacem' contrasts with the choir's urgent demands for peace.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2008

“Hickox generates the physical and spiritual elation essential to this music, calling to mind Haydn's own much-quoted remark that whenever he praised God his heart leapt with joy. In the glorious Theresienmesse of 1799 Hickox's manner is particularly fine in the exultant, springing Gloria and the rough-hewn vigour of the Credo. He understands, too, the Mass's dramatic and symphonic impetus, bringing a powerful cumulative momentum to the sonataform 'Dona nobis pacem' and thrillingly tightening the screws in the closing pages. The choir is placed forward, though never at the expense of orchestral detail, keenly observed by Hickox. His uncommonly well-integrated solo quartet framed by the sweet-toned Janice Watson and the gentle, mellifluous Stephen Varcoe, sings with a chamber-musical grace and refinement in the 'Et incarnatus est' and the Benedictus. And their supplicatory tenderness in the 'Dona nobis pacem' contrasts arrestingly with the choir's urgent demands for peace.
Hickox also captures the peculiar serenity and innocence of the much earlier Missa brevis SanctiJohannis de Deo, or Little Organ Mass, its intimacy enhanced here by the use of solo strings. A disc guaranteed to refresh the spirit.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“John Noble was a fine Pilgrim on the old Boult recording, but Gerald Finley brings not only a voice that's as good and well suited but also a dramatic quality that is more colourful and intense. But Boult's cast is very strong, with several of the short parts, such as the Herald (Terence Sharpe) better sung than as here (Robert Hayward).
In the Valley of Humiliation the voice of Apollyon comes as an amplified sound from off-stage, but on record the trick is to catch an overpowering terror, and this they managed better on EMI, partly by virtue of having Robert Lloyd to strike it, and also by the producer's decision to bring it closer. Nor, in the comparison, is there any sense of a confrontation of 'bright young feller' and 'grand old fuddyduddy'.
Boult doesn't sound like an old man, any more than Hickox sounds like a youngster.
Hickox has a big canvas for the recorded sound, and achieves a clearer texture from EMI.
The newer version also has Gerald Finley, and is a fine performance anyway.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“These performances, taped at the end of an English Baroque Soloists tour in 2006, exude a tremendous sense of common purpose and an un-dogmatic stylistic assurance...Gardiner gets the music to “speak” without ever sounding fussy. In short, he achieves that rare feat of revitalising the familiar.” Financial Times, 26th February 2011 *****

“Gardiner sets the waves gently but urgently lapping in a perfectly judged opening...Padmore's Evangelist is commanding, tireless and beautifully enunciated...There surely cannot be a better account on record. From first to last Gardiner imparts his love for the work and it comes across. The performers share his view and so do we. The liveness of the recording is palpable.” Classic FM Magazine, June 2011 *****

“To borrow a phrase used more than one by Gardiner, his is a reading which lives viscerally in the 'here and now'...throughout, the Monteverdi Choir is typically alert and tautly-sprung. Crowd scenes crackle with indignation...while the chorales are loving sculpted around a close reading of the texts...Padmore's Evangelist holds the whole together with the supple, hypnotic élan of a born story-teller...Truly this is a jewel beyond price.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2011 *****

“Padmore's Evangelist is both ringingly true and acutely observed...perhaps the most disarming quality overall is that Gardiner's understanding of devotional ritual - drawn unquestionably from his unique Pilgrimage a few years earlier - translates into a new world, not wrinkle-free but one where sadness and hope seem to hover as tantalisingly in this work as I have heard.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2011

“…Richard Hickox again reminds us of his unrivalled mastery in the British choral-orchestral repertoire, particularly here in terms of balance and pace. The two soloists, Mark Padmore as a herald and Neal Davis as Nebuchadnezzar, bring character to the performance, but it's the excellent BBC Symphony Chorus that drives the narrative with its incisive singing.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2007 ****

“…Mark Padmore sings beautifully in the role of the Herald, comparable with the baritone soloist in Belshazzar, while Neal Davies is strong as Nebuchadnezzar. Richard Hickos draws warmly committed playing and singing from the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2007