Toby Spence - CD

“What comes across in this anthology is that he wrote just as beguilingly for voice as for orchestra...[Les Espaces du sommeil] is a dark dreamscape hauntingly captured by Christopher Purves, while Toby Spence underlines the Britten-esque associations of Paroles tissées, written for Peter Pears...With music ranging from youth to old age, the disc adds up to a fascinating traversal of Lutoslawski’s style.” Financial Times, 27th August 2011 ****

“Toby Spence brings more muscularity to Paroles Tisées than Pears ever summoned, while Christopher Purves is a wonderfully secure soloist in Les Espaces du Sommeil” The Guardian, 1st September 2011 ****

“Poles may quibble over Lucy Crowe's command of the Śląsk (Polish) dialect. They're more likely, though, to praise the beauty of her singing and the beguiling power of music-making projected by all concerned with this disc. Gardner's understanding of and empathy for the expressive subtleties and rich humanity of this music register clearly and irresistable authority. The BBC Symphony Orchestra is on superb form” Classic FM Magazine

“Lutosławski's sensitivity to aural texture and detail puts him in a category of his own...Gardner and the BBCSO provide glowing, delicately shaded accompaniment throughout.” The Observer, 11th September 2011

“Toby Spence is on mellifluous form here, and Christopher Purves is no less subtle in the nocturnal cycle Les espaces du sommeil...An attractively varied, highly accomplished release.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2011 ****

“Lucy Crowe is in ravishing voice and displays comparable charm and composure in both the rustic Silesian Triptych (1951) and miniature 'Sleep, sleep'...Christopher Purves proves a wonderfully secure exponent in a reading which combines tingling atmosphere and arresting drama to consistently riveting effect. As for the sublimely delicate and exquisitely rapt Paroles tissees, tenor Toby Spence acquits himself with enormous credit” Gramophone Magazine, November 2011

“…a performance of breath-taking clarity. …Haïm maintains the warmth and delicacy of the chamber sensibility for which this work was conceived.” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2009 *****

“Handel's early Resurrection oratorio… is characterised by a freshness and vitality that he seldom matched in more mature works. That spirit shines through in Emmanuelle Haïm's excellent new recording with her Concert d'Astrée, played with all the expressive flair one has come to expect of her. Luca Pisaroni makes a suitably villainous Lucifer and his virile bass-baritone is well up to the wide tessitura of the part... Sonia Prina's contralto is heard to lovely effect in Mary Cleophas's pastoral music. The work's striking opening aria belongs to the Angel, taken here with plenty of presence by Swedish soprano Camilla Tilling. Two British singers complete... both give of their very best. Toby Spence is elegant in St John the Evangelist's music, and Kate Royal find sumptuous beauty and emotional depth in the part of Mary Magdalene.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2010

“Out-Brittening Britten’s Grimes storm music in the prelude, and the eerily beguiling tintinnabulations of the Magic Banquet music that make the recording so rewarding” Sunday Times, 21st June 2009

“Performances are almost all first rate. It's a measure of the strength of the mostly British casting that singers of the quality of Stephen Richardson and Jonathan Summers take some of the smallest roles. Simon Keenlyside's no-nonsense Prospero, a force to be reckoned with from the very start of the opera, is outstanding, and it's hard to think of another singer who could manage the stratospheric writing for Ariel more effortlessly than Cyndia Sieden. Ian Bostridge's Caliban, Philip Langridge's King of Naples, Kate Royal's Miranda and Toby Spence's Ferdinand are excellent, too. It's a fine production, which does full justice to Adès's sometimes remarkable work.” The Guardian, 19th June 2009 ****

“Simon Keenlyside makes an authoritative Prospero, Ian Bostridge’s Caliban tugs at the heartstrings in his radiant Act 2 aria and Cyndia Sieden is phenomenal as a stratospherically high coloratura soprano Ariel.” The Telegraph, 10th June 2009 ****

“From the tornado-like prelude to Ariel's stratospheric yet ethereal "Five fathoms deep" the music illuminates rather than merely illustrates the drama. …Kate Royal as Miranda, is fully inside her part and sings alluringly… For many, the most memorable writing in The Tempest comes attached to Ariel's vocal high-wire act. Few coloratura sopranos are able to dispatch it like Cyndia Sieden, whose sound lends special colour to the performance... Simon Keenlyside, on the young side as Prospero, mixes brain and baritonal brawn in his characteristically charismatic way. Ian Bostridge sings unstintingly as a wonderfully weird Caliban... The playing of the Covent Garden orchestra is another luxury - no, a necessity, given the brilliantly conceived and demanding orchestral aspect of this piece.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2009

“…everyone reaches out to the purple passages when Adès touches something rich and strange. Those include the evolution of the young lovers' music from homages to midsummer Britten and Tippett to the heights of Act II, Ariel's banquet and masque in Act III, and the ensemble-passacaglia which takes the ultimate centre of gravity from Prospero's perfunctorily written farewells.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2009 ****

“It may not be a flawless masterpiece ... but it is one of the most viable and stageworthy of modern British operas...The playing of the Covent Garden orchestra is another luxury no, a necessity, given the brilliantly conceived and demanding orchestral aspect of this piece.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“well constructed and dramatically effective in its clever timing and contrasted textures...The late Philip Langridge in one of his last performances at Covent Garden...makes a memorable King of Naples, while Ades's evocative orchestration with its percussion effects vividly conjures up the atmosphere of the magic island of Prospero...A strong and memorable opera” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“…choice among period Creations is far from clear-cut. If Harnoncourt has the finest solo team and Gardiner's choruses pack the most powerful punch, Christie's inspiring performance has none of their occasional artfulness, and is arguably the best played of the lot.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2008

“…Haydn's magnificent oratorio receives here a lively and considered reading. This is a new Creation of major quality, running close the best of existing versions, among which Karajan's Berlin Philharmonic set will probably be preferred by those wanting a modern-instrument approach, and John Eliot Gardiner's version by those who want the full period style.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2008 ****

“…while joyful exhortation courses through the Magnificat, Haïm's approach is not simply about sprung rhythmic gesture. She harnesses and moulds the solos with a kaleidoscopic scheme of voice-types, hand-picked for each movement… Again, it is the solo movements in Dixit Dominus which capture the imagination as they are distilled through Haïm's inimitable operatic flair and dramatic timings, where bite and allure sit in easy juxtaposition.” Gramophone Magazine, Janurary 2008

“Haïm's performances are light-footed and elegantly phrased and her mainly pleasing line-up of soloists is attentive to textural content and word-painting.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2008 ****

“Haïm's colourful sense of theatre produces bold gestures and some hair-raising speeds. There are powerfully sensual performances from Natalie Dessay and Karine Deshayes but the choral singing is less consistent.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2009

“Taking his cue from Handel's 1751 performances, Edward Higginbottom assigns all the soprano solos to some talented boy trebles from the Choir of New College, Oxford. Otta Jones's contribution to 'He shall feed his flock' and Henry Jenkinson's 'I know that my redeemer liveth' are lovely testaments to Higginbottom's crusading 30 years with his choir.
At best, Higginbottom's choir produces some marvelous moments ('All we like sheep', and one of the finest 'Amen' fugues on disc). Higginbottom's direction does not boil with dramatic intensity but instead simmers along with patience, elegant judgement and articulate tastefulness.
Some familiar music bears ripe fruit when taken a shade slower than has become common in recent times ('Glory to God' is splendid rather than hurried, and all the better for it). Ex-scholar Toby Spence is on fine form in 'Rejoice greatly', and Iestyn Davies's poetic singing is another enjoyable feature, although one might hanker for a more dramatic treatment of 'shame and spitting' ('He was despised'). 'The trumpet shall sound' resounds with David Blackadder's magnificent playing, and the Academy of Ancient Music play Handel's orchestral parts immaculately.
This Naxos release will appeal to those who want an affordable Messiah that is beautifully played, brightly sung, sweetly satisfying and unashamedly English in its sentimental roots.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“This is a very special recording. Not only is it of quite outstanding quality both musically and dramatically, but, being sung entirely by male voices associated with a single institution (all the soloists are past or present members of New College Choir), it probably comes as close as modern conditions permit to a sound that Handel would have recognized.” The Telegraph

“Norrington's approach is pensive, sober and funereal-but it's so well paced that the sense of inevitability underlines man's mortality, and the outbursts when they do come are more effective for their comparative restraint...a reminder that the first performance was in church, not on a concert hall stage.” Andrew McGregor, bbc.co.uk, 8th May 2006

“"Truly it was of frightening greatness," wrote Berlioz after the Requiem 's première. The massed timpani of the "Tuba mirum" produced an "indescribable shock". The chief priest wept uncontrollably, while one of the choral singers suffered a nervous breakdown. Thankfully, there seems to have been no such casualty among the singers in this "live" performance from Stuttgart. The rich, ample acoustics of the Beethovensaal give full value to Berlioz's vast spatial effects, most spectacularly the four brass bands that herald the timpani onslaught in the "Tuba mirum". Yet Norrington's concern for clarity of line and articulation, and the carefully judged balances, mean that we hear far more than usual of Berlioz's brilliant and bizarre orchestral detail. Norrington's dramatic urgency, allied to choral singing of thrilling body and bite, make the apocalyptic movements duly overwhelming. No less moving is the choir's luminous delicacy in the "Quid sum miser" and "Quaerens me" - music of Cistercian purity and austerity - while Toby Spence brings a calm, rapt beauty to the cruelly high solo in the "Sanctus". A magnificent achievement, to be set alongside Colin Davis's recordings of this awesome work.” The Telegraph

“Nearly all Bliss's songs are here (only a few orchestral ones are omitted) but they're of uneven quality and are presented in almost random order, with no sense given of Bliss's development as a songwriter. It was a mistake to include the Two Love Songs, which are in fact the vocal movements of Bliss's beautiful Serenade for baritone and orchestra. Kathron Sturrock, throughout a wonderfully musical and responsive accompanist, does her best to make Bliss's piano reductions seem pianistic; but despite her they just sound clumpy.
The finest songs here are mostly on the second disc. Kathleen Raine's poems drew the best from the composer – simple eloquence, bold, shining gestures and memorable images including a fine nocturne: they're masterly, and would alone make investigating this pair of discs worthwhile.
Geraldine McGreevy sings them simply, purely and very movingly, as she does the progression from lyric charm to bare strength of The Balladsof the Four Seasons. Also on CD2 is The Tempest; this vivid storm scene is all that survives of some 1921 incidental music to Shakespeare's play, set with striking originality for two voices, trumpet, trombone and five percussion players. Things of such quality are rarer on CD1, though the ThreeSongs to poems by W H Davies are all strong, Bliss's setting of When I was one-and-twenty has a blithe insouciance, and several of the other sets contain pleasing discoveries, like the elegantly witty 'A Bookworm' from A Knot of Riddles or the charming 'Christmas Carol' that opens FourSongs. McGreevy is the best of the singers, but both Herford and Spence are committed advocates.
The best of these songs (about half) are of a quality to make their present neglect seem inexplicable.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Kathleen Raine's poems drew the best from Bliss: simple eloquence, bold, shining gestures and memorable images including a fine nocturne: they are masterly, and would alone make investigating this pair of discs worthwhile. Geraldine McGreevy sings them simply, purely and very movingly” Gramophone Magazine

“A contemporary composer takes a 19th-century classic, Schumann's song cycle Liederkreis, and sets it in a musical frame of his own devising: a short, astringent 'Praeludium' and four extended movements, the style hovering between pure homage and what the composer calls 'phantasmagorical collage'. Certainly sufficient to cause hackles to rise! But the result, entitled Fantasy-Pieces on the Heine 'Liederkreis' of Schumann is uniquely fascinating, haunting and increasingly rewarding the more one goes back to it.
Brief though it is, the 'Praeludium' is just enough to tell the ear that the performance of Liederkreis that follows isn't going to be the whole story. Holloway picks up magically on Schumann's ending, in a short movement, 'Half asleep' (what follows is, at times, intensely dream-like).
Then come an Adagio, a Scherzo and a finale – on one level, symphonic, on another, an intricate series of references and cross-references based on Schumann's songs (not all from Liederkreis). The manner drifts between masterful irony and fleeting moments of intense self-revelation. Liederkreis remains Liederkreis, and yet something profound and (in the wider sense) modern is added.
The Serenade in C is a kind of post-modern divertimento. Scored for the same forces as Schubert's Octet, it alternates, charmingly and teasingly, between sensuous Viennese cosiness, something closer to the salon Elgar, and delightful, end-of-the-pier vulgarity – though with a more acerbic harmonic colouring from time to time. Play a short extract to a musical friend and he/she might well date it before the First World War. But nothing is ever what it seems for very long; the disruptive subtlety of Fantasy-Pieces is here too, despite the seeming holiday feeling.
Splendid performances from the Nash Ensemble – colourful, precise and sensitive to Holloway's kaleidoscopic shifts in mood. The recordings are quite excellent: the change in perspective for the Schumann songs makes perfect aural sense.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

'As ever, illuminating words complement revelatory music-making' (BBC Music Magazine)

“Like the previous Schubertiads in the Edition, this disc mixes solo songs and partsongs, famil- iar and unfamiliar. The only really famous work here is Der Wanderer, that archetypal expression of romantic alienation whose popularity in Schubert's lifetime was eclipsed only by that of Erlkönig. Some of the partsongs – Zum Punsche, Naturgenuss and Schlachtgesang – cultivate a vein of Biedermeier heartiness that wears a bit thin today. Nor will Schubert's consciously archaic tribute to his teacher Salieri have you itching for the repeat button – though, like several other numbers, it shows the 19-year-old composer rivalling Mozart in his gift for musical mimicry. To compensate, though, there are partsongs like the sensual Der Entfernten, with its delicious languid chromaticisms, and the colourful setting of Gott im Ungewitter. The slight but charming setting of Das war ich is appealingly done by the light-voiced Daniel Norman, and Ann Murray brings her usual charisma and dramatic conviction to the pathetic Italian scena Didone Abbandonata.
Christine Schäfer is equally charismatic in the unjustly neglected Die verfehlte Stunde (recorded here for the first time), catching perfectly the song's mingled yearning and ecstasy and negotiating the mercilessly high tessitura with ease. Other happy discoveries include Schubert's virtually unknown third setting of Des Mädchens Klage, with its soaring lines, a melancholy tale of courtly love, sung by Christoph Prégardien with as much drama and variety as the music allows, and the surging Entzückung ('music for an infant Lohengrin,' as Graham Johnson puts it), for which Toby Spence has both the flexibility and the necessary touch of metal in the tone. Doubts were fleetingly raised by Lynne Dawson's slight tremulousness in Des Mädchens Klage, and by Christopher Maltman's prominent vibrato at forte and above in an otherwise involving performance of Der Wanderer.
But, these cavils apart, no complaints about the singing or the vivid accompaniments.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010