Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice

“So what's so special about the performance? Try Canadian tenor Ben Heppner, outdoing his fellow countryman Jon Vickers on Sir Colin's first recording of Les Troyens. The other principals are very fine too...The playing is formidable, revelatory, and the big set-pieces have an epic sweep to them.” Matt Fernand, bbc.co.uk, 20th November 2002

“Davis's second live recording...magnificently crowns his whole career as a Berlioz interpreter on record, generally outshining even his pioneer version of 30 years earlier...[Lang] is superb, firm, rich and intense, investing every phrase with emotional power, instantly establishing her dominance...Heppner excels himself” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“The splendiferous climax of Davis’s first Berlioz cycle” The Times, 10th May 2013

'Delicious performances of Rutter’s wonderfully approachable and finely crafted vocal writing. The sound, too, is outstanding' (Gramophone)

“This superb disc contains a balanced cross- section of Rutter's sacred choral music, spanning over a quarter century and featuring several first recordings. Rutter's stylistic hallmarks are all here: an unfailing knack to get to the root of the text, exquisitely balanced vocal writing, melting harmonies, intensely sweet turns of phrase, short ecstatic climaxes, but also a willingness to be astringent, and rhythmically powerful. There are nods to pageantry, for example in the conclusion of the Gloria with its Waltonian swagger, some decliously echt Sullivan at the end of the Te Deum and, in I my Best-beloved's am, an occasional vision of the neo-Byzantine soundworld of his fellow Highgate School pupil, John Tavener.
The artistry of the 25 full-bodied voices of Polyphony is beyond reproach, only suffering a deficit in sheer volume when pitted against the full fury of The Wallace Collection. Sumptuously recorded, all the forces involved play to perfection. Greatly enjoyable.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010