Bennett, R R: What Sweeter Music

“Outstanding performances of music by a composer who wrote superbly for voices. There are many highlights but Lullay Mine Liking stands out for its tenderness and the fine soloists.” BBC Music Magazine

“One of Bennett's characteristics as a composer was his versatility: he ranged easily between opera and ballet, film score and jazz. His choral music, less well known, shares that variety...John Rutter is a loyal interpreter of his fellow choral composer. The CD, in fitting memorial, has one of Bennett's own collages as the cover illustration.” The Observer, 10th March 2013 *****

“One of the attractions of this disc is the variety of the repertoire...Logical phrasing and clear articulation are among the virtues of this choir, and these serve the repertoire on this disc well, whether old or new. Some of the best-known carols for full choir are sung with vigour, but never exaggerated...The programme guarantees almost 80 minutes of exquisite singing.” MusicWeb International, January 2012

“Hard to believe, but this is the first CD devoted solely to Sir Richard Rodney Bennett's extensive choral output. That it's a richly rewarding body of work is nowhere better exemplified than in the curtain-raiser, Sea Change (1984) a marvellously effective, 17-minute cycle to texts by Shakespeare, Andrew Marvell and Edmund Spenser. The Spenser setting thrillingly evokes the terrible monsters encountered by Sir Guyon during a stormy sea voyage by employing a technique akin to Sprechgesang, while the concluding 'Full fathom five' is a worthy successor to Vaughan Williams's setting in his Three ShakespeareSongs.
Whereas Sea Change minimally and subtly deploys tubular bells, A Farewell to Arms (2001) memorably incorporates an extensive role for solo cello and sets the same poems by Ralph Knevet and George Peele that Finzi first brought together for his 1945 diptych. It's a tenderly moving creation, as is the part-song 'A Good-Night' (1999) from the sequence A Garlandfor Linda. If Britten's shadow looms large over the Missa brevis (1990) for Canterbury Cathedral Choir, it's a no less appealing creation for all that.
Bouquets all round to John Rutter and his Cambridge Singers; theirs is a cappella singing of a very high order. Exemplary presentation and admirable sound, tastefully balanced within the comparatively intimate acoustic of the LSO's home, St Luke's in the City of London. A delightful anthology.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Beautifully sung and even more beautifully recorded…” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2005