Vaughan Williams: O Clap Your Hands (Psalm 47)

“After seven years at the helm, James O'Donnell has made a formidable singing outfit of the Westminster Abbey Choir...The treble line is robust and thrilling, its soloist, Jacob Ewens, a sinuous star in Britten's Te Deum in E. The ensemble is well balanced in the polyphony of Philips's Ascendit Deus and confidently tuned in the awe-filled modernism of Gowers's Viri Galilei, while the organist, Robert Quinney, does more than his share in the dazzling accompaniments.” The Times, 26th April 2008 ****

“The choir of Westminster Abbey under James O'Donnell sing with the happy care which his choristers at the Cathedral used to bring to their work with him. If the echo calls attention to itself at the start, the ears soon adjust. They are not going to complain with so much to enjoy.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2008

“The boys might be singing Stanford's Caelos ascendit hodie, but they could just as easily be trilling ''Woohoo! It's Ascension Day!'' I love such musical joie de vivre, and not every choir is able to produce it convincingly as these chaps...this is Westminster Abbey Choir at their crystalline best, with spot-on pitching, enviable articulation and sympathetic phrasing.” Charlotte Gardner, bbc.co.uk, 18th April 2008

“…this latest album from the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus mostly consists of the secular side of the post-Victorian English choral tradition, interspersed with several organ solos which are rousingly played by Thomas Trotter. …the singing is still distinguished by a high degree of accuracy in tuning, attack and unanimity of dynamic. These qualities are shown to their best advantage in the quasi-symphonic drama of Elgar's Great is the Lord, undoubtedly the highlight of the programme...” BBC Music Magazine, August 2006 ***

“This fine Canadian choir perform very beautifully in a style which seems natural and right.
The Elora Festival Singers have much in common with King's College, Cambridge under Willcocks; relaxed and habituated, they offer the welcome loveliness of a choral tone where the blend and match of voices produce a sound that's eminently 'at unity with itself'. There's no shortage of good recordings of the Mass in G minor, the one that stands out as being openeyed and adventurous in spirit being the version on Meridian by the Choir of New College, Oxford. They favour a sharper tone, a quicker tempo in the Credo and a brighter acoustic. The choice between women's and boys' voices may prove the deciding factor when it comes to which version; the Elora Singers' female voices seem to give this music precisely what's required.
Yet more decisive may be the coupling. The two recordings by the college choirs couple music by other composers. The Canadians stay with Vaughan Williams, in a mood which assorts well with the Mass. Particularly apt is O vos omnes, also written for Sir Richard Terry and the Choir of Westminster Cathedral. The Skelton setting, Prayer to the Father of Heaven, from 1948 – a comparative rarity and sensitively performed – has a chill which is partly medieval, partly perhaps from the Antarctica of VW's Seventh Symphony. Down Ampney ('Come down, O Love divine') brings the warmth and cheer of a settled major tonality at the close.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The general title "Mystical Songs" directs attention to the settings of five poems by George Herbert, performed here in the rarely heard version accompanied by piano and string quartet. …the Mass in G minor, is beautifully performed and recorded with unusual clarity. The organ and piano accompaniments are sensitively played, the brass ensemble adds a magnificent range of colours and the TinAlley String Quartet belies its name.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2009