Bairstow: Blessed City, heavenly Salem

“…Bairstow could hardly have finer advocates than David Hill's St John's Choir, beautiful in tone and balance… admirably clear in enunciation, well supported by rhythmic organ playing, and outstandingly well recorded. And the late cycle of Five Poems of the Spirit, given luxury casting with the superb Roderick Williams as solo baritone and the firm support of the Cambridge-based Britten Sinfonia, does give the disc life beyond the choir stalls.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2007 ****

“An excellent disc in regard both to the standard of performance and to the selection of Bairstow's music. And to that should be added straight away the quality of recorded sound, for in choral music of this type it is particularly important to allow for enough reverberance and sense of space without loss of clarity; also to balance choir and organ so as to keep a focus upon the singers and their words while enabling the organist to exploit the full range of the instrument in tone and volume.
The recommendation for this new issue is confirmed most decisively by the inclusion of the FivePoems of the Spirit. Completed in 1944, it remained unpublished till after Bairstow's death.
The orchestration was provided by Sir Ernest Bullock, and with its baritone solos and (largely) early-17th-century texts it stands, not unworthily, alongside Vaughan Williams's Five MysticalSongs. Particularly memorable is the fourth, Raleigh's 'Give me my scallop-shell of quiet', but all are attractive. Roderick Williams is the ideally suited soloist and the Britten Sinfonia do justice to a delightful score. In the accompanied anthems and services the organ parts are played with skilful registration by Paul Provost, and the choir sing throughout with their customary expressiveness and variety of colour: exquisitely (for instance) in the unaccompanied Jesu, the very thought of Thee.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“An excellent disc in regard both to the standard of performance and to the selection of Bairstow's music. …Five Poems of the Spirit… remained unpublished till after Bairstow's death. Roderick Williams is the ideally suited soloist and the Britten Sinfonia do justice to a delightful score.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2007

“Finally Jerusalem itself comes as the culminating tableau, with the solidity of massed unison voices and the flaming chariots and swirling arrows of desire set ablaze in the orchestral score which Elgar wrote for it four years after Parry's death. [...] This is a sumptuous programme, and David Hill's by no means meagre forces present it with a fine sense of style and occasion, vividly recorded too. There is not only the splendour of sheer amplitude but also a spring in the rhythm (as in Stanford's Magnificat) and beauty of tone in the quieter passages such as the hymn from Parry's Judith” Gramophone Magazine

“What a tremendous programme this is...I can think of no higher praise than to say that it has little chance of finding a place on my shelves because I can't stop playing it.” Organists Review

“Priory's recording engineers and Truro Cathedral seem to be made for each other. This is yet another example of the way in which the building's fine acoustics and its atmosphere can be captured on disc."” Organists Review

“There are many choral groups performing cathedral music on CD and in the concert hall, but no matter how polished their singing nothing quite matches the experience of hearing our greatest church choirs singing their own repertoire on their own territory. So it is with this splendid CD: surely the next best thing to being present in the sumptuous surroundings of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.” Organists Review

“demonstrates the choir's versatility …their freshness is an asset, and the extremes of expression … are beautifully caught” Gramophone Magazine

“…the choir, most atmospherically recorded in the Chapel, demonstrates its current health, with the trebles in particular wonderfully bright.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2006

“Hubert Parry's glorious Coronation anthem 'I was glad' unfolds in waves of increasing elation and broad, sweeping lyricism. It's a tremendous performance by The Sixteen, and it's an effective composition. There are many others like it… These are proud, expansive, superlatively sung performances...” BBC Music Magazine, May 2009 *****

“…The Sixteen provide such precision in their attention to detail in dynamics, diction, attack and, most of all, intonation. For me, however, the most luminous singing is reserved for Parry's My soul, there is a country where, owing to the careful shading of dynamics, the meaning of Vaughan's poem is conveyed with a new and revelatory insight.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2009