Britten: Festival Te Deum in E, Op. 32

“The two outstanding features are the high quality of the choral singing and the fairly relaxed pace throughout. Higginbottom has said that he finds some of Britten's metronome markings on the fast side...yet they use their time well, finding a depth of colour and expression that yields its own rewards.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2013

“The Choir of New College, Oxford has a long association with this ever varied repertoire. They give fresh, confident readings – steered with firm authority by director Edward Higginbottom – of A Ceremony of Carols, Rejoice in the Lamb, Missa Brevis and shorter works. The Hymn to St Cecilia, to words of Auden, has particular joy and verve.” The Observer, 24th February 2013

“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

“With Britten comes the thought of high voices: boys' voices that on this Naxos disc belong to the choir of St. John's College, Cambridge… the St. John's singers roundly capture the elusive tonal qualities of Britten's choral music, and the recording has a proper sense of space and locality.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2000

“As with other recent records from St John's, there's a freshness, almost a feeling of adventure and a sense that all this choral discipline is an easy yoke. These are excellent performances, the opening item setting a standard which is to be maintained throughout. Buoyant rhythms, precise accentuations and well-pointed contrasts are features of the singing; and the playing of Ian Farrington in accompaniments that are often difficult and always demanding of maximum alertness, is outstanding. Outstanding, too, is the contribution of the trebles. In tone they preserve the traditional John's sound, without exaggerating its so-called continental element.
But what impresses most is the sense of imaginative involvement. It's there, for instance, in the Kyrie of the Missa brevis, and most of all in the 'I cannot grow' section of A Hymn to St Cecilia. To this they bring a distinctive excitement, a wideeyed, breathlessly playful feeling of childlike wonder. The programme itself is highly attractive.
The 'hymns' are fully developed compositions, and the canticles are notably independent of tradition (for instance, a quietly meditative note of praise is struck at the start of both Te Deums). The Missa brevis makes inventive use of its forces; and Rejoice in the Lamb, a masterly expression of the liberal spirit, never ceases to amaze with its evocation of the cat Jeoffry, valiant mouse and staff-struck poet. Recorded sound isn't as vivid as the performances, but this remains a very likeable disc.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The control, range, purity, accurate placing and intelligent musicianship of his singing are totally admirable” Gramophone Magazine

“A characteristic of Brockless’s music is his use of perky, jagged and unpredictable rhythms which the Queen’s College choir clearly relish, producing some vivacious, incisive singing...there are some really enjoyable moments in the Britten Flower Songs and they summon up something quite magical for Jonathan Harvey’s I love the Lord.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2004

“The singers are on really top form, giving first-rate accounts of the challenging anthems by Jonathan Harvey whilst also making a case for more conventional fare such as the essentially tuneful pieces by Brockless. There is absolutely no fuzziness about the singing, the sopranos especially exuding a purity of line that will be the envy of many.” Organists Review, February 2004

“What is an apparently disparate programme of British choral music in fact works extremely well, and includes not a few revelations...Brian Brockless’s work is less well known than it deserves to be. Essentially traditional in idiom, it yet provides a series of technical challenges...and is strikingly memorable” International Record Review, October 2003