Fauré: Messe basse

“a charming freshness, and many unmistakeably Faurean touches” Gramophone Magazine

“its special quality is it uses boy trebles and male altos...most winning” Penguin Guide

“Recommended without hesitation” Classic CD

“Ethereally beautiful” Penguin Guide

“Outstanding” The Independent

“The medium-scale 1893 version of Fauré's spiritual masterpiece finds a loving advocate in John Rutter, with excellent soloists and a lucid-toned choir.” BBC Music Magazine

“Faure's Requiem has received many fine recordings, but John Rutter's inspired reconstruction of the original 1893 score, using only lower strings and no woodwind, opened our ears to the extra freshness of the composer's first thoughts.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“Here's almost two and a half hours of bliss. These are recordings to set aside for the time when, as the prayer says, 'the busy world is hushed'. Asked to characterise Fauré's and Duruflé's Requiems as compared with others, we might suggest words such as 'delicate', 'meditative', 'undramatic'; but that last would be a mistake. These performances certainly do not go out of their way to 'be' dramatic or anything else other than faithful to the music, but one is struck by the power exercised by those rare moments that rise to a forte and above.
The choir is surely at its best, the trebles with their fine clear-cut, distinctive tone, the tenors (so important in the Fauré) graceful and refined without being precious, the altos exceptionally good, and only the basses just occasionally and briefly plummy or obtrusive in some way.
The Poulenc works further test a choir's virtuosity yet in the extremely difficult Mass, the choir seems secure, and in the Salve Regina they catch the necessary tenderness. The treble soloists sing beautifully, Christopher Keyte dramatises almost too convincingly in Duruflé's 'tremens factus', and Benjamin Luxon, his production less even, builds finely in Fauré's Libera me. These recordings have a vividness, certainly in the choral sound, that modern recordings generally lack.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Faure's Cantique de Jean Racine makes a perfect conclusion to this lovely programme.” Gramophone Magazine

“The mixed-gender group of 21 singers recorded here is blessed with a fresh, clear, unaffected tone, blending effortlessly...These young French singers cope admirably with Leighton's English text...and manage to bring out all the dramatic nuances of the Britten, particularly in the striking Agnus Dei.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2011

“this mixed boy-girl French choir makes a vigorous, refreshing sound on its debut CD. The voices are full of enthusiastic stresses in the Britten, digging out his staccato Benedictus with robotic enthusiasm...Tuning is excellent throughout, soloists have characterful voices...[and] British organist William Whitehead never outplays the voices.” Classic FM Magazine, April 2011 ****