Bach, J S: Sinfonia from Cantata BWV29

“Stanford’s Te Deum and Jubilate from his B flat Service have become comparative rarities, and they make a terrific impact here, organ and choir combining with exultant, spine-tingling resonance...This is cathedral choral singing at its finest and most inspiring.” The Telegraph, 28th July 2010

“This music for Westminster Abbey's patron, St Peter, offers a nimble, not to say ecumenical chance to unite contrasting choral works on one disc...The choir sounds best in Stanford's quintessentially Anglican Service in B flat and in Walton's The Twelve (1965)...Its flamboyant organ part and fugal "Twelve as the winds and the months" finale are intriguing and uplifting.” The Observer, 8th August 2010

“this glorious disc from Hyperion celebrat[es] what the Abbey choir is all about...The centrepiece of the disc is Byrd's glorious Mass for five voices, superbly delivered in the performance of outstanding clarity and sensitivity under James O'Donnell.” International Record Review, September 2010

“The musicians of Westminster Abbey are in top form. Crisp phrasing, firm control of line and lumionous colours create many fine moments, notably in the Palestrina and in Byrd's Gloria. Under organist Robert Quinney, the transcribed Bach Sinfonia sweeps along to a heady climax.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2010 ***

“A sumptuous banquet of choral delight awaits the hungry listener, laid out in three carefully balanced courses, to be savoured slowly, the whole programme sung (and played) with superlative skill” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2010

“More lollipops that you could shake a stick at: Stormin Norma (the nickname of the instrument not the performer) will make purists shudder, but both she and Kemp English have a crispness of delivery and panache in performance that recall a day at the seaside, alternately bracing and sugary. Bach (and Buxtehude), Dubois, Noel Rawsthorne, Lefebure-Wely and Widor, are all dispatched impeccably, and the tuning and articulation in particular, put many more serious recordings to shame” Choir & Organ

“Kempff's 80-year-old fingers weave his Gluck and Handel transcriptions into dulcet, lyrical gold... this miraculous recording” Classics Today

“Although it might seem a strange idea to make a CD of the orchestral introductions to Bach’s cantatas, there is sufficient variety of mood – from celebratory to contemplative – to make the programme work as a sequence...the where-have-I-heard-that-before element is part of the disc’s attraction, and the superb Accademia Bizantina makes the music live and breathe.” The Telegraph, 20th October 2011 ****

“this is a wonderful recital, carefully chosen and assembled, and beautifully played...there are movements highlighting the group’s fine oboists, bassoonists, violinists, trumpeters and, slightly less impressively, horn players. Their style is brisk and energised in the faster music and deeply expressive and spacious in the slower.” Sunday Times, 27th November 2011