Music / kor

Choral works


Reviews (9)


The observer

d. 27. May 2018

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Stephen Pritchard

d. 27. May 2018

"Director Andrew Nethsingha shapes a performance [of the Mass] of profound dignity and power, beautifully sung by this always impressive choir. He also programmes several other RVW choral pieces from the same postwar period, concluding with Lord, thou has been our refuge, which moves from darkness into light in an expression of a shared determination to overcome adversity".


MusicWeb international

2018 May

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John Quinn (musikanmelder)

2018 May

"This is a very fine disc indeed. Andrew Nethsingha has chosen the music with great discernment and conducts it with evident commitment and understanding. The choir sings marvellously from start to finish ... Intonation is true at all times and trebles' tone gives great pleasure. The adult singers are excellent too".


MusicWeb international

2023 August

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John Quinn (musikanmelder)

2023 August

"This CD amply demonstrates that James O'Donnell passed on to his successor, Andrew Nethsingha, a choir in peak condition. The singing throughout is highly skilled and strongly committed. It's a demanding programme which presents the choir with a wide variety of challenges: all these challenges are successfully met. Most of the music is a cappella, meaning that Peter Holder is not often involved. But in A Special Appeal his contribution is nothing less than spectacular".


MusicWeb international

2023 October

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William Hedley

2023 October

"Vaughan Williams's music has been described as austere, even cold, but one should remember that he conceived it for liturgical use. There is a certain restraint, therefore, a distance between the music and the emotional response that music might be expected to provoke in a listener. This is as fine a performance as any now available. Contrapuntal lines are clearly audible, and the overall balance is exemplary. The choir's sound has exceptional richness and homogeneity. It dispenses considerable power where necessary and makes the more inward passages alive ... A deeply satisfying collection".


BBC music magazine

2018 July

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Terry Blain

2018 July

"Choral & song choice: Some performances grip you from the outset, and this St John's College recording of Vaughan Williams's Mass in G minor is one of them. The Kyrie's rapt inwardness is built on the outstandingly assured vocalism of the singers at restrained dynamic levels, but also on conductor Andrew Nethsingha's pleasingly fluid moulding of the undulating motifs Vaughan Williams uses to knit the music together ... As a single-disc anthology of Vaughan Williams's choral music this new St John's College CD is formidably attractive".


BBC music magazine

2023 September

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Terry Blain

2023 September

"Choral & song choice: This, apparently his [James O'Donnell] last recording at the Abbey, sustains the remarkably high standards he and his choir consistently achieved during his tenure ... In all, a fine and unmissable farewell by O'Donnell".


The gramophone

2018 June

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Peter Quantrill

2018 June

"The choir sounds smaller (though it isn't) than on its previous recording ... This is to advantage at moments such as the pick-up of energy for 'Cum Sancto Spiritu' in the Gloria of the Mass, the timeless heterophony of the Sanctur and the Tudor part-writing of the Agnus. Elsewhere there is a loss of impact".


The gramophone

2023 September

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Andrew Achenbach

2023 September

"James O'Donnell masterminds an account of Vaughan Williams's Mass in G minor to rank alongside the finest to have come my way. Not only is his an ideally unforced, lucid conception, ... he also secures singing of effortless poise and heartwarming devotion from his Westminster Abbey colleagues ... Once again, MacMillan's stunningly idiomatic writing for double choir is delivered with the utmost composure and conviction by O'Donnell's home team ... In sum, this classy collection will surely give lasting pleasure".