‘I’m going to beat the drum for an Awards runner-up this year, this magnificent selection of secular pieces by Dufay. It starts with a moving lament for the fall of Constantinople and ends with a drinking song. Four male voices, no instruments, offer 70 minutes of fascination and delight’ (Gramophone)

‘A hauntingly eloquent and moving performance of The diary of one who disappeared … revelatory, with the tenor on brilliantly communicative form, supported by fiercely dramatic playing from Julius Drake’ (Gramophone)

‘The Scholars take the [Missa Mater Patris] at an aptly reverential tread, capturing its introspective—at times hypnotic—qualities. The writing is tight and spare, the composer contrasting imitative duets with richer chordal passages. Using just one or two voices to a part, this performance is both immediate and intimate … the Scholars realise the [Missa Da pacem] with all the clarity, precision, clarity and conviction for which they are justly renowned’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘The clear, bright sound of The Tallis Scholars is always a superb match for Josquin’s complex textures and their control of two-part textures is outstanding … a superb addition to their ongoing Josquin cycle’ (Gramophone)

‘The disc opens with an outstanding performance of Stanford's Service in A. Its range of interpretative insights—from the ethereal entries in the Nunc Dimittis to the full-voiced splendour of both Glorias—is exceptional and articulated with enthralling confidence by the St John’s singers … there is a particularly luminescent contribution from the boy trebles at the beginning of Howells’s Gloucester Service … Andrew Nethsingha’s exemplary booklet notes cap a warmly recommendable issue’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Ian Page offers a matchless account of the 11-year-old Mozart's first opera. Lawrence Zazzo is a fine Apollo and Christopher Ainslie does his best as the wicked Zephyrus’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘As school choirs go, Westminster School's is rather fine, its dynamic range and blend top notch. An ambitious yet attractive programme’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Cinquecento specialises in performing music from the 1500s and, with members from Austria, Belgium, England, Germany and Switzerland, models itself after an imperial chapel choir whose singers were drawn from the finest choral establishments across Europe. Using one voice to a part (as was common practice in 16th-century Rome), the ensemble is lucid and detailed: individual lines are sharply drawn yet the overall effect is richly sonorous. An ensemble of adult male singers (rather than female voices or boys on the upper parts) throws the weight on the dusky colours of Palestrina’s palette and also lends a robustly virile quality to the sound’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Perhaps the most arresting and unexpected touch is the eight-voice setting of 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem' at the end of Lectio III for Holy Saturday, where three extra tenor parts fill out the texture and create a magical ending. Throughout this album Cinquecento offer a performance which is truly reflective and tender’ (Gramophone)

‘Enter McCreesh and his team. They've rethought not just the score, but the instruments and practices of Purcell's day. In their King Arthur, choruses are more vibrant, dance rhythms more percussive and solos more delicate than in any previous recording … this King Arthur is another jewel in McCreesh's crown’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Schütz’s Italianate oratorio is one of the masterpieces of the early Baroque and is performed beautifully here. Voices and instruments are superbly balanced within the rich recorded texture’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘The Yale Schola Cantorum comprises roughly 30 singers and a dozen instrumentalists, but they sound light and bright nonetheless. They make a fine impression in the opening Hodie Christus natus est, and the choir’s interventions are among the most telling on this CD’ (Gramophone)