‘The temptation is merely to write that Stephen Layton and his Trinity College choir have done it again. So accustomed are those of us who review choral music to enjoying flawless excellence from them (as well as the magnificent Hyperion engineering and production team) that we have come almost to take it for granted. But even with such high expectations from the outset, the very first item here transports us into an altogether higher realm of sublimity, while the first of the three Stuttgart Psalms presents choral singing of a brilliance which simply sets new standards … there is a vast wealth of musical interest here, linked only by a thorough understanding of the medium and a musical language which is immensely lovely’ (MusicWeb International)» More

‘It is redundant to state that the performances by Howard Shelley and the London Mozart Players are superb. Equally superfluous is to note the excellent recording. It is up to Hyperion’s usual high quality. The extensive liner notes by Professor Jeremy Dibble make essential reading’ (MusicWeb International)

‘It’s a quality of performance and recording we’ve come to depend on from [Stephen Layton and Trinity College Choir] … I love the sound of the recording itself’ (BBC Record Review)

‘No qualifications are required for Angela Hewitt’s new Beethoven album of seven variation sets, a couple of them trifling but fun (variations on Rule, Britannia! and God Save the King), but others bracing creations deserving of greater fame. Hewitt’s touch is remarkably nimble and poetic’ (The Times)

‘This is the final disc in The Tallis Scholars’ complete recording of Josquin des Pres’s masses. Perhaps it is just as well, because this reviewer is running out of superlatives for the music itself and for this choir’s performances of it … here they still are, 34 years later, doing a major work full justice and laying bare the glories of two more of those marginal masses’ (Early Music)

‘Martyn Brabbins has reached the halfway point in his Hyperion/BBCSO Vaughan Williams Symphony cycle and his account of the solace-giving and transcending Fifth (first heard in 1943, the composer conducting) is as notable as the first four are in terms of performance and recording … Brabbins’s view of Symphony 5 is absorbing and spot-on in terms of tempo, transitions, phrasing and closely observed detailing and dynamics, structurally seamless from distant horizons to organically arrived-at ecstatic climaxes, the BBCSO opulent and sensitive in response, beautifully recorded by Simon Eadon and flawlessly produced by Andrew Keener. In particular, the ‘Romanza’ third movement is especially rapt.’ (colinscolumn.com)» More

‘This CD marks the triumphant completion of The Tallis Scholars’ cycle of Masses by the fifteenth-century composer Josquin des Prés. And as the choir’s director Peter Phillips points out, the first and greatest of these works reflects both the vanity of its dedicatee and the felicitousness of its construction. The Duke of Ferrara liked to hear his name sung obviously and often—he’d have fitted in well in the era of Donald Trump—so the composer took his name and title and turned their vowels into music, to create a neat little eight-note melody. He then ordains that this melody should be sung 47 times, mostly by the tenors. The effects are surprisingly intricate, and the singing here has a lovely warmth and freshness; the other two works have subtly different colourings. The acoustic of the Oxford chapel in which this music is recorded is perfectly appropriate’ (The Independent)

‘Jaakko Mäntyjärvi (b. 1963) is probably currently Finland’s internationally most successful composer of choral music, and his Trinity Service, commissioned by the distinguished Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, forms the core of this new disc focusing on his sacred music … the other major item and artistic high point is the Stuttgarter Psalmen triptych, which sets itself apart from the more subdued smaller pieces surrounding it with its darker tone and more extensive palette of compositional resources … the final track, O magnum mysterium, avoids the saccharine excesses of contemporary choral hits and sustains a mystical feeling with a melodic line resting on a bed of thick, sonorous harmony. The choir is of the very finest quality throughout the disc’ (Rondo, Germany)» More

‘The Op 34 Variations find Hewitt on rare form. Her lapidarian, multilayered fingerwork and witty inflections throughout Var 2 are simply to die for, especially those ear-tickling trills … in Var 8 [of Op 35], the Fazioli’s timbral distinction in each register gorgeously reveals itself. She eschews the mincing tenutos pianists love to sprinkle across Var 11 and doesn’t allow Var 13’s heavy chords to overpower the melodic grace notes. Hewitt discreetly yet noticeably wrings out the harmonic tension from the minore Var 14. Her concluding fugue is as clear and lucid as one would expect from a master Bachian’ (Gramophone)

‘Irresistibly cheerful, with enough in the way of invention and scintillating technical challenge to hold the attention throughout. And there can be no finer guide to this near-forgotten music than Howard Shelley who, yet again, sounds as if he’s been relishing these works for years. The LMP have clearly caught his infectious enthusiasm, too, and Hyperion’s sound is gloriously present and lifelike’ (Gramophone)

‘Even heathens surely cannot help but enjoy to the bottom of their soul the sacred a cappella choral music of Jaakko Mäntyjärvi’ (Helsingin Sanomat, Finland)» More

‘[Mäntyjärvi] knows exactly how to build up a structure that rejoices in both sonorous depth and melodic distinctiveness, rather like Poulenc—try the first of the Stuttgarter Psalmen for an example of this. Characteristic of all three Psalms, too, is a mastery of repetition; that is to say, a knowledge of how often to repeat a phrase, or a variant of a phrase, to create an atmosphere in miniature that is then expanded upon, as is the case with the third Psalm, ‘Richte mich, Gott’ … an intriguing selection, then, that brings out the best from the Trinity choir, the sound beautifully captured by Hyperion’s team’ (Gramophone)