“This sweetshop full of lollipops offers some favourites from the King's Singers' vast repertoire of melodious part songs, sung with their trademark lustrous tone and precise, yet unforced, clarity.”
The Observer
“Here's a stunning display of unaccompanied part-singing by six consummate vocal artists. Sullivan's 'The Long Day Closes', beautifully shaped and shorn of sentimental Victorian accretions, draws the curtain down on an outstandingly successful recital.”
BBC Music Magazine
The Observer, 21st February 2009
This sweetshop full of lollipops offers some favorites from the King’s Singers’ vast repertoire of melodious part songs, sung with their trademark lustrous tone and precise, yet unforced, clarity. Yearning songs of love and loss range from 16th century to today, with some particularly fine contemporary examples from Libby Larsen. Schubert, Schumann, Bairstow, Elgar and Saint-Saens are all represented, and who can resist the rich sonority of Arthur Sullivan’s “The Long Day Closes”?
Stephen Pritchard
BBC Music Magazine ***** Performance, ***** Recording
Here’s a stunning display of unaccompanied part-singing by six consummate vocal artists. The repertoire mixes lighter items (a nimble, witty account of Saint Saens Serenade d’hiver) with more serious (a brace of exquisitely melancholy John Wilbye madrigals). Nestled snugly between is A Lover’s Journey, four bright, technically busy settings described by contemporary American composer Libby Larsen as ‘my Valentine to The King’s Singers’. Plucked from obscurity, Bairstow’s Music when soft voices die (for a pair each of tenors and basses) exudes a tender sentience, the four singers effortlessly eliding the demands of clear enunciation with flexible unfolding of the longer melody. Sullivan’s the Long Day Closes beautifully shaped and shorn of sentimental Victoria accretions, draws the curtain down on an outstandingly successful recital.
