Stephen Pettitt

PERFORMANCE *****       SOUND *****

AMDG presents as formidable a challenge to its singers as any of Britten's compositions for unaccompanied choir. In fact that is sometimes suggested as the reason why, having written it for an expert group in 1939 and realising that its chances of frequent performance were slim, Britten never prepared the work for publication. It's a pity he couldn't have heard Stephen Layton's Polyphony! Even more than the Finzi Singers, their predecessors on record, they have worked it into the system so that they have the sense of it clearly in their mind and can make the word-setting fresh and spontaneous. 'God's Grandeur' (allegro con fuoco) has the fire: the Finzis seem almost cautious by comparison. In 'The Soldier' Polyphony catch the swing of the triples and dotted notes with more panache and make more of the words. Then, taking a slightly slower tempo than the Finzis, they bring out the tender lyricism (sopranos and tenors in octaves) in 'Prayer II' and grasp more decisively the con moto, Vivace and Avanti! markings in 'O Deus, ego amo te'. 

In the Five Flower Songs Polyphony have a slight advantage (these distinctions are all 'slight' in the normal degrees of comparison because all of the performances are of a remarkably high standard) over The Sixteen (Collins, 8/92 - nla) in that theirs is a rather younger tone and their numbers (or maybe the record sound) allow them to convey more sense of round-the-table intimacy. In the Choral Dances from 'Gloriana', The Sixteen may well be found preferable on account of the version they use, involving solo tenor and harp. With the straightforward choral version Polyphony improve on the Finzi Singers' performance with crisper rhythms and a clearer acoustic The ethereal and rarely heard Chorale after an old French Carol has, in comparison with the only other available recorded version, under Hickox, a greater share of heavenly light (and lightness); and Sacred and Profane, like AMDG a work for virtuosos, is given with wonderful confidence and imagination. 

On a personal note, I'd like to revert to the remarks on AMDG in my original review of the Finzi Singers' record: 'It commands attention and gains an admiration that I can't quite see growing into affection.' Well, it has grown. These seven settings of poems by Hopkins, so discouragingly set aside by the composer, now seem virtually inseparable from their ever-moving text.

John Steane

Almost the only criticism I have of this superb programme is that in Sacred and Profane, Britten's late group of settings of early English poems, Polyphony employ the sort of studied `authentic' pronunciation that one associates with the most scholarly of early music specialists. And yet at various points in his career Britten turned to the very different sounds and syntaxes of foreign languages as a spur to his inventiveness, and his use of middle English could be regarded as the last of those forays. Certainly Polyphony's willingness to sing with full tone and their very precise pitching - two of their most admirable qualities - do point up the work's striking range of choral colour and imagery, and perhaps the sound of the language intensifies this.

Here, and throughout, Polyphony's own sound, which is very full for a chamber choir and exceptionally well balanced, is most beautifully conveyed by the recording. It was made in Temple Church in London, which offers both a pleasing resonance and the ability to place the second group of singers, responding in Latin to the English prayer of the Hymn to the Virgin, at a slight distance: extremely effective. Nor is the recording too close: the singers are, as it were, on a concert platform. Their weight of tone, where needed, gives great solemnity to the seldom-heard Chorale after an Old French Carol, but they have also the nimble lightness of touch for a very fresh account of the dances from Gloriana. For many listeners the real discovery will be A.M.D.G., seven settings of Gerard Manlev Hopkins that Britten unaccountably withdrew. Like Sacred and Profane they are full of very imaginative choral effects (exceptionally rich, complex harmonies in No. 1, boldly bare simplicity elsewhere) to which Polyphony's remarkable qualities are ideally suited; I have not heard either of these important cycles better sung.

This disc containing the major part of Britten's mixed-voice a cappella repertoire (the Hymn to St Cecilia is the only substantial omission) could hardly be a better showcase for the virtuosity of Polyphony and the increasingly assured talents of Stephen Layton. There's every sign that this music is particularly well "sung in": the phrasing - whether rapid, rat-a-tat or relaxed - carries such a sense of rightness and unanimity, always knowing precisely where it's going; the vowel colours are nothing if not alluring; and, most noticeable of all, the blend and balance of voices is exceptional.

The excellent recorded sound saps all the benefit from the airy spaces of the Temple Church in London without ever becoming swimmy. The works span a period of some 45 years of Britten's life, from the ever-popular childhood A Hymn to the Virgin to the often fiendishly tricky Sacred and Profane based on that intriguing mix of eight medieval lyrics. The "Choral Dances" from the opera Gloriana, recalling the celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, are ravishingly sung. But to my mind there is nothing better here than the performance of AMDG, where Polyphony gives the Gerard Manley Hopkins poetry all the passionate commitment it demands.

After hearing their latest CD of choral works by Britten, nothing will dissuade me from the conclusion that Polyphony under Stephen Layton is the best chamber choir in the country. Listen to the pinpoint articulation in I mon waxe wood from the collection Sacred and Profane Op91. The high sopranos are lithe, strong and young. They rattle out the semiquavers even at altitude with precision and clarity. Carol (Maiden in the mor lay) from the same set is the loveliest piece on the disc with its urgent whisper and whiplash What. The wonderful men-only Rustics and Fishermen from the Choral Dances from Gloriana has a taste of salt in the breeze. Earnest labourers stride home and the sorrow of loss rears its head. Such rural livings are gone for ever. The disc is also distractingly poignant. 

But for Britten, much poetry would go unread and unheard. The Five Flower Songs Op47 preserve exquisite verse by the long-dead Robert Herrick, George Crabbe and John Clare. The collection AMDG sets those poems by the mystic poet Gerard Manley Hopkins which are signed with the above initials. Britten withdrew the set so they are not well-known. Rosa Mystica binds a lilting jig around the chanting note A. God's grandeur spins out the title like a forceful mantra against un-churchy imagery ('like shining from shook foil'). Polyphony performs the set with seraphic, not to say highly professional conviction. 

Easter is an appropriate time to recommend a recording of Beethoven's great 70-minute Missa Solemnis performed by the SWR Radio-Sinfonieorchester under Chief Conductor Sir Roger Norrington with the NDR Choir and the SWR Vokalensemble. The performance is powerfully old-fashioned. The Christe eleison drives on against Beethovenian adversity and the Gloria breaks into paradise with the arrival of blazing trumpets. The power-soloists are heroic and the choir weighty, at times unduly so. Actually the sopranos sound rather bosomy. Give me Polyphony's sweet nightingales any time.

This collection of some of Britten's a cappella choral music is wide-ranging - from the Hymn to the Virgin (1930) composed at the age of 16 to the late cycle of medieval poems, Sacred and Profane (1975) composed shortly before Britten's death. Along the way we hear the difficult setting of Gerald Manley Hopkins's AMDG (composed in 1939 at the beginning of Britten's sojourn in America, but not heard again or published until after Britten's death). The Chorale on a text by Auden (Christmas 1944) and the musically lovely and intellectually stimulating excerpts from Gloriana and the Flower Songs complete the program.