Polyphony

October 2001 - Polyphony wins a Gramophone Award

Polyphony's recording of Britten's Sacred and Profane has been awarded a Gramophone Award for choral disc of the year.  The awards, which celebrate 25 years in 2001 and are known as 'the Oscars of the classical music world', were presented at a star-packed ceremony in the Barbican on Friday 19 October 2001.

From the hundreds of recordings released between June 1 and May 31 each year, a committee of Gramophone reviewers selects a maximum of 40 discs per category.  These are put to a vote and the results deliver six discs for each category's shortlist.  In the final round, all the critics - who have six weeks to listen to the nominations and compare them - cast a ballot for the winner.

The disc, which has also won a Diapason d'Or, includes Britten's settings of AMDG, Choral Dances from 'Gloriana', Five Flower Songs and Sacred and Profane. Polyphony performed two of Britten's Flower Songs at the ceremony, which was hosted by the actor Simon Callow.

Polyphony's recordings on Hyperion have received wide critical acclaim and are frequently Editor's Choice in Gramophone.  They will be in the studio again in 2002 recording a disc of music by William Walton to commemorate the centenary of his birth.

For further information about Polyphony, please contact our General Manager.

Writing in the special Awards Issue of Gramophone Magazine, Richard Fairman said:

'This has to be one of the strongest winners of the choral award in recent years.  Under their founder and conductor, Stephen Layton, Polyphony have worked their way to the top of the small choirs league, a highly competitive market.  Each of their performances here shows what it takes to succeed at this level: impeccable tuning, razor-sharp ensemble, careful blending of voices, versatility as an ensemble and - doubtless the key feature - a determination not to let standards slip even for a semiquaver.  The result is some virtuoso choral singing.

Britten deserves a thank-you from a cappella choirs for enriching the 20th-century repertoire when most other leading composers preferred to set their sights elsewhere.  The selection of works included here, ranging from music of the darkest intensity to a naive playfulness, gives a good idea of his scope.  Among the simpler pieces are the 16-year-old composer's haunting Hymn to the Virgin and the affecting Choral after an Old French Carol, which hark back to traditional choral writing.  At the other extreme, the conscious technical brilliance of AMDG and the challenges of Sacred and Profane, his demanding late cycle on raw-to-the-bone medieval poems, show Britten stretching choirs to new limits.  Needless to say, Polyphony pass every test with flying colours.'