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Polyphony

Concert Reviews

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St John Passion - Barbican - The Times - March 2008
Whenever you're in the presence of the vocal ensemble Polyphony and their conductor Stephen Layton you begin to understand what authenticity is really about. And it has little to do with period performance. Their St John Passion certainly was historically informed - and they sang with the period instruments of the Academy of Ancient Music. But the authenticity here went deeper, to the core of Bach's responses to the Easter story, and to the beating heart of his musical language.

BBC Proms - Evening Standard - July 2007
Blending is the secret of great choral singing. Stephen Layton's fine chamber choir, Polyphony, has mastered this elusive art to perfection, as was amply demonstrated at a lunchtime Prom at Cadogan Hall, in a range of Shakespeare, Blake and Auden settings.

St John Passion - Snape Maltings - The Independent - April 2007
Stephen Layton, conducting his own choir, Polyphony, and the Academy of Ancient Music, eschewed the over-reverent approach that can make performances of the Passions something of an endurance test. Instead, Bach's masterpiece was presented as a rattling good drama, in which the tension never dropped for a moment.

Messiah at St. John's Smith Square - Early Music Review - February 2007
The conclusion of the St John’s, Smith Square Festival was the annual sell-out Messiah given by the outstanding choir, Polyphony, with the Academy of Ancient Music – an absolute must on the London music scene, alongside their Easter Bach Passions. However many times I hear these annual Polyphony Messiahs, they always sound fresh and invigorating, and there is always something new in Stephen Layton’s interpretations.

Aldeburgh Festival - Eastern Daily Press - June 2006
Conducted with flourish and style by Stephen Layton, Polyphony sang an imposing and uninterrupted programme of Austro-German pieces to an exacting and demanding degree ... and showed why they're one of the finest choirs in the land.

Messiah at St. John's Smith Square - Early Music Today - December 2005
Good vocal projection and characterisation drew the audience into the performing fold, while the excellent trumpet solo and a good blast from the St John’s organ in the closing sections rounded off an exhilarating performance.

Messiahs at St. John's Smith Square - Various - December 2004
I have not heard better choral singing than this. Polyphony, directed with a clear sense of balance and forward momentum by Layton, was the rock and sonic architecture upon which everything and everyone hung - Classicalsource.com
Layton imparts an enormous power and muscular energy to the music. Polyphony were on their usual top form - Early Music Review

Tavener at 60 - Various - November 2004
The performances, from the choral group Polyphony and the English Chamber Orchestra with pianist Ralf Gothoni, were all exemplary - The Guardian
Layton’s ability to revere and sanctify every consonant, every syllable, within the utmost simplicity of utterance, ensured a performance of near-perfection - The Times

Annual Passion that just goes on getting better - Evening Standard - April 2004
The connoisseur's choice is the St John at Smith Square, an annual sell-out event under the direction of Stephen Layton. Over a number of years, and with the experience of the staged version at ENO, which he also conducted, Layton has arrived at what seems an ideal synthesis of dramatic and meditative elements.

Concert with Britten Sinfonia in King's College Chapel - The Times - March 2004
This was Lenten entertainment with a difference, and a capacity audience, rapt and finally rapturous, seemed to know it. Once again, the music was perfectly tuned to its environment, and Layton exploited both to full advantage. The counterpointing of voices and orchestra was miraculously transparent.

The outstanding feature was Polyphony - a real wonder - Independent - April 2003
St John's, Smith Square, saw Stephen Layton and Polyphony offer their London version of the piece, on Good Friday. Layton brought out the intense emotion and drama from the start - the sublime opening chorus was shattering - and he pushed the story on almost breathlessly.

Layton, with his first-rate choral group Polyphony - The Daily Telegraph - April 2002
APTLY contemplative for Good Friday, this performance of Bach's St John Passion had a similar cast of singers to the one that recently took part in Deborah Warner's staged and costumed version at English National Opera...

John Passion Preview - March 2002
The Cambridge-based artist management company Hazard Chase, together with BBC Radio 3, stage and broadcast an annual sequence of lunchtime concerts during Holy Week ending on Good Friday with Polyphony's excellent performance of Bach's St John Passion at St John's Smith Square.

Messiah Previews - Various - December 2001
The annual performance of Messiah in St John's Smith Square continues to attract critical acclaim. Here are some of the previews in the run up to the performance...

St John v St Matthew - The Observer - April 2001
This year, Polyphony and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment gave a brilliant, supple concert performance conducted by Stephen Layton. It is hard to imagine it done better. They made a strong case for this being the greater work of the pair, as futile a thought to pursue as stating a preference for gold above silver, grass over sky. Yet the power of a great performance is that it banishes in the listener's mind for that moment all possibility of competitive events...

Passion, poignancy and drama fit the spirit of Easter - The Daily Telegraph - April 2001
The Good Friday performance of Bach's St John Passion at St John's, Smith Square, was distinguished by the assured singing of the choral ensemble Polyphony, and was enhanced by the eloquent interpretation of the role of the Evangelist by the tenor James Gilchrist, and by some heartfelt voicing of the meditative arias, particularly from the countertenor Robin Blaze. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, despite some sour moments, gave support that was lithe and intense...

Easter Passions - The Evening Standard - April 2001
The pick of the Passions is the choir Polyphony's Good Friday account of Bach's St John under Stephen Layton at St John's Smith Square. The St John Passion is shorter and more philosophical in tone than the St Matthew and has become quite fashionable in recent years. Layton ensures that the drama never slackens.

Clearly a conductor with something new to bring to Messiah... - Independent on Sunday - December 2000
St John's Smith Square seemed an unlikely setting for anything but the most genteel of performances but conductor Stephen Layton managed to balance gentility with theatricality in Polyphony's annual Messiah. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment played superbly, with hail-storm percussiveness in But who may abide, veiled calm in the Pastoral Symphony, blunt aggression in the scourging, and burnished vibrato in the rich, dense cadences of the choral movements...

That's exciting. And gets my vote. - Mail on Sunday - 31 December 2000
...recent years have seen attempts to escape from the Victorian massed-choir approach: to recapture its dramatic, brilliant and occasionally racy qualities the must have hit Handelian audiences between the eyes. And that's exactly what we got at Smith Square from the Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment - one of Europe's finest period-performance bands - and the small professional choir Polyphony, whose conductor, Stephen Layton, is the name to note these days in choral circles....

..central to the thrust of the drama was Polyphony - The Times - 24 April 2000
WHATEVER one thought of it, Deborah Warner's staging of Bach's St John Passion for English National Opera drew wide attention to the latent dramatic potential of the Passion Story. Stephen Layton was the conductor at the ENO, and he is also the conductor of the now traditional Good Friday St John Passion at St John's Smith Square....

Sundry Passions - HE Elsom - April 2000
Polyphony's Bach Passion at St John's is a Good Friday fixture that has nothing to do with football. But it has as much as many church services to do with a spiritual engagement with suffering and rebirth. This year's performers were almost impeccable, and Stephen Layton's direction produced musical results that were often far more dramatic than in Deborah Warner's staged production at the ENO.

Jesus Christ, opera star - Independent - 5 April 2000
Concerts of Bach's St John Passion are familiar Eastertide events. Now the crucifixion is being staged at English National Opera. Can the director Deborah Warner retain its sacred heart? Each Good Friday for the past five years (and the same this Easter – the 250th anniversary of JS Bach's death) Stephen Layton has conducted Bach's St John Passion at St John's, Smith Square in London, with a top-notch Evangelist, such as Ian Bostridge or Mark Padmore......

The two with Polyphony were alpine peaks - Jyllandsposten - February 2000
MASTERLY - Throughout this year and through 10 concerts and lectures and a most readworthy book, the unique project Er Viborg Stift en ø? will draw a picture of how we became the people, the society and the church we are today. The concertpart presents several "highs". The two with Polyphony were alpine peaks. The programme was formed as a musical church service. Stephen Layton had selected the works from the various segments of the Mass......

A fresh take on a masterpiece. - The Evening Standard - 24 December 1999
NOTHING crowns the year like the annual, exhilarating Eve of Christmas Eve performance of Handel's Messiah by the choir Polyphony and the baroque orchestra Canzona under Stephen Layton. Last night, Mr Layton announced that two of the singers were ill and could not perform. Fortunately, they were only the soloists. The chorus was intact - vitality made flesh. They sang He Hath Turned faster than ever. They spat out If He Delight with a......

...finest choral performance I've heard - Independent on Sunday - 11 April 1999
Easter was otherwise, for me, a date with Bach; and notable in that the St John Passion at St John's, Smith Square over the Easter weekend was the finest live choral performance I've heard in ages. I specify "choral" since the quality of the baroque band Canzona was variable. But Stephen Layton's choir Polyphony were stunning: disciplined, alert, dramatic, with a motivating (but not mechanistic) sense of engine-driven counterpoint.....

...among the finest I have ever heard - The Times - 5 April 1999
The annual performance of Bach's St John Passion given on Good Friday at St John's, Smith Square by Stephen Layton's choral group Polyphony is rapidly becoming a popular tradition. The occasion is now a sell-out, and compared with the slightly flawed one I heard two years ago, this year's gave immense satisfaction. Indeed, I would rate it among the finest John Passions I have ever heard.....

....the glory of the day was Polyphony's - The Evening Standard - 6 April 1999
Art and the moment combined powerfully on Good Friday when the choir Polyphony and period orchestra Canzona performed Bach's St John Passion under the irresistible conducting of Stephen Layton. The audience was full, hot and obedient into the last chorale. This was a profound re-examination of the two-millennia myth at the heart of Western civilisation.......

Where to find the best Easter music - Evening Standard - 25 March 1999
This Holy Week there are six Bach St Matthew Passions, three Bach St John Passions and two Handel Messiahs. The best concert will be the Good Friday St John Passion given in German by Polyphony And Canzona under Stephen Layton. They cannot be matched for vigour, clarity, musicality and drama...

Three stars are too few - The Evening Standard - 24 Dec 1998
No one but no one performs Handel's Messiah better every year than the choir Polyphony under the conductor Stephen Layton and the baroque orchestra Canzona. Their beautiful sound was intimate in the lofty ex-church. The gut strings were as pungent as a pheasant hung for a fortnight, while the oboes cut through keenly like a park-keeper's spike.....

Easter Passions - The Evening Standard - 1 April 1998
There are seven St John Passions and only three St Matthews this Easter. The pick of either, of course, is Polyphony's St John Passion conducted by Stephen Layton with Bott, Bowman and Bostridge on Good Friday afternoon...

Most beautiful and inspiring - The Evening Standard - 24 Dec 1997
The conductor Stephen Layton brought the 20-piece orchestra of Canzona in like a butler airing an ancient bedspread last night. The difficulty with Messiah this late in Advent is freshness, but Mr Layton and his forces, who have been burning the Handel at both ends for weeks, achieved unselfconscious routine perfection here. The performance had vitality, direction, purpose and intensity. The young, 22-voice choir, Polyphony, looked whacked, dazed......

A busy weekend - The Times - Dec 1997
A busy weekend for Stephen Layton's vocal ensemble Polyphony saw them give Handel's Messiah on Saturday and half of Bach's Christmas Oratorio on Sunday, both at St John's, Smith Square. They were assisted in Sunday's programme by the early music group Canzona (directed by Theresa Caudle) which, as well as accompanying the first three parts of the Bach, filled out the programme with Corelli's Concerto Grosso Op 6 no 8 in G minor, the "Christmas Concerto"......

Highly accomplished singers - The Times - 23 Dec 1996
Take a couple of dozen choice 20th-century Christmas carols, group them imaginatively add a dash of plainchant, and you have a winning recipe. This is what Stephen Layton and his choir Polyphony did for a recent recording, and they brought the programme to St John's Smith Square last week.

Nothing was more beautiful - The Evening Standard - 2 Sep 1996
Nothing was more beautiful than Polyphony’s rendition of Byrd’s Ad Dominum cum Tribularer. Their singing was precise, expressive and intelligently shaped under Stephen Layton’s control. The counterpoint floated up to the dome and lifted the spirits with it.....

Vivid injection of the freshest air - The Evening Standard - 23 Dec 1995
Smith Square's Christmas Festival ended as it had begun, with an excellent concert by a young and vital choir. The London Adventist Chorale was followed by Polyphony, whose Messiah last Saturday was vivid, fresh and moving - and you cannot say that about most renditions of the nation's most popular oratorio......

Ten ways to sing 'Hail Mary' - The Times - 22 Dec 1995
There can be fewer nicer ways to spend Christmas than in the company of Polyphony and Stephen Layton. They take themselves rather less seriously than some choirs I know: can you really imagine a choirmaster such as Peter Phillips or Paul McCreesh turning round to take the solo in White Christmas?......

Passion to remember - The Times 17 Apr 1995
Five minutes into the performance, and it was clear that this was going to be quite some Passion. Bach's St John Passion, even more than the more perfectly balanced St Matthew, tosses the listener between the emotions of pity and fear with a sometimes violent unpredictability. It was this oscillation, perfectly judged, never overdone, which distinguished Good Friday's performance by Polyphony at St John's, Smith Square, under the baton of Stephen Layton......

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