Stile Antico - Reviews of Heavenly Harmonies

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Awards

Diapason d'or, 2008
Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, II/2008
Classics Today 10/10, 25.1.08

Reviews

The young singers of Stile Antico, in their second disc of Tudor music, are magnificent... glorious music, gloriously sung. (Hugh Canning, Sunday Times CD of the week, 10.2.08)

In its second disc, the Renaissance vocal group Stile Antico further establishes a newer, higher standard for singing this repertoire... (David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer, 16.3.08)

Stile Antico are one of the brightest new stars in the firmament of Renaissance vocal ensembles. Their clear, fresh tone, purposeful rhythmic energy, and minutely sensitive response to the words are displayed to perfection in this imaginatively chosen programme... The urgency and rising desperation of the sinner's pleas in motets such as Ne irascaris and Exsurge Domine have a heartfelt intensity and sense of commitment that make these moving performances very special indeed. (Elizabeth Roche, Daily Telegraph, 16.2.08)

This new album from the early-music ensemble Stile Antico is a superb blend of Tallis's austere psalm-settings and Byrd's harmonically more opulent Latin motets... What these young British singers do with them is fresh, unmannered and captivatingly beautiful. (Michael Church, The Independent, five stars, Classical Album of the Week, 22.3.08)

We can only admire Stile Antico and the vision of the label who backed this ensemble at such an early stage. In their hands, polyphony lives and breathes, declaims, rejoices, implores, dares expansive phrases and powerful crescendos, sustained at every moment by irresistible feeling. (Diapason)

The performances, given without a conductor, are splendid - pure, solid, at times astonishingly full for a group that runs to barely more than a dozen voices. This is a spellbinding disc. (Michael Dervan, Irish Times, five stars, 7.3.08)

Gloriously polished and vibrant... a work of astonishing textural complexity and intense emotional impact, qualities superbly revealed in this powerfully focused and purposefully paced performance... wonderful music and singing of considerable distinction. (Marc Rochester, International Record Review, February 2008)

This CD is a knockout. Sensitive expression of the texts is paramount... which comes from Stile Antico creating the interpretation as an ensemble without conductor. You won’t find a better demonstration of just how beautiful and yet also powerful these pieces are. (Michael Greenhalgh, MusicWeb International Recording of the Month, April 2008)

If you've been paying attention to the choral music scene lately, you know to expect that Stile Antico is more than capable of giving exciting new life to old music... not surprisingly Stile Antico's renditions join with the very best in the catalog. Not to be missed! (David Vernier, Classics Today 10/10 review, 25.1.08)

These are careful, considered performances, entirely conscious of the expressive potential, as well as the interpretative pitfalls, of the music... simply gorgeous singing. (David Trendell, Early Music, November 2008)

The British tradition of Renaissance choral music, part of the Early Music revival of the 1970s, remains unchallenged, but groups such as Monteverdi Choir and Tallis Scholars need a new generation to invigorate their pioneering skills. Stile Antico, a superb mixed-voice group... are the answer... The singers work without a conductor, achieving ideal balance and intimacy. Seek them out. (Fiona Maddocks, Evening Standard CD of the week, 16.1.08)

Stile Antico’s first disc was rapturously received all around and became a bestseller. The second disc is equally imaginative in programming music of the same period, 16th-century England... This vocal ensemble renders everything in high style, with the acoustics of All Hallows in Gospel Oak blooming in Super Audio surround sound. This disc is another triumph for the new ensemble of young singers. Be sure to hear it, and watch for their next production. (J.F. Weber, Fanfare Magazine, March 2008)

Stile Antico's performances are ideal. For one thing, in music whose key characteristic is its response to text, they articulate the words so clearly that you can understand every word... And they sing the words with the expression the composers intended... an impact rarely matched among Renaissance recordings. The sound is marvellously clear, far beyond the norm for this kind of thing... A top-notch job all around that can be recommended equally to collectors of English choral music and listeners just beginning to understand the style worlds of Renaissance music. (James Manheim, All Music Guide, posted March 2008)

...when the music making is this sublime, give me more! The director-less Stile Antico offers simply stunning performances here; their phrasing and intonation are beyond reproach, and an absolutely stunning multichannel recording is the icing. Not to be missed – very highly recommended! (Tom Gibbs, Audiophile Audition, five stars, 28.2.08)

The ensemble renews the alchemy of its previous disc... its sound, alive and varied, seems made to amplify these intimate moods... (Monde de la musique, April 2008)