BBC Music Magazine
David Nice
(Excerpts - full review to follow shortly)
"Schnittke's Choir Concerto is one of the most elaborate works with
a tonal basis a choir is ever going to face; and Stephen Layton's Holst
Singers face it boldly, with scrupulous concern for the words."
"Especially impressive is the proselytising zeal of the second-movement
prayer against its unfolding background of 'Alliluyias'. After so many
emotional turning-points, majestically gauged, the fourth-movement epilogue
comes as a decisive benediction."
"This, like so much else on the disc, the Holst Singers tackle with
an almost supernatural accuracy."