Robert Wylkynson: Courts Of Heaven: Music From The Eton Choirbook – The Choir Of Christ Church Cathedral

   in Early Music Today (Dec, 2014)
A magnificent addition to the Christ Church Cathedral Choir’s already outstanding Eton Choirbook series. With the tiniest of reservations that at times the otherwise immaculate trebles lack clearly defined vowel colour, this is singing of the richest splendour. The choir contains a quota of professional singers and (without denigrating the undergraduate membership) this is maybe the key to that richness, especially in the lower voices who supply such a rock-like foundation to the sound.

The acoustic (Merton College Chapel in Oxford) could hardly be more appropriate for the soaring lines, offering heavenly resonance but with no muddying of texture. (Let praise nonetheless be offered to sound engineer Simon Fox-Gal.) This is …