Cantillation: Reviews

"Antony Walker's small, expert choral group Cantillation ensures that the Requiem's intimacy is preserved while containing within itself enough vocal resources to make the strong aural spine of the work audible. Walker directs Cantillation with another specially assembled group, Sinfonia Australis, in an eloquent performance that puts more effort into a significant realisation of the score than Fauré reportedly expected.
Fauré's hymn-like Cantique de Jean Racine is a brief and memorable companion piece on this disc. Much more unusual is the inclusion of a little-known cantata by Fauré, his La Naissance de Vénus, composed in 1882 and orchestrated in 1895 with Macliver, Jenny Duck-Chong, Paul McMahon and Rhodes as soloists and Cantillation and Sinfonia Australis in robust collaboration."
Fauré; Requiem CD, ABC Classics - Sydney Morning Herald 01.02

"Antony Walker ... has selected the 1893 version and makes a brilliant case for it. The new small chorus Cantillation was formed under Walker's direction, and his experience with ensembles such as the Sydney Philharmonia and WNO's chorus shows. This is an elegant, highly responsive group of singers whose interaction with one another is immaculate. Sinfonia Australis is another of Walker's babies, formed to work with Cantillation. (Where does he find the time?) The orchestra and soloists soprano Sara Macliver and burnished baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes fairly glow as they impart a quiet, deep-seated spiritual ecstasy. Macliver's slow, pure, translucent Pie Jesu is balm to the soul, the centre from which the other movements rightly radiate. The recording is rich and...the whole enterprise is, if you'll forgive me, heaven on a stick."
Fauré; Requiem CD, ABC Classics - The Australian 12.01

"Antony Walker's new choral group, Cantillation, produced a firmly secure and a core of bright tone, comparing favourably with the work of London choral forces when the first of this year's BBC Prom concerts ended with the same testing music a few weeks ago."
Harmonium SSO - Sydney Morning Herald 8.01

"Offsetting this are the strangely spaced chords which the Taittiriya Brahmana - 'Brahman was the wood, Brahman the tree from which they shaped heaven and earth' (taken superbly by the semi-chorus Cantillation). The performance under Antony Walker of what is clearly a demanding score was scrupulously prepared and accurate, allowing the richness of Butterley's harmony to carry the words with clarity and simple beauty of sound. Baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes and soprano Anke Hoppner were equally strong bringing a cumulative emphasis to their final duet by Henry Vaughan, 'I saw eternity the other night'. But perhaps the most disarming moment was the treble solo by Cantillation member Jane Sheldon with semi-chorus to words by Julian of Norwich: 'He showed me a little thing, small as a hazelnut in the palm of my hand. It is all that is made'. This performance deserves recording and wider circulation."
Butterley; Spell of Creation, Sydney Philharmonia - Sydney Morning Herald 6.01

"Every phrase is rounded in delicate nuance and orchestral timbres selectively deployed for more than just cosmetic decoration. The tenderly edgy piano harmonies and refined drama of the strings establish the underlying, unsettling milieu; and then brass, timpani and choral character are added - magnificently played and sung by Cantillation and Sinfonia Australis - as the score develops. It is a marvellous soundtrack; not merely aural wallpaper decorating the cinematography, but a splendid enjoyment in its own right. Invest in it."
The Bank film score by Alan John (winner of the Australian Guild of Screen Composers' Screen Music Awards 2001) - Urban Cinefile 9.01

" ... John's music for The Bank's outstanding sequence of introductory titles. David Stanhope directs Sinfonia Australis, Cantillation and solo singers in a score that effectively matches and supports filmic pace and mood and develops self-sufficient energy and character." - Sydney Morning Herald 4.02