Via Crucis

"Thanks principally to Stephen Layton's advocacy, Pawel Lukaszewski's reputation is growing rapidly, and rightly so. All the performers evince an emotional commitment to the content as well as to accurate technical realisation of the music. The purity of sound achieved by Polyphony's sopranos and countertenor Iestyn Davies is notable, so too is Roger Allam's sonorous narration."
(Five Stars BBC Music)

"This string of moments, by turns bright and oppressively dark, dramatic and reflective, receives a performance of the very deepest conviction by Polyphony and the Britten Sinfonia under Stephen Layton, and the recorded sound is wonderful."
(Gramophone)

"This devotional piece, which makes a noble addition to the music of Passiontide, could be seen as a reflection on Pawel Lukaszewski's native Poland and Catholicism's triumph over communism. Whatever its genesis, there is no denying the beauty of the choral writing and the sincerity of faith which lies behind it. Built around the Stations of the Cross, jewel-like recurring refrains, exquisitely sung by Polyphony, give the whole work a ritual power of startling originality."
(The Observer)

Stephen Layton's first disc of Lukaszewski's choral works (CDA67639, The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge) was widely praised by listeners entranced by the composer's unique yet accessible musical language. For this new release Layton and Polyphony, together with the Britten Sinfonia and a team of world-class soloists, have taken on a major work which is destined to become a modern classic in the vein of Taverner's The Veil of the Temple or Pärt's St John Passion. Via Crucis is a dramatization of the Stations of the Cross, a musical reading of this most solemn journey that evolves through its 55-minutes in an arc of culminatory ritual power.