Taverner: Missa Corona spinea

BBC Music Magazine Award Finalist 2016 - Choral

"The Mass requires singers of the highest calibre and the Scholars rise magnificently to the challenge - both literally and figuratively speaking. The sopranos sing with razor-sharp precision, producing a remarkably boyish sound…while the lower voices are fluid and sure. Ensemble is balanced and textures are sheer, even in the most sumptuous polyphony…The Sixteen's account remains a classic but it is hard to imagine a more radiant and uplifting performance than this new one" (BBC Music)

"Here they present one of the repertoire's most challenging works, John Taverner's mass for the Feast of the Crown of Thorns, probably commissioned by Cardinal Wolsey to show off his chapel choir's particularly fine trebles. They must have been impressive, judging by the dizzyingly high and virtuosic singing of Janet Coxwell and Amy Haworth, who often hover a full angelic octave above the part below." (The Guardian Five Stars)

"the real glory of this recording is the sopranos. They sing Taverner's stratospheric high voice parts with truly staggering perfection. If they don't persuade sceptics that women can actually sing Tudor polyphony better than boys, then nothing will" (Daily Telegraph)