Polyphony

Polyphony was formed by Stephen Layton in 1986 for a concert in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge.Since then the choir has performed and recorded regularly to critical acclaim throughout the world. Recent reviews declare Polyphony ‘one of the best small choirs now before the public’ (Daily Telegraph) and ‘possibly the best small professional chorus in the world’ (Encore Magazine, USA).

For more than a decade Polyphony has given annual sell-out performances of Bach’s St John Passion and Handel’s Messiah at St John’s Smith Square. These have become notable events in London’s music calendar and have been broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and the EBU. According to the Evening Standard ‘no one but no one performs Handel’s Messiah better every year than the choir Polyphony’, and the Times ‘would rate it among the finest John Passions I have ever heard’. Polyphony will record Bach’s St John Passion in 2012 with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, with soloists including Ian Bostridge, Carolyn Sampson and Iestyn Davies.

Polyphony’s performance highlights include appearances at several BBC Proms, performing repertoire such as Arvo Pärt’s Passio, and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas; regular festival performances, including dates at the Aldeburgh and Cheltenham Festivals, and at the RTE Living Music Festival in Dublin; and numerous première performances including works by John Tavener in honour of his 60th birthday as part of the Barbican’s Great Performers series, and works by Arvo Pärt and Pawel £ukaszewski. Broadcast highlights include performances of works by Poulenc, Rautavaara, Tormis, Britten and Grainger for BBC Radio 3, works by Arvo Pärt for RTE, and an EBU broadcast of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Performances abroad include concerts in France, Spain, Brazil, Denmark and Hungary. Highlights of the 2010/11 season include a performance at the BBC Proms with the City of London Sinfonia and several appearances at ‘Voices Now’ a new vocal festival at the Roundhouse, London.

Polyphony’s extensive discography on the Hyperion label encompasses works by Britten, Bruckner, Cornelius, Grainger, Grieg, Jackson, Lauridsen, £ukaszewski, MacMillan, Pärt, Poulenc, Rutter, Tavener, Walton, and Whitacre. The disc of Britten, Sacred and Profane, won a Gramophone Award and a Diapason d’Or in 2001, and the choir’s première recording of works by Arvo Pärt, Triodion, was Best of Category (Choral) at the 2004 Gramophone Awards. Polyphony also received Gramophone Award nominations in 2002 for the Walton CD, and in 2008 for Poulenc’s Gloria, described by Gramophone Magazine as ‘a performance of real distinction … simply incredible’.

In the USA, Polyphony’s recordings have twice been nominated for Grammy Awards: in 2006 for Lux aeterna, a disc of works by Morten Lauridsen, and in 2007 for a disc of works by Eric Whitacre, Cloudburst. This ‘staggering disc’ (BBC Radio 3) spent more than fifty weeks in the Billboard Classical Album Chart, and has been hailed by the Times as ‘extraordinarily beautiful’, by CNN as ‘outstanding’, and by Classic FM Magazine as ‘unmissable’.

Polyphony’s latest disc is Handel’s Messiah, recorded live at the 2008 performances at St John’s Smith Square, and released last month to critical acclaim. Reviewing the disc, Gramophone magazine highlights ‘the technical and communicative qualities of Polyphony’s exceptional singing of the choruses’, and, naming the disc Editor’s Choice, and one of the 50 best recordings of the year, Classic FM magazine concludes ‘there are few finer exponents of this great oratorio than Polyphony and Stephen Layton … if you only listen to one Messiah this Christmas, Stephen Layton and Polyphony’s live recording should be it’. Polyphony’s next release will be in early 2011 and will be a disc of Eriks Esenvalds works with Carolyn Sampson and Britten Sinfonia.

Conductor Stephen Layton succeeded Richard Hickox as Artistic Director and Principle Guest Conductor of the City of London Sinfonia in September 2010. He is also Chief Guest Conductor of the Danish National Vocal Ensemble, Music Director of Holst Singers and in 2006 was made a Fellow and Director of Music of Trinity College, Cambridge. Layton guest conducts widely has worked extensively with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Singers, English Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.


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Email: Sarah Trelawny