Nicholas Anderson has reviewed our CD ‘Pachelbel and Bach’ for International Record Review.

… What is certainly achieved here is an admirable translucency which is present in both the vocal and instrumental strands. Perhaps what I am enjoying even more than anything else, though, is mezzo Sally Bruce-Payne’s beautiful performance of ‘Widerstehe doch der Sünde’. Hers is a wonderful Bach voice, admirably controlled, warmly coloured and fervently expressive. I like also her discreet and restrained ornaments.

The three instrumental items fare comparably well. The Canon is far removed from the Mantovani string sound by which it is generally encountered today, but the incisive, animated account by the Bach Players breathes much-needed new life into the old fellow. Readers as yet unfamiliar with Pachelbel’s six ‘Parties’ or suites have pleasures a-plenty awaiting them. These are delightful works which are all too seldom heard. Bach’s 14 Canons are performed with lively intimacy in an arrangement by Silas Wollston, the organist and harpsichordist of The Bach Players, who also has incorporated the jolly Quodlibet from the Goldberg Variations, a good idea. Wollston has further contributed an informative note on his process of arrangement.

In short, a stimulating release, thoughtfully compiled and executed with stylish aplomb.

International Record Review, June 2012