News & Reviews

Music on Christmas Morning – MusicWeb International

I well remember reviewing an excellent Christmas disc, ‘Noël nouvelet’ by Jeremy Backhouse and the Vasari Singers, not least because I have probably played the disc at least once every Christmas since then. Nonetheless, it came as a bit of a shock to look back and discover that the disc […]

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Music on Christmas Morning – John Rutter

A selection of comments made by John Rutter in conversation with Andrew McGregor, on BBC Radio 3’s Record Review programme on Saturday 23 December 2023. Music on Christmas Morning is a delightful mix of old and new, familiar and unfamiliar. You would certainly enjoy it as you’re preparing your Christmas […]

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Five Mystical Songs CD Review – BBC Music Magazine

For many listeners the main attraction will be baritone Roderick Williams’s take on Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs, in a new version for organ accompaniment by Martin Ford. Williams is in sovereign form, noble and resonant in the opening ‘Easter’, plangent and intimate in ‘I Got Me Flowers’. In ‘The […]

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Five Mystical Songs CD Review – Roderick Williams

I’ve always enjoyed singing alongside the Vasari Singers ever since I was part of the team when they won BBC Choir of the Year. Friends that I made in the choir at that time, when I was just starting out on the London singing scene in the early 1990s, have […]

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Five Mystical Songs CD Review – MusicWeb International

I was delighted to receive this new CD from the Vasari Singers because I’ve admired a good number of their releases in the past. Though their recorded repertoire is wide, they’ve consistently demonstrated a propensity for British music, as is the case here. There are some very welcome selections in […]

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[VIDEO] 40th birthday video – Live with me and be my love (George Shearing)

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[VIDEO] Heaven full of Stars CD Livestream Launch event

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[VIDEO] Philip Stopford Ave Maria film

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[VIDEO] arr. Ben Parry: Jingle Bells (with wine!)

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[VIDEO] Carol medley arr. Jonathan Rathbone

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© Jeremy Backhouse