“The performance by Ex Cathedra was superb… Throughout the performance I was greatly impressed by the discipline of the choir, not least in terms of dynamic contrasts. The soft singing was suitably hushed yet always tonally firm and when the singers delivered the open-throated climaxes these were thrillingly voiced, the sound of the choir flooding the nave. Rachmaninov uses two soloists. Martha McLorinan gave a highly expressive account of the solo in the second movement (‘Bless the Lord, O my soul’). Her tender singing was cushioned on a bed of hushed, sensitive singing by the rest of the choir. The tenor soloist, James Robinson was equally impressive…Even for a choir of this level of accomplishment, the challenges posed by the requirement to sing complex and difficult unaccompanied music for more than an hour should not be underestimated. However, this group of singers were more than equal to the task. They gave us a technically assured, idiomatic and memorable performance of Rachmaninov’s masterpiece.”

Read the full review here.