These are vibrant performances, suitably varied in colour, nicely paced, and recorded with superb clarity. That is to say that The Sixteen continue to explore the astonishing riches of the Eton Choirbook with undiminished enthusiasm and imagination. It would be easy enough for the musicians, like the reviewer, to feel a touch weary at ‘Volume 5’ of an ongoing series, but each piece here is treated with fresh intensity.
The special spice in this particular issue is in the two works by John Plummer, that strangely individual composer who treated harmonic stillness more boldly than any other of his generation. Quite what the pieces are doing here, I am not sure: he had nothing to do with Eton, and his music must be a good 40 years earlier than anything in the Eton Choirbook. But it makes a nice contrast and contains a few hints of the kinds of floridity you get in the Eton repertory; moreover it has a direct expressive mood that comes across very well in these well-judged performances.
Walter Lambe’s Salve regina seems to be among the earlier works in the Eton Choirbook; it has a neatly wayward fantasy in its lovely textures. Rather less individual is the single surviving work of William Stratford, undated and probably undatable; but it is well composed and its invention never fails. Even so, the truly fascinating works here are – once again – those of Richard Davy. You could think that his enormous In honore summae matris occasionally rambles, at over 15 minutes; and there are moments when even the patent virtuosity of The Sixteen seems challenged by the intricate floridity of the passages entirely for lower voices; but there seems no limit to the range of ideas and textures that Davy has at his disposal. His are unquestionably pieces that grow in stature on repeated listening. Nobody is likely to be disappointed by this new instalment.'