Rarely can the ''Choral Dances'' from Gloriana have danced with such delicacy as they do here. Ian Partridge displays all his characteristic clarity of diction and lightness of tone, while The Sixteen match him with some outstandingly nimble singing. Their tautness of ensemble and complete control ensure an invigorating account of the notoriously accident-prone fifth dance (''Rustics and Fishermen''), while ''Concord'' has a warmth and richness which seems almost to come from another world. But when it comes to deft choral footwork, nothing can match the central verse (''I cannot grow'') of the Hymn to St Cecilia. In this, the last of his collaborations with W. H. Auden, Britten produced some of his most compelling writing for unaccompanied chorus, and the combination of The Sixteen's vocal dexterity and Harry Christophers's ideally chosen speeds gives it all an incisiveness which calls vividly to mind the character of a string orchestra.
In fact all the works on this disc seem to show Britten attempting to re-create instrumental textures and characteristics in his choral writing, nowhere more so than in the earliest works recorded here, A Boy was Born. Combining boys' and women's voices (perhaps after the notion of contrasting muted and unmuted violins) might seem to be courting serious musical problems, but while the boys of St Paul's Cathedral sing with a strong cutting edge (not so much the continental tone which Britten so admired when he heard George Malcolm's Westminster Cathedral choristers, but more a necessary tool to slice through the acoustic of their home cathedral) it certainly doesn't jar beside the pure-toned female voices from The Sixteen. Here is a performance which works to extraordinary effect. It's only a shame that the recording of this last piece (I assume it was made at a different location from the rest of the programme) seems a little subdued and blurred around the edges.'