St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York
“The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue on Friday, confirmed what many listeners think they know about the British choral tradition, but then gave listeners other things to think about too. The 30 men and boys led by Stephen Cleobury were scrupulously prepared, well tuned and musically alert.
Treble voices gave off a deep, full color a little at odds with the cliché of thin, white-light British choirboy tone. Noticeable to the ear as well as the eye was how young all these choristers seemed, even the tenors and basses. Singers just past or at the end of their teenage years had the tough sound of bodies not quite filled out; the tone, if a little raw, was also appealingly fresh.”
New York Times, April 2008
I Heard A Voice/EMI Classics
The Choir of King's College, Cambridge has been an EMI mainstay for many years, and Stephen Cleobury has admirably kept the torches held very, very high.
Audiophile Audition, December 2007
"The programme begins and ends in splendour. Weelkes's anthem Alleluia, I heard a voice is a dramatic setting of a visionary text from Revelation; the final item, Tomkins's O sing unto the Lord culminates in a sequence of "Alleluias" so that the recital comes round full circle...The famous choir sings with full-bodied tone and unfailing precision."
Gramophone, December 2007
York Early Music Festival
"For half a century or more, "King's" has meant only one thing in musical circles: the choir of King's College, Cambridge. But when it ventures out of Cambridge, it is more likely to be found overseas than at home. So its visit on Thursday promised something rich and rare. It delivered on both counts."
The Press, Yorkshire, July 2007
Lufthansa Festival
"For a festival that boasts Rolls-Royce as its principal sponsor there could be no more appropriate opening act than the Choir of King's College, Cambridge.
King's has always been the sleekest, most flawless of the Anglican collegiate choirs and under Stephen Cleobury they brought immaculate voicing and seamless phrasing to this programme of Spanish and English Renaissance music."
Evening Standard, May 2007
Brahms's Requiem / EMI Classics
"The choral component is superbly sung and beautifully balanced, Stephen Cleobury directing the King's College voices with an unerring sense of long line and the sustained building of paragraphs.... a triumph"
BBC Music Magazine, November 2006
LSO / Paavo Jarvi / Mahler Symphony No.3
"…the boys of King's College Choir, Cambridge ... sounded bright and fresh."
Financial Times, June 2006
Music for Queen Mary / EMI Classics
“the music he wrote for Queen Mary’s funeral in 1695 transcends everything else. Has there ever been such music for drums? It strikes into the soul, as do the Sentences and the anthem ‘Though knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts.’ And Kings know the secrets of this music.”
The Daily Telegraph, April 2006
“In the repertoire on this new disc... Cleobury, King’s College, and the AAM prove currently unbeatable.”
BBC Music Magazine, May 2006
On Christmas Day Recording / EMI Classics
“When it comes to Christmas commissions…, the palm goes to Stephen Cleobury, who had the excellent idea, on his appointment as the Organist of King’s College, Cambridge, of commissioning a carol each year for the famous Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols…The Iist reads like a Who’s Who of English composers,,”
Gramophone, January 2006
“This is the one unmissable seasonal issue this Christmas.”
BBC Magazine, December 2005
“The diversity of texts and musical language in the carols is stimulating, the choir’s performance of them exceptional.”
The Daily Telegraph, December 2005
King’s at Christmas Concert / St. John’s Smith Square
“ If ever there is such thing as a collective choral tear in the voice, King’s produced one for Howell’s carols…The Bruckner miniature was exquisitely shaped and resoundlingly fervent.”
“Tavener’s much-loved..Little Lamb, emerged from a magical aural haze, and it was followed up by equally ardent renditions of The Annunciation and Hymn for the Dormition of the Mother of God. “
The Times, December 2005
Christmas Tour of The USA / Church Of St. Ignatius Loyola, New York
“In Poulenc’s Four Christmas Motets..the unaccompanied choir sang with its trademark impeccable
pitch, luminous sound and unmannered directness…It was affecting to hear the sweet voices of these
angelic little choristers as they grappled so gamely with the complex canons and stark imagery of
spiritual battles in one agitated hymn from Britten’s work ‘The Little Babe’.
New York Times, December 2004
Frank, Poulenc And Alain Recording / EMI Classics
“...a day of three very different choral offerings, and the eloquence with which each is delivered is a
fine testimony to the musicianship of Cleobury and his boys.”
Gramophone, October 2004
Rachmaninov’s Liturgy Of St John Chrysostom Recording On EMI Classics
“The men sound much deeper and richer than one would expect, but then under Stephen Cleobury’s masterful direction the entire choir manages to shake off its Anglican constraints without losing its famous precision to give a limpid performance full of peaceful introspection.”
BBC Music Magazine, June 2004
“Anyone at King’s College choir’s recent performance of this work in St John’s, Smith Square will have heard the spine-tingling effect of handing the soprano line to boy’s voices – especially trebles as well-drilled as Stephen Cleobury’s Cambridge protégés…A mighty contribution to the catalogue, benefiting hugely from the lofty acoustic of King’s College Chapel.”
The Observer, March 2004
Robin Holloway, Brahms, Cornelius & Wolf / Cambridge Music Festival
“I would happily sit in King’s College Chapel listening to this choir sing for the rest of my days.”
The Times, November 2003
Stabat Mater Recording/ Domenico Scarlatti, EMI Classics
“Austere but elevating, this is church music at its most resplendent, a spring reminder that King’s isn’t just for Christmas.”
The Observer, May 2003