“… his [Wilson] primary agenda is to showcase the dazzling brilliance of his hand-picked ensemble. The piece that benefits most is Arthur Bliss’s Music for Strings (1935), a work of symphonic proportions on three movements. Of all these composers, Bliss writes the thickest string textures. As a result, his music can become weighed down in a heavy-handed or lethargic reading. Wilson’s separates the important lines, clarifies textures, and sharply points rhythmic motifs… Wilson’s fresh, bracing performance in up-to-date sound is most welcome.”

Nominee in the Orchestral category

“It’s rare that a recording for strings alone wows listeners as a sonic blockbuster, but I celebrate this one from its first plucked, throbbing filigree-laced chords… one of the most beautiful string programs I have yet encountered.”

“… Both the performances and conducting are uniformly excellent. A lot of the music sounds like it’d be fun to play, but would still demand first-rate players. All of it shows an exceptional range of string colors and textures molded to expressive needs. The Sinfonia has precise ensemble, accurate pitch, and sensitive phrasing. They play with elan and in many passages depth, with a sound that’s at once strong and transparent. There are other recordings of these pieces – over 30 of the Britten – but this one still stands out.”

“…This is one of those rare occasions when the body, weight and beauty of sound generated by the Sinfonia of London can be said to have been fully realised by the recording team. And for sheer range of character and expression, John Wilson rivals even Britten’s account [Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge] with the ECO …”

“John Wilson continues his fine series of recordings on the Chandos label with this superb SACD of English string music… The recordings were made London's Church of St. Augustine, Kiburn, and the Chandos engineers have, as usual, done their work to perfection; the rich sounds of the hand-picked Sinfonia of London convey string virtuosity at its best.”

“… The instruments seem closer than in many Chandos productions yet the sound team manage to convey the church acoustic superbly..” ****½

“…If the intention was to pull off a showpiece disc, he could hardly have planned it better… This is the most exhilarating of recordings, arguably the first to rival Britten’s own. The “Aria Italiana” hurtles along at breakneck speed. The “Wiener Walzer” spins on its heels with insouciant abandon. The performances have brilliance to burn… The concluding Music for Strings by Arthur Bliss, which premiered at the Salzburg Festival in 1935, is a superbly wrought piece, delivered with the panache that is a trademark of the whole disc. *****

“…Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (1937), with its poise, angularity and gleam, receives a virtuosic performance from this ace ensemble. The influence of Britten spills lightly into Lennox Berkeley’s lovely Serenade for Strings (1938-39), a work that travels from vivacity to urgent sorrow. In his Music for Strings (1935), Arthur Bliss explores all the colours and possibilities of the string orchestra, requiring playing of immense technical flair, beautifully delivered here, the resonance of the recording venue, St Augustine’s, Kilburn, adding sonic bloom…”

“… the playing [Britten’s Frank Bridge  Variations] is fabulous and white-hot and there is also a palpable/exhilarating pioneering spirit on behalf of the music, suggesting that Britten’s youthful and fecund imagination was simply too quick for the speed of his pen… At the other end of the disc is Sir Arthur Bliss’s contemporaneous Music for Strings … Wilson and the Sinfonia do it proud – fiery, passionate, rhythmically adroit, peering into its expressive crevices, not least in the attacca slow movement (which is beautifully prepared for by Wilson and his players), heartfelt and ecstatic, a glowing moonlit evocation. The Finale strides with purpose to a dazzling conclusion. Between these masterworks are Frank Bridge’s own Lament (1915) – shadowy and inner-feeling-eloquent – and Sir Lennox Berkeley’s four-movement Serenade (1939), delightfully open-air and sweetly lyrically music, soulful too, and consummately composed…”

“… In typically impressive Chandos surround sound, Wilson has the full measure of both the familiar and unfamiliar pieces here. Of the former, Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge receives what is unquestionably its finest performance in years, its rigorous intellectual underpinnings and fiercely exhilarating string writing being in perfect accord. But while the Britten is the pièce de résistance of this disc, the other items on display here are equally cherishable, including a work that will be new to many: Bliss’s Music for Stings. That composer is yet to be entirely rescued from the neglect that followed his death, but performances such as this will place Bliss where he belongs: in the upper echelons of English composers.”

“…Scintillating string playing, somehow both lush and with real immediacy, Wilson drawing razor-sharp responses from this crack team of players. You can hear so much detail in the beautifully made recording as well – you feel the bows on the strings, the rich bass….it’s brilliant …”

“This enterprising album of English music for strings from the 1930s embraces some of the finest string playing ever put on disc by a British orchestra…” *****