FCMG London Children’s Choir - Reviews
Entertaining but not in the least didactic, the work presented challenges such as FCMG responded to with gusto, and deserves to be taken up by enterprising junior choirs everywhere. Suffice to add that Grace Rossiter secured a convincing first performance ... a fine testament to what this choir has achieved during the first fifty years of its existence, and to what can be expected from its next half-century.
classicalsource.com, July 2008
The young Finchley Children's Music Group sat patiently through the second half waiting for their moment towards the end in Margarita's Apotheosis. They were well up to the standard of the professional musicians with perfect timing, clear French, and a lovely tone. Their two soloists were rightly brought down to the front of the stage at the end to share the applause given to the adults.
Intermezzo, September 2007
The Finchley Children's Music Group made Margarita's Apotheosis a spellbinding end to the evening, the two young soloists belying their years with powerful projection, beautiful tone and idiomatic French.
Dominic McHugh, on MusicalCriticism.com. September 2007
The young singers from Finchley added angelic timbres...
Colin Anderson on ClassicalSource.com, September 2007
... Clarity of diction ... impressive vocal resources ... purity of tone ... In a phrase: Finchley Children’s Magnificent Group.
David Sonin, Ham & High, 23rd June 2006
I can heartily recommend the charm and extraordinary accomplishments of the Finchley Children’s Music Group and conductor Grace Rossiter on Bethlehem Down (Naxos). With just a piano for accompaniment (John Evanson) this unhackneyed selection of 22 carols (Britten, Warlock, Holst, Head, trad. And others) might sound like an extended end-of-term concert for proud parents, except the singing is of a standard that few schools could equal: graceful, refined, spontaneous and impeccably prepared. I was truly impressed, not least because proceeds from the sales of the disc will go to the children’s charity HOPE.
Jeremy Nicholas, The Gramophone, Jan 2005
The standard of music making is outstanding. Tuning is immaculate, attack is unanimous and convincing, the words are clear and the overall sound of the group is sweet and homogeneous.
William Hedley, MUSICWEB International, Jan 2005
Save your pennies for our last, admirable, CD. It comes from the Finchley Children’s Music Group with their director Grace Rossiter. They sing like happy, well-adjusted kids, and (praise the Lord) not a sailor suit for miles. What a relief to have a carol disc with good old piano accompaniment, rather than the constant assault of chime bars, harp glissandos and oboe descants. Not the least of this disc’s charms is that any money it makes goes to Hope, a charity for children in developing countries. Lots of favourite carols are here: Bethlehem Down, Deck the Hall, The Holly and the Ivy, all snuggled up to a few new tunes. And Philip Langridge makes a celebrity guest appearance with the choir, too, giving his services to this excellent cause. It’s a refreshing, unpretentious disc, this, with a smile on its face.
Iain Burnside, BBC Radio 3 CD Review, 18 December 2004
The Finchley Children’s Music Group is one of the finest kids’ choirs around. Its discipline and blend are superb. The selection of carols is unusually appealing, too, including such pieces as Britten’s The Birds and King Herod and the Cock, five carols by Holst, Peter Warlock’s beautiful Bethlehem Down. John Evanson accompanies deftly on piano and organ, and star tenor Philip Langridge makes a guest appearance.
Stephen Pettitt, Evening Standard, 17th December 2004
Naxos' Bethlehem Down is a gem - 22 Yuletide songs and carols, written by names including Britten, Holst and Warlock and sung by the Finchley Children's Music Group.
The whole disc is kept remarkably free of that flutey choirboy sound that has always forced me to maintain an emotional distance from so much Anglican church music.
The soloists are unaffected and natural, the a cappella work is clear, and Holst's striding Salvator mundi natus est vies with a calypso-styled De Virgin Mary had a baby boy to be the album's toe-tapper.
The Christmas bonus, apart from Naxos' budget price, is tenor Philip Langridge guesting on Sussex Carol, gracefully arranged by the choir's conductor Grace Rossiter.
The New Zealand Herald, 15th December 2004
The Christmas crop of CDs has yielded several compilations of carols that stray imaginatively off the beaten track. The Finchley Children’s Music Group, closely associated with the music of Benjamin Britten ever since the choir gave the first performance of Noye’s Fludde in 1958, includes three of his charming Christmas miniatures on a disc called Bethlehem Down (Naxos 8.557581). The title comes from Warlock’s famous lullaby, which forms a centrepiece of 22 tracks ranging from Holst to Patrick Hadley, with arrangements by John Rutter (“Deck the Hall”, “The Holly and the Ivy”) and by the choir’s conductor, Grace Rossiter, whose versions of the English “Sussex Carol” and Basque “The Angel Gabriel” make effective use of soloists. The mix is both contemplative and joyous, the young voices well projected and co-ordinated, while keeping their freshness, spontaneity and sense of seasonal wonder.
Geoffrey Norris, The Daily Telegraph review of Bethlehem Down, Saturday 4th December 2004
Another choir closely associated with Britten, the Finchley Children's Music Group (FCMG), have their own Christmas CD, BETHLEHEM DOWN, on Naxos. Three Britten items (all unison) feature, 'The Birds', 'Corpus Christi Carol' and the lusty 'King Herod and the Cock'. All three are characterised by the choir's trademark freshness of timbre and clear, natural enunciation. The choice of repertoire is also excellent, consistently eschewing the obvious Yuletide choices in favour of such lesser know gems as Patrick Hadley's 'I Sing of a Maiden' and, of course, Peter Warlock's 'Bethlehem Down'. There is also a central sequence of four Holst settings, three featuring solo voices, most notably 'Jesu, Thou the Virgin-born', which has four soloists. Grace Rossiter, herself an FCMG alumna, directs alert and sensitive performances, and the CD is sold in aid of the HOPE children's charity.
Terry Blain, BBC Music Magazine review of Bethlehem Down, December 2004
...this was a magnificent War Requiem: beautifully delivered by the London Symphony Chorus and Finchley Children's Music Group...
Independent on Sunday 8th August 2004
Three cheers for the Finchley Children's Music Group
Review of Britten War Requiem in The Times, 3rd August 2004
...alert, pure-toned Finchley Children's Music Group...
Evening Standard, 2nd August 2004
Finchley Children's Music Group were crisp and clear, the mixed voices preferably to a boys only chorus.
The Organ, review of 2004 Proms
However, Finchley Children’s Music Group were totally in tune with Mahler’s sound world, giving this movement a sense of joy, wonder, innocence and mystery.
Review of Mahler Symphony No.8, Classical Music on the Web
FCMG perform one of the supreme classics for children and does so with exhilaration and touching insights
Sunday Telegraph
Neeme Järvi conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Chorus and Finchley Children's Music Group in a delightful and moving performance of Nielsen's Springtime on Funen, a pleasant evocation of spring days in the country with a gently Calvinist reminder of the presence of death in the background.
Concertonet.com
A most attractive concert
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