2007 and 2008 reviews
Fleet Street comes to CEFC, 13 December 2008
Read the choir’s profile piece in The Times, here.
Royal Albert Hall - BBC Proms, 31 August 08
“Crouch End Festival Chorus is probably the best amateur shout in town and the four soloists in Verdi’s Requiem are world-class. … Cancel the holiday”
Preview: 25 must-see Proms.
Fiona Maddocks in the Evening Standard
“the choral singing was breathtaking in its dignity and beauty”
Tim Ashley in the Guardian
“Anchored by… the chorus’s responsive and expressive singing, it was a powerful performance”
Anna Picard in the Independent
Barbican, 6 July 08
“a classic… one of their most stunning, subtle and full-blown performances ever”
David Winskill in the Ham and High
St Michael’s Highgate, 19 April 08
“This is an amazing concert they are all singing at the same time, they have made me like Philip Glass and the organ. It was great. Choir 5 were best. They were dressed beautiful and black. They made a great progress. It was good seeing all the different types of hair. Second half: It was very low, it was loud too. It was like half it was beautiful singing. There were very few popular words. The only football word was Chelsea [Excelsis?]. They had to do a lot of breath before they sung beautiful voices too! Even Ray Davies was there. There was a sign saying ‘Easter, Psalm 5′. A singer went to sleep. Twice there was only one person singing.”
Joseph (aged 6)
“Over the past 20 years, the Crouch End Festival Chorus, led by conductor David Temple, have established themselves as one of the most eminent and in-demand large choirs in the UK. … Now they are superstars, it was a treat to be able to see them perform on home turf in Highgate Village.
“… A highlight was Thomas Tallis’s haunting Spem in Alium - sung in ’surround sound’, by having sections of the choir positioned in different parts of the church, including in the galleries, to create a magical effect.
“… If you’ve never seen Crouch End Festival Chorus in action, make sure you do next time they’re in town.”
Tony Allcock in the Muswell Hill Journal
BBC Electric Proms, October 07
“…most fabulously, Crouch End Festival Chorus added a divine dimension to Days, Waterloo Sunset and Shangri-La (performed here live, Davies said, for the first time). Lovely, lovely, lovely. As the Chorus’s voices soared behind him, Ray Davies looked like a very proud man indeed.”
David Cheal in the Daily Telegraph
“Crouch End Festival Chorus - described as “singing angels” - added their heavenly voices to brilliant reworkings of Dedicated Follower of Fashion and Days.”
André Paine in the Evening Standard
“one of those genuine ‘new music moments’ (which the Electric Proms is supposed to be all about) when the Crouch End Festival Chorus, no less, participates in four songs. These include the first live performance of Shangri-La and a hauntingly beautiful version of Waterloo Sunset, probably the highlight of the evening.”
MusicOMH.com