There’s probably no better-known vocal sextet in the world than the King’s Singers, six gentlemen from Cambridge who have been entertaining audiences everywhere for something like three decades. Although their live performances normally feature a big segment of light music, this CD consists entirely of serious repertoire.

That isn’t to say that it’s particularly grave or solemn. Aside from the "landscape and time" theme. its common denominator is the exquisite execution of 11 beautiful pieces. Familiar composers like Kodaly and Sibelius are represented, but the most memorable items are John McCabe’s Scenes in America Deserta and Peter Maxwell Davies’ House of Winter. Another highlight is a set of four psalm settings by the composer Cyrillus Kreek."

Rated Excellent

and the anthology can be highly recommended to enthusiasts of The King’s Singers, of contemporary music and choral music in general, alike."

Ivan Moody

As the title suggests, the works here share a double theme. All eight evoke landscapes of varying types, from the wide-open, multicoloured desert of the south-western USA (McCabe) to the ancient vistas derived from Japan (Jackson Hill) and Finnish literature (Sibelius), from folklore (Kreek and Kodaly) to Walter Raleigh’s jail cell as he awaits execution (Chilcott)

Five of the works are commissions by the King’s Singers, so unsurprisingly they prove well suited to their impeccably manicured vocal blend, enchanting the ear from first to last note. The McCabe and Maxwell Davies are the oldest, both from 1986. Although the innocent ear might be hard-pressed to identify the composers, they are both typical products of their creators’ expressive missions, satisfying to hear and challenging to sing, especially McCabe’s with its kaleidoscopic range of tonal colours. No less beautiful is Richard Rodney Bennett’s The Seasons of his Mercies (setting Donne in 1992), part of a larger cycle, as are Jackson Hill’s vibrantly oriental Remembered Love (2005), party of a diptych setting words by the 7th-century poet Hirotamo, and former group-member Bob Chilcott’s Even such is time (1993). A pity at least one of these could not have been given in full: there is room enough.

It may seem strange to hear Rakastava sung by such a small ensemble but the performance is vivid and beautifully balanced. So, too, are Kodaly’s brief Evening Song and the four Psalms of David set in his native Estonian by Cyrillus Kreek, from whom Part and Tormis learnt much. Signum’s sound is warm and close but the acoustic of St. Andrew’s Toddington gives the music room to breathe."

Guy Rickards

Words and music weave together to evoke reflections of place and memory in this album, its programme elegantly constructed and beautifully performed by the King’s Singers. The best of these fine pieces, of which Bennett’s The Seasons of His Mercies and Maxwell Davies’s House of Winter take precedence, echo unconscious experiences of being in time and space. Estonian composer Cyrillus Kreek, in his Psalms of David, provides a direct, folk-built bridge between western and eastern notions of time’s passing, paving the way for Jackson hill’s sensitive exploration of occidental and oriental cultures, Remembered Love." ****

Andrew Stewart

Performance ***** - Sound *****

"The King’s Singers are approaching their 40th birthday and, perhaps because they have so stubbornly (at times irritatingly) mixed frivolity and seriousness in their performances down the years, are too easily dismissed or taken for granted.

This new CD is entirely ’serious’ in tone, and a timely reminder of the stunningly high musical standards the Singers bring to bear in this kind of unaccompanied vocal repertoire. Half the content is comprised of works that they themselves have commissioned, including John McCabe’s Scenes in America Deserta, a sequence of linked tableaux spanning fifteen minutes. Upward and downward glissandos, quasi-Sprechgesang pitching, and perilously exposed end-of-line consonants, among other things, are all demanded, and delivered with jaw-dropping levels of accuracy and interpretive commitment.

Peter Maxwell Davies’s ‘House of Winter’ (another KS commission) sketches an ice-touched Orkney landscape, its atmosphere distilled in restrained dynamics and strange, other-worldly (and often very difficult) intervals. Pieces by Richard Rodney Bennett, Cyrillus Kreek, Jackson Hill, Sibelius and Kodály also feature, with the brief Sir Walter Raleigh setting ‘Even such is time’ by Bob Chilcott (a KS alumnus) poignantly rounding off the recital. Singing of rare distinction, outstanding in its tonal blend of controlled vibrato."

Andrew Clements