| Reviews
Mass in Blue, with Kingfisher Chorale
Fraser Noble Hall, Leicester
"A vibrant and stylish Mass in Blue... The rapturous
soprano solos were brilliantly realised by Bethany Halliday"
XNeil Crutchley, Leicester Mercury,
4th March 2008
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Bethany Halliday and the Will Todd Jazz Trio |
| Carmina Burana and Mass
in Blue with Britten Pears Chamber Choir
Snape Maltings Concert Hall
'The most astonishing performance of the evening came
from Bethany Halliday, a fine conventional singer with many
operatic roles to her credit, but who crosses over into the
jazz idiom with remarkable conviction as a kind of latter-day
Cleo Lane'
xPeter Dickinson, The Aldeburgh
Gazette, 22nd February 2008
Mass in Blue - recording on Signum Classics
'...Soprano Bethany Halliday is a remarkably versatile
musician, lending her operatic full tone to this more laidback
and loose idiom in her entries over the choir...
'...There's an irresistible gospel approach to the
Credo, which is led with panache by Halliday...
'...Halliday once more helps lead the way, her vocals
showing great flexibility of range...'
- MusicOMH.com,
September 2006 - Read
entire review
'The Mass is a substantial piece in which Ms Halliday...
turns her Lamborghini of a voice loose on the music. She croons,
sways and erupts, encompassing the range from metropolitan
cool, foot-tapping Ella to the pyroclastic flow and blast
of Mahalia Jackson (an early influence). She is heard at full
tilt in the pyrotechnics of Credo. Things cool and return
closer to classical comfort - say Poulenc - in the Sanctus.
Even so it is mesmerisingly tugged by Todd's smoochily relaxed
piano and smilingly discreet riffs of the band and drumkit.
After a steady then sprinting Benedictus comes the final Agnus
Dei which opens, as does the whole work, with Todd's bluesy
solo piano. Halliday anoints the celebration with a meditative
bluesy melisma that accelerates into the final three minutes.
The Credo returns and the blue touch paper is lit for a ferment
of jazz pyrotechnics.'
- Rob Barnett, Classical
Music Web International, October 2006
' Todd is well served by the brass, reed and rhythm ensemble
that joins the Vasari Singers for the Mass, and soprano Bethany
Halliday solos with conviction.'
- Barry Witherden, The Gramophone,
September 2006
'Wow, I know, leaves you speechless doesn't it! Follow
that!
' Jamming away there were the Vasari Singers, with Soprano
Bethany Halliday, fabulous voice, in the final movement, the
agnus dei, from Will Todd's Mass in Blue.'
- Aled Jones, The Choir,
BBC Radio 3, 10th September 2006
'The Gloria has a simple plainchant opening before the
voice of the soprano soloist floats apparently effortlessly
above the ensemble.'
- Serena Fenwick, musicalpointers.co.uk
September 2006
Mass in Blue
'The Mass also uses a soloist, soprano Bethany Halliday,
whose creamy voice shines especially in the Agnus Dei, and
she more than holds her own in her improvisatory expertise.'
- Stephen Eddins, All Music
Guide, December 2006
'...The choir rose to the occasion with a terrific performance,
vigorously conduced by Justin Doyle, while soprano Bethany
Halliday, normally an operatic singer, was superb both in
her solo pieces and whilst her voice soared above the choir
in soulful passages. She also looked fabulous, in an astonishing
creation from purveyors of “special maternity clothes
for special occasions” by the name of doesmytumlookbiginthis.com!'
- Bucks Herald, November
16th 2005
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