Stile Antico’s recent nine-concert tour of the States, with a quick hop into Canada, has earned the ensemble rave reviews from the likes of the New York Times, Boston Globe and the Vancouver Sun. With concerts in Seattle, Vancouver, Ann Arbor, Milwaukee, Davidson, Richmond, Durham, Boston and New York, Stile Antico performed their Puer natus est Christmas programme bringing ‘welcome light’ to the darkest time of the year (Richmond Times-Dispatch).
Following Stile Antico’s fourth performance at the Boston Early Music Festival, the Boston Globe hailed that ‘Stile Antico makes all else just noise…the Agnus Dei of the Mass was one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard’ (Boston Globe) and the Boston Musical Intelligencer wrote that ‘nothing can replace the pure pleasure of hearing this talented ensemble live’ (Boston Musical Intelligencer). The Vancouver Sun reported that ‘the volcanic reaction from the Chan Centre audience was jarring but well deserved. A single encore ended an evening of near perfection’, the New York Times praised Stile Antico’s ‘appealingly warm, fresh performance [presenting] a world of gracefully spun themes that sound as moving on their own as in context’ (New York Times) and the Seattle Sun Break wrote that ‘from unison plainchant which ebbed and flowed like speech, to seven intricate, complex parts for the Tallis, Stile Antico sang unaccompanied with exact pitch and no vibrato so that chords were marvels of perfection’ (Seattle Sun Break). Finally, radio station WQXR’s Operavore Best of 2011 in Opera article, published just the day after Stile Antico’s performance in New York, highlighted Stile Antico’s ‘seamless blending of voices [which] breathed new life into Tudor-era Advent classics. The effect was mesmerizing and meditative—exactly what one looks for in an early music' (WQXR's Operavore) and this concert was listed by Alex Ross in The New Yorker's Best Classical Performances of 2011.
For further reviews of the tour visit Stile Antico’s website here.
