Search

Taalkeuze

Nederlands >>

Overviews

Music & Words | Saphrane | Departures

Information | Press | Tracks 

Tracks | Information

Press | Information

'His is an intrinsically beautiful voice, full of character and he is an artist who moves so easily from the lightness of Quilter to the world premiere of Giles Swayne's The Joys of Travel. Fine accompaniment from Alexander Soddy in the most beautiful sound.' (Yorkshire Post)

(...) If further proof of Hulett's ability to alter his tone and grade it to each song is needed, listen to the change in colour as he moves from 'The Roadside Fire' to the soft opening of 'Youth and love'. I admire the whole cycle, but having it sung with such sensitivity and played so responsively makes it seem even better. (...) The clear recording is at a high level. Hulett’s  enunciation is extremely good. (International Record Review, UK)

‘A fine new tenor voice is appearing on the British music scene. His name is Benjamin Hullet, who recently sang in Manchester with Opera North. (...) This is a fine tenor voice, well accompanied by Alexander Soddy, and an auspicious release. (Liverpool Daily Post, UK)

‘Hulett brings his warm, pliable tenor to a selection of English rovers. The carefully constructed programme of Lennox Berkeley's Tombeaux, Quilter's Four songs of Mirza Schaffey, Giles Swayne's scythingly satirical The Joys of Travel, Britten' s Quatre Chansons Francaises and Vaughan Williams' Songs of Travel demands - and receives- multilingual facilty. This is augmented greatly by Soddy's sensitive playing. What wins this programme the accolade though, is the way it builds almost into an operatic essay on the thrills and trials of foreign travel.’ (Classical Music, *****, Disc of the fortnight, UK)

'Hulett is a strong singer, with a vibrant personality, good breath control, excellent diction and the ability to tell a story and engage us in the telling. (...) Alexander Soddy gives inspired support and the recording is clear and bright.' (Musicweb International)

'With the crisp, clear diction and concisely and cleanly executed emotions that distinguish the recording throughout, Hulett brings a touchingly Schubertian tone to bear that calls to mind the mellow mellifluousness of his elder compatriot, Ian Bostridge. (...) Hulett treats the antique patina of Robert Louis Stevenson’s texts and the music’s atomized evocation of the pastoral with an equally adept subtlety that swells and sways with an altogether beguiling liquescence that, in turn, is exquisitely punctuated and pointed by Soddy’s beautifully judged piano playing.
The sensitive and atmospheric recorded sound, produced and engineered by David Lefeber in New Hall, Worcester College in England, is exemplary. In all, as much a triumph for the young Dutch label Saphrane (founded as recently as 2006) as for Soddy and Hulett, who is clearly a name to watch with interest.' (www.classicalreview.com, ‘featured review’) 

'The stylish and technically secure English tenor Benjamin Hulett has devised with his pianist Alexander Soddy an original programme of 20th century English song focused on travel.  Four early songs by Roger Quilter to German texts are a fascinating oddity and Vaughan Williams's enchanting Songs of Travel are sung with charm and confidence. Giles Swayne contributes a strangely haunting new work reflecting on the nightmare of package holidays, cheap flights and overcrowded airports.' (Daily Telegraph ****)

'[Benjamin Hulett’s] voice places him firmly in the long and distinguished line of English tenors. (...) there is an extra quality to this voice, a certain dramatic force, that puts me in mind of Martyn Hill, and praise doesn’t come higher than that in my book. He sings with a marvellous sense of line, nothing is overdone, and his words are beautifully clear. (...) The pianist, Alexander Soddy (...) plays with brilliant technical control, supports his singer with the utmost sensitivity, and has the uncanny knack of judging exactly when and how to take centre stage himself, even where it only amounts to a few notes. (Ralph Vaughan Williams Society Journal)