James Weeks' Mala punica rated in the Guardian's Top Ten Classical Concerts and Operas of 2015

A performance of James WeeksMala punica by choir Exaudi has been nominated in third place in George Hall's top 10 classical concerts and operas of 2015 list. 

The performance took place on June 3rd as part of the Spitalfields Summer Festival 2015 at Christ Church in London. 

Hall writes:

"James Weeks’s Mala punica takes even his virtuoso choir Exaudi to the limits of ensemble singing, but its sheer sonic beauty in this Spitalfields programme was extraordinary."

The nomination follows a five-star review of the performance, by Hall, in the Guardian.

He writes:

"Despite the rigour and discipline suggested by the work’s complex use of canon – which gives the writing a consistent firmness and integrity – the overall impression is of a sensuousness maximally enriched both in its harmony and its choral fabric."

"Exaudi’s extraordinary facility in keeping its individual lines clear and buoyant was matched by the refinement with which the Hortus Ensemble unfolded their instrumental equivalents; in places their writing is freer, allowing the musicians, as Weeks puts it, to “wander through their material in different ways and in their own time”. The result – intricate, subtle and often sonically ravishing – was superbly realised."

Click here to view the full top ten list and click here to read the full review of Exaudi's performance of Weeks' Mala punica.