[Simon] Wright and his forces conveyed the grandeur and nobility of the Music Makers as vividly as they lifted the stabbing ferocity from the pages of Prokofiev’s score. The Festival and Philharmonic Choruses were called upon to display their versatility in this most challenging of double bills even to the extent of learning and mastering a complex Russian text.

The choirs’ attack was spine tingling and their declamation of the text riveting in its conviction and intensity.