Press review Leeds Town Hall, Saturday 25th May 2013: 20th Century American music made for a refreshing finale to Leeds International Orchestral Season. It was a pity though that John Adams’ Harmonium had to be dropped from the programme, for technical reasons. That left the 200 choristers assembled behind the Hallé Orchestra with just one work lasting less

Press quote A Mozart piano concerto, a rarely performed Haydn Mass and Mozart’s Requiem drew a capacity audience for a concert that will go down as one of the season’s finest. Haydn’s Miss Brevis in B Flat, generally known as the Little Organ Mass, opened the concert. Leeds Philharmonic Chorus’s soft and poignantly sung Dona Nobis Pacem

Press quote Conductor David Hill found smiles in the Little Organ Mass by Haydn, that master of subtle wit. His choir’s sopranos sounded as though butter wouldn’t melt in the mischievous extended end of the Gloria – written, it is said, to annoy the Esterhazy Chapel clergy. The Chorus were ‘tremendae’ indeed in the Rex tremendae section,

Press quote David Hill, music director of Leeds Philharmonic Chorus, clearly in his element marshalling large forces, produced a wonderfully clear and coherent performance. With Hill at the helm, every detail is transparent, every strand of orchestral or choral texture carefully delineated. That is not to imply his performances – although invariably meticulously balanced – are somehow

Press quote This venerable institution has had a spring in its collective step ever since David Hill was appointed as its music director. The choir now sounds younger and fresher, the blending and balancing of voices more refined. A choir of some 130 voices might be substantially greater than the scale of forces nowadays favoured by many

Press quote Leeds Philharmonic brought its refreshingly young sound along... There was dynamic force for the big moments, but, in the hugely risky and complex double fugue at the Sanctus, this could have been a mere octet. And with the opening pianissimo – as well as the chanted Libera Me at the end of the piece –