[Iestyn Davies] discharges a beautifully inflected ‘Qui sedes’, impeccably warmed and coloured by a discreet vibrato that instinctively knows its expressive place…Watson’s soaring soprano also strikes up an alluring partnership with Iestyn Davies for the ‘Et in unum Deum’… One of the challenges for any conductor is marrying the Mass’s old-fashioned elements while forging a coherent whole. Layton is on the case.

Tempi are free of eccentricity; his youthful choral forces are beautifully focused, incisive in attack, and understand the importance of phrasing in this music. They are evidently relishing every note as they discover Bach’s supreme masterpiece under Layton’s expert guidance. The soloists are uniformly excellent, with Iestyn Davies truly exceptional in his two solo contributions, the Qui sedes and Agnus Dei. First-rate playing from the OAE, too. A B minor Mass to treasure.

Recorded in [Trinity's] own handsome chapel, it has brightness, clarity and the kind of clean air about it that you expect from a young mixed-voice choir…it is Iestyn Davies who serves up this recording’s jewel in his first recorded Agnus Dei, a masterclass in technique, vocal beauty and moving musicality that it is hard to imagine surpassed.

Layton’s Bach is rightly prized for its clear-headed vision and lack of eccentricity. He has a fine team of soloists: Katherine Watson and Helen Charlston’s bright voices blend ideally in the Christe eleison, and Gwilym Bowen and Neal Davies are both stalwarts in their solos. But it is Iestyn Davies’s singing of Qui sedes that takes this release into the realms of greatness.

In the modern fashion, speeds are swift and textures lean...Christie writes that his goal was to show Bach’s “human side”. The result is a reading of great warmth: you can toast your hands on the choir’s hushed beauties and the period instruments’ timbres.