Selected Reviews

CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR CHANTICLEER IN PERFORMANCE

	Chen Yi's From the Path of Beauty Featuring Chanticleer and The Shanghai Quartet read reviews
LISTEN! To Movement 5 - The Secluded Melody

Reviews of World Premiere of Chen Yi's From the Path of Beauty performed by Chanticleer & The Shanghai Quartet

San Francisco Chronicle

Financial Times

LA Times

Select general commentary

"The San Francisco-based male vocal ensemble [Chanticleer] … actually resides in divine artistic regions. … Few groups of vocal or instrumental persuasion could equal the cohesive precision, stylistic acuity and sheer tonal beauty that these dozen gents achieve as a matter of musical course. … Like players in the most refined string quartet, they are communal masters of balance, blend, pitch and phrasing. To my ears, Chanticleer comes as close to that impossible concept called perfection as is humanly possible. … Chanticleer triumphed in everything, from the highest countertenor lines to the lowest bass rumbles."

"These men are phenomenal: as fresh as a blade of grass, tightly focused and keenly expressive."

"Chanticleer fascinates and enthralls for much the same reason a fine chocolate or a Rolls Royce does: through luxurious perfection."

"I can't think of another 'orchestra of voices' that can shuttle with such proficiency from Renaissance polyphony to gospel, contemporary classical to jazz."

"They are, to put it directly, one of the world's best."

"The world's reigning male chorus"

"The singing of Chanticleer is breathtaking in its accuracy of intonation, purity of blend, variety of color and swagger of style."

"The only American chorus able to compete on equal terms with the great (and very old) choirs of Europe in the performance of the Renaissance choral masterworks."

"Among the most versatile and virtuoso singers anywhere. They have style, and they have class. They also have an infallible sense of pitch, a very flexible ensemble and a deeply ingratiating sound."

"Their luminescent sound rising to the high vaulted ceiling, the dozen voices sounded like a heavenly choir glorying in music's power to praise. Their limpid, floating polyphony evinced the careful matching of pitches, ethereal refinement of timbre and effortlessly achieved vocal blend for which Chanticleer is rightly celebrated."

"Seattle's early-music audience is frequently and knowledgeably enthusiastic over a performance, but I've never heard it roaring and cheering like a stadium crowd as it did Friday night. Gregorian chant sung in unison flowed so smoothly and restfully that it became quite mesmerizing. The whole was together and the intonation impeccable. Over and over, the group would come to the end of a piece on a chord exquisite in its perfection of pitch, tone quality and balance."

"Chanticleer could sing the Turtles' greatest hits and make them sound like heavenly hosannas. That's how extraordinary it is, this 12-voice male choir. It produces a sound of sheer beauty. It's an oasis in a noisy and disturbing world."