Benjamin Hulett

reviews

• title • Departures

Luister
'Je hoort tenor Benjamin Hulett echt opbloeien in 'Nuits de Juin', 'Sagesse', 'L'enfance' of 'Chanson d'Automne'. (...) Tenor Hulett en pianist Alexander Soddy zijn minstens vier sterren waard'.
(translation: 'One hears tenor Benjamin Hulett really flourishing in 'Nuits de Juin', 'Sagesse', 'Childhood' or ‘Chanson d'Automne’. (...) Tenor Hulett and pianist Alexander Soddy deserve at least four stars'.) (René Seegers, november 2011)

Vaughn Williams Society
We all have our favourites, but don't expect to be reminded of Pears, Langridge or Partridge, still less of Bostridge. No, there is an extra quality to this voice, a certain dramatic force, that puts me in mind of Martyn Hill, and praise doesn't come higher than that in my book. He sings with a marvellous sense of line, nothing is overdone, and his words are beautifully clear. The pianist, Alexander Soddy (...) plays with brilliant technical control, supports his singer with the utmost sensitivity, and has the uncanny knack of judging exactly when and how to take centre stage himself, even where it only amounts to a few notes.
But we all have at least one Songs of Travel in our collection, and are probably fiercely protective of it, so is this one worth considering? In my view, the reply is a decisive yes. (William Hedley, 6/2011)

De Volkskrant
Benjamin Hulett – remember that name!
Dangerous: opening a song with the Homeric paraphrase 'O Muse, I sing of...' and then after a tense pause switching to '.. budget flights'. That Giles Swayne succeeds in doing this in The Joys of Travel has everything to do with the qualities of the singer for whom he composed his accusation against mass tourism: Benjamin Hulett.
This young British tenor brightens up his cd Departures with it. Travelling, leaving the paved roads, Huletts cleverly chosen recital reflects both. The Brit Lennox Berkeley apparently composed to the poems of Jean Cocteau; Benjamin Britten was already occupied with Verlaine and Hugo as a 14- year old; Roger Quilter dipped his pen in German Romanticism.
Nice works, no problem with those. But it is the voice that makes one want to listen to the cd until the last bit. Hulett is one of those high English tenors who soars through the skies as if friction and gravity do not exist. Very clear, always focused, without shaky vibrato or whinyness.
As an extra he delivers the bittersweet Songs of Travel by Ralph Vaughan Williams. His pianist is called Alexander Soddy, another name to remember. And bravo for the Dutch label Saphrane that spotted this British duo. (Guido van Oorschot, ****, 17/11/2010, NL)

International Record Review
(...) If further proof of Hulett's ability to alter his tone and grade it to each song is needed, listen to the change in colour as he moves from 'The Roadside Fire' to the soft opening of 'Youth and love'. I admire the whole cycle, but having it sung with such sensitivity and played so responsively makes it seem even better. (...) The clear recording is at a high level. Hulett's enunciation is extremely good. (12/2010, UK)

Classical Music Magazine
Hulett brings his warm, pliable tenor to a selection of English rovers. The carefully constructed programme of Lennox Berkeley's Tombeaux, Quilter's Four songs of Mirza Schaffey, Giles Swayne's scythingly satirical The Joys of Travel, Britten' s Quatre Chansons Francaises and Vaughan Williams' Songs of Travel demands - and receives- multilingual facilty. This is augmented greatly by Soddy's sensitive playing. What wins this programme the accolade though, is the way it builds almost into an operatic essay on the thrills and trials of foreign travel. (*****, Disc of the fortnight, 12/2010, UK)

Yorkshire Post
Benjamin Hulett, Peter Quint in Opera North's new production of Britten's Turn of the Screw, is the outstanding soloist in the composer's Quatre Chansons Francaises. His is an intrinsically beautiful voice, full of character and he is an artist who moves so easily from the lightness of Quilter to the world premiere of Giles Swayne's The Joys of Travel. Fine accompaniment from Alexander Soddy in the most beautiful sound. (26/11/2010, UK)

Liverpool Daily Post
New tenor Benjamin Hullet lighting up music scene
But this is an erudite release with Benjamin Britten’s Four French Songs, Lennon, Berkeley’s Tembeaux, four settings of German texts by Roger Quilter and the witty and entertaining Joys of Travel by Giles Swayne, an unexpected pleasure. This is a fine tenor voice, well accompanied by Alexander Soddy, and an auspicious release. (3/12/2010, UK)

Financial Times
Benjamin Hulett, an English tenor (..) is an up-and-coming singer whose CD debut recitals suggest (he is) equally adept at putting together a programme.

De Telegraaf
Sublime British tenor
England has Ian Bostridge and Mark Padmore, but on the British tenor firmament another new star is rising. It is Benjamin Hulett. Two years ago he already struck during the Gergiev Festival in Rotterdam with Les illuminations by Benjamin Britten, resulting in a brilliant live cd. Now the same Saphrane label presents his second recording, Departures, devoted to mostly lesser known songs: Berkeley, Quilter, Swayne, Britten and Vaughan Williams. Hulett has a dream timbre and his enunciation is exemplary, even when he sings in French. The question whether all these songs are interesting is hardly relevant in the presence of so much beauty. Pianist Alexander Soddy accompanies. (****; december 2010)

Musicweb International
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theclassicalreview.com
The sensitive and atmospheric recorded sound, produced and engineered by David Lefeber in New Hall, Worcester College in England, is exemplary. In all, as much a triumph for the young Dutch label Saphrane (founded as recently as 2006) as for Soddy and Hulett, who is clearly a name to watch with interest. (Michael Quinn, 10/1/2011, read entire review here >>)

The Daily Telegraph
The stylish and technically secure English tenor Benjamin Hulett has devised with his pianist Alexander Soddy an original programme of 20th century English song focused on travel. Four early songs by Roger Quilter to German texts are a fascinating oddity and Vaughan Williams's enchanting Songs of Travel are sung with charm and confidence. Giles Swayne contributes a strangely haunting new work reflecting on the nightmare of package holidays, cheap flights and overcrowded airports. (22/1/2011 Rupert Christiansen)

Operamagazine
Tenor Benjamin Hulett laat welluidend van zich horen met zijn nieuwe album Departures. Sierlijk en elegant zingt de jonge Brit 25 liederen van Berkeley, Quilter, Swayne, Britten en Vaughan Williams. En de begeleiding van de eveneens jonge Alexander Soddy is al even fijntjes. Jordi Kooiman, 27/1/2011, read entire review >>)

Gooi en Eemlander
Hij bezit een mooie lyrische stem die heerlijk wendbaar door alle registers 'reist'. Ook in het moderne repertoire laat hij fraaie vloeiende lijnen horen. (****)

NRC
Hulett oogstte .. unanieme lof met zijn eerste solocd. Maar ook in opera en oratorium valt hij op door zijn trefzeker-atletische, romige geluid en het aangename naturel van zijn tekstinterpreaties (Mischa Spel)