Gramophone Magazine reviews Andrew Balio and Bruce Bengtson’s Soli Dei Gloria — Bach recording in the November issue’s Sounds of America:
“Balio’s long-lined handling of the chorales, the soaring ease and grace with which he reaches stratospheric heights and the expressive use he makes of his occasional trills create a sense of latent power behind the purity of tone and intonation that coincides with his sense of the music’s own spiritual overtones. … Balio has crafted a tribute to how naturally the trumpet becomes Bach’s voice in a church setting. … the delights of BWV1031 including its exquisite Siciliano, the serious pleasures of BWV1018 and much else besides make a strong case for purely musical beauty. Balio and the imaginative organist Andrew Bengtson, at Paul Fritts’s 35-stop Op 24 in the Reyes Organ and Choral Hall at the University of Notre Dame, achieve a stunning clarity of line, wide variety of colour and a sense of the right tempo that is complemented by the dynamic sheen and spaciousness of the audiophile recording.”
—Laurence Vittes, Gramophone
See the full review on gramophone.co.uk
