Barossa Festival, Australia

New to the BMF and Australia were the remarkable ensemble Psappha, six players whose modesty and humility were in inverse proportion to their skills and insights. Accompanying Maxwell Davies' two harrowing dramas (Miss Donithorne, Eight Songs) or in concert, they appeared to be doing nothing special, just a job of work - but doing it superbly well.

Even more indelible were truly stunning performances of [Peter Maxwell Davies'] Miss Donithorne's Maggot and Eight Songs for a Mad King, sung by Jane Manning and Kelvin Thomas, with UK ensemble Psappha. Both are little miracles of modern music-theatre...

The instrumental music, expertly and confidently delivered by the actor-players of Psappha, conveys moods that are unmistakeable... Impassioned outpourings from Jane Manning and Kelvin Thomas were passionately admired for their vocal dexterity and their ability to portray dementia with such awful realism.

Bridgewater Hall, Manchester (Oct 2000)

Psappha have made a speciality of this score [Piers Hellawell's Truth and Consequences] and seem to find more and more subtlety in colour and rhythm every time they play it.

San Francisco, USA (Nov 2000)

Cellist Jennifer Langridge and percussionist Tim Williams performed Anthony Gilbert's Moonfaring. Pianist Richard Casey played Simon Holt's ascetic Nigredo and then joined Langridge for Mark-Anthony Turnage's jazzy Sleep On. Superb performances...

Stravinsky Night at The Lowry, Salford, UK. (Nov 2000)

The quartet of soloists [in Renard], tenors Philip Langridge and Michael Bennett and basses Richard Lloyd Morgan and Terry Edwards, were quite outstanding, and Psappha's folksy ensemble was spot-on. But top marks went to The Soldier's Tale, which made much more dramatic sense than usual thanks to the colourful characterisation and choreography of Elaine Tyler-Hall's ambitious production. Along with Robert Tear's stylish narration, the poised performances of dancers Michael Rolnick, a sinister and super-smooth Devil, of David A John, the simple soldier, and of seductive princess Maxine Fone made a stunning counterpoint to the musicianship of Psappha's instrumental ensemble.

Mr Emmet Takes a Walk by Peter Maxwell Davies (June & July 2000)

Mr Emmet Takes a Walk, launched as part of a superb double bill by the Manchester-based ensemble Psappha... is a beautiful new piece and was performed splendidly by the baritone Adrian Clarke as Emmet, with Rebecca Caine and Jonathan Best in the numerous other parts.

Mr Emmet Takes a Walk was undoubtedly one of the highlights of this year's St Magnus Festival.

The strength of the vocal and instrumental performances, along with the theatrical wizardry of the production, give the work the best possible advocacy for its world-premiere tour that begins in Edinburgh tonight.

Mr Emmet Takes a Walk is mesmerising from start to finish. The three singers - Adrian Clark's pathological victim, Jonathan Best as a Commendatore-like waiter-cum-spy-cum-technical engineer, Rebecca Caine's flighty telephonist-cum-femme fatale - were top rate.

Mr Emmet Takes a Walk, written and directed by David Pountney, is fast-moving, imaginative and sometimes hilarious. It's also a kind of parable of our times. Richard Lloyd Morgan (in the title role), Rebecca Caine (in a dazzling variety of other ones!) and Jonathan Best are a dream cast for this enterprise: Etienne Siebens conducts the Psappha musicians with assurance.

The enigmatic story was one of those pieces you found yourself wanting to rewind just to see what you had missed. Brilliant playing...

David Pountney's razor sharp libretto cleverly documents the fragments of Mr Emmet's life... Richard Lloyd Morgan is brilliant as Mr Emmet... Jonathan Best and Rebecca Caine also sing superbly and skilfully bring to life an array of characters. Robert Innes Hopkins' versatile set on wheels is ingenious, capable of transforming itself instantly from a padded cell to a cabaret bar, with the help of Davy Cunningham's bold lighting. However, in this co-production with Muziektheater Transparant, it is the outstanding performance of Max's music by Manchester-based ensemble Psappha, conducted by Etienne Siebens, that makes this piece such a triumph.

Hans Werner Henze - El Cimarron. Cheltenham Festival(July 2000)

Hans Werner Henze's story of the Cuban slave Esteban Montejo... turns out to be a moving first person narrative of power and raw emotion. Sung and spoken by Stephen Bowen, who gave what can only be described as a virtuoso performance as the slave, it traced his life from forced labour to release from the Spanish in 1898. Supported by only three members of the contemporary music group, Psappha, the score managed to vividly express the harshness of captivity, the solitariness of his lonely wanderings, and the brutality of the flight for freedom. Playing a bewildering variety of percussion instruments, the players themselves became active participants in the drama. This was especially effective in invoking El Cimarron's escape. This was a remarkable performance of an extraordinary piece where words, music and lighting were used to stunning effect.

ISCM World Music Days, Manchester, UK. (April 1998)

The toughest of the International Society of Contemporary Music’s World Music Days were the two last. Happily, by that stage the momentum was rolling, carrying the audience through a continuum of daytime events - like Psappha’s expert expositions of Boulez and Stockhausen classics.

Pianist Richard Casey and percussionist Tim Williams collaborated with Sound Intermedia for a Saturday lunchtime performance of Stockhausen’s Kontakte, an electro-acoustic classic of 1960, here sounding freshly stupendous.

The Fires of London, which set new music ablaze in the sixties, have worthy successors in Psappha....Psappha’s acuity of individual performance and perceptive ensemble paid countless dividends.

Debut Concert at the RNCM, UK. (Sept. 1991)

The six members of Psappha are clearly talented and enthusiastic exponents of new music... all the more welcome in that the stimulus for forming the ensemble came from the musicians themselves rather than from some institution which indicated it would be good for them.

Debut Disc (1998)

Fantastic Islands: This brilliantly accomplished debut disc...

Stormont Castle, Belfast. (May 1998)

With Tony Blair’s speech to encourage the “Yes” vote still ringing in the rafters, Psappha’s acute performances focused attention on the skull beneath the skin, and - un-usually in the setting - meant that art rather than politics was responsible for sending an audience away high as kites down the hill from Stormont to Belfast.