Classicalsource.com, March 2013
…rewarding and stimulating…the vocal virtuosity required was flawlessly realised… rarely can such moralising have been so enchanting!
Curtis Rogers reviews Handel Il Trionfo del Tempo at the London Handel Festival
Bachtrack.com, March 2013
…the hall erupted in deserved applause from a moved but joyful and most privileged audience.
David Fay reviews Bach St John Passion at St George’s, Bristol
The Times, January 2013
That sense of the composer’s adaptability was intensified by Bates and La Nuova Musica’s zesty approach, particularly in the Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C and the lovely C minor Concerto for violin and oboe. Rhythms had a French, balletic twist; the quality of the string sound was earthy and Italianate. As conductor-cum- harpsichordist, the flamboyant Bates cuts a Wodehousian figure, but there’s no artifice or pretence in the directness of expression that he is aiming for.
Neil Fisher reviews BACH UNWRAPPED at Kings Place.
venue.co.uk, November 2012
…among today’s new generation early music ensembles, few know how to bewitch as potently as David Bates’ La Nuova Musica. Their pre-Christmas Messiah at St George’s last year was as fresh as it was revelatory, and they set the bar high for this rematch. To judge by the cheers it was a bar cleared without breaking sweat…
Paul Riley reviews ACIS & GALATEA at St George’s, Bristol
Bachtrack.com, November 2012
…this was an utterly delightful performance of a gem of a piece…
David Fay reviews ACIS & GALATEA at St George’s, Bristol
The Independent, June 2012
Directing from the organ, with instrumental interpolations drawn from Sebastien de Brossard’s violin music (soloist Bojan Cicic), David Bates favoured slow tempi and luxuriant textures. Among the soloists Mark Chaundy’s fiery Jephthah and Simon Wall’s mellifluous Abraham were outstanding. The overlapping dissonances of “In carmine doloris” were dizzying in the generous acoustic of ShoreditchTown Hall, underpinned by the baleful seam of cello, theorbos, lirone, organ and harpsichord.
Anna Picard reviews SACRIFICES at the Spitalfields Festival
Evening Standard, June 2012
A tiny band of musicians, directed by David Bates, provided subtle orchestral colour of often heartbreaking poignancy while seven singers doubled as soloists and chorus. The small-scale forces lacked nothing in pathos, the acoustic of Shoreditch Town Hall resonant enough to fill out the sound without swamping it. On purely musical terms this was often exquisite…
Nick Kimberley reviews SACRIFICES at the Spitalfields Festival
venue.co.uk, December 2011
With the band living every moment as if lives depended on it (how often does your ear usually find itself drawn to the cellos in Messiah?), and most of the audience literally on the edge of their seats, not merely listening but taking part vicariously, the raucous standing ovation at the end was pretty much guaranteed.
Paul Riley reviews Handel Messiah at St George’s, Bristol
The Guardian, December 2011
With the energy level generally extremely high, and the band ripping into the accented rhythms in the bass’s Why do the nations…? and the tenor’s Thou shalt break them, small was not just beautiful but absolutely compelling.
Martin Kettle reviews Handel Messiah at the Spitalfields Winter Festival
The Times, December 2011
Thanks to the inspired direction of David Bates this was to be music-making of an undogmatic, long-pondered intelligence, generously yet undistractingly ornamented, and with the small band minutely sensitive to its interplay with the human voice.
Hilary Finch reviews Handel Messiah at the Spitalfields Winter Festival
