'The Prodigal Son is the third of Britten's triptych of Church Parables.  Each work is at once a ritual drama which strikes deeper at each enactment; a human drama which takes on new shades and shifts its inner tensions as the casts change; and a multilayered musical score which reveals new, beautiful secretes in its making each time it is heard.'
Andrew Porter, The Observer

'Britten's produgious skill is apparent in every dimension of the score.  His sense of timing is unerring.  The least detail emerges with sculptural clarity and there is not a bar that does not serve a dramatic purpose, nor a note that is superfluous.'
Peter Heyworth, The Observer