'All Britten's fertile inventiveness of the 1939-49 period is here at its most prolific...an exciting example of Britten at his most virtuosic...'
Michael Kennedy, Gramophone, October 1988

'...the Amercian period in Briten's early life has recently proved to be a rich vein and it has now revealed a group of seven part-songs on which the composer was working when he arrived in the U.S.  Its ideas are strong and simple, the music strikingly interprets the essential thought within each of the poems...a fine and intellectually rigorous piece that rewards repeated listening...'
Richard Fairman, Financial Times, November 1988