‘Pragmatic and scrunchy, mostly tonal and homophonic and free of allegiance to any particular dogma, Woolrich’s The Death of King Renaud mused upon an old Norman folk song with Iris Judah slipping in and out of focus as solo viola. An imaginative score which I would have liked to hear again.’
Evening Standard (Christopher Grier), 5 November 1991 ‘Woolrich’s quintet spins elegant variations on its theme, neatly framing them with a long-held note that relapses into a stutter, and an opening that dresses up the folk melody in a florid, chant-like unison. A family resemblance with the medieval hymn ‘Ave Maris Stella’ becomes clear in the final pages through a witty quotation from Monteverdi’s ‘Vespers’. The humour, scherzando yet never lightweight, reflects a composer of serious thoughts with a genuine lightness of touch.’
The Independent (Nicholas Williams), 7 November 1991