"The Queene’s Speech, part of the Stratford-on-Avon Music Festival performed by the wonderful early music group Charivari Agreable, included instrumental music, poetry and song. It centred on Queen Elizabeth’s life and loves, including several well-chosen Shakespearean sonnets such as Sonnet II. The central point of the evening was Isobel Collyer’s delivery of Elizabeth I’s great speech given at Tilbury in 1588 anticipating the attack by the Spanish Armada. "
theshakespeare blog.com
"I do seriously thank you for all you have done over so many years - brilliant and safe with a lovely pure tone and a deep understanding of the music."
Director of Music at St Silas, Kentish Town
Ten Years of Freedom,
Lyric Studio, Hammersmith
"Juliet Stevenson held the narrative thread together with eloquence and quiet dignity, backed by some excellent plainsong from Isobel Collyer and her team."
Catholic Herald
Holst: The Evening Watch and Other Choral Music
"The more ethereal tones of Isobel Collyer, on Davan Wetton's first-rate Hyperion recording, suit Robert Bridges mystical supernatural texts better than the fuller, more earthbound yet lovely voice of Patricia Rozario."
BBC Music Magazine, April 2009
"The performances here are wonderfully responsive. All the solo contributions are distinguished: the individual voices seem perfectly attuned to the special colouring of Holst's music ..... Highly recommended."
Gramophone Magazine - January 1990
The Queen's Revels - July/August 2007
“Isobel Collyer's readings were skilled and thoughful, bringing out the hidden ironies in poems that purported to be about love, but were full of hidden resentment."
"It's often the case that early music concerts, particularly those with a programme as obscure and varied as this one, can be rather scholarly and dry. Collyer, Heinrich and Ng managed to avoid that trap and bring out the passions behind every piece."
Daily Info, Oxford
Vaughan Williams, Mass in G Minor and Elgar Part Songs
"The music and the performances are utterly lovely, and if a record is to be bought at this moment, I cannot think of one I would more feel like buying."
Gramophone Magazine - April 1992
"With top-drawer performances, this Regis CD is an outstanding bargain in every way. Its reissue is warmly to be welcomed and I recommend it with great enthusiasm."
Music Web International (Read Full Review)
The Fayrest Quene - July/August 2008
"Readings (mostly of Shakespearean sonnets) and short introductions interspersed the musical offerings - read by Isobel Collyer who has a rich and beautiful voice. The Tilbury Speech is, of course, a highlight of the evening, but so too are the sonnets which are used to illustrate anecdotes about Elizabeth I's suitors. The emotional depth of her trysts, partings and banishment is fleshed out with the richness of the sonnets, which bring these lovers' tales to life."
Daily Info, Oxford
"Really beautiful music."
Daily Info, Oxford