“I can quite understand why the composer was so powerfully affected by Kolmar’s verse, and his musical response is so emotionally hand-in-glove that they might have been sitting together working on the piece … If the scoring is unusual it works perfectly … I think it is the best substantial piece of vocal music I have seen this year.” 

Jeremy Jackman, Choir and Organ Magazine, December 2019

“At St James's Piccadilly, Julian Marshall's Out of the Darkness, a cantata for voices, two cellos and mezzo soloist Melanie Pappenheim, was given its London premiere, after performances in Brighton and Totnes. This setting of a bleak poem by Gertrud Kolmar, who died in Auschwitz, occupies a middle musical ground: close-harmony splashes with jazz, bossa nova and hints of Górecki or Karl Jenkins. It's honestly done, it's on CD and it's on Classic FM's playlist, no doubt heading into the limelight of the Hall of Fame.”

Fiona Maddox, The Observer

“Out of the Darkness is unique, completely remarkable in every way.”

Jack Higgins, author

“… such a brilliant melding of styles, classical, latin, jazz and the performance is exquisite."

Rick Costa, being quoted – and agreed with – on BBC Radio 3 request programme

“Julian Marshall’s chamber cantata, Out of the Darkness, has a mysterious tone from the outset. The opening Prologue alternates between unison chant-style lines and open and dissonant harmonies which rarely resolve, creating a sense of foreboding. The title comes from a poem by Gertrud Kolmar, who lost her life in Auschwitz. The music is scored for chamber choir, mezzo-soprano and a pair of cellos. It uses a range of styles, from dissonant, twisting melodic lines to lighter styles, including tango, which features heavily in the second movement (entitled One). The accompanying cellos are highly effective, giving a variety of textures and a wonderful timbre. The style of singing on this recording verges towards folk rather than classical. The sound is less blended than choral music often is and gives a particular effect. This seems less polished but more emotionally raw. There is a distinct human element that comes through and this reaches out to the listener. This is a work which has impact on an emotional level. 

Carla Rees, Music Web International
[read full review here]

“As soon as I heard Out of the Darkness I knew it was the beginning of a life-long relationship.  The variety and sheer vitality, of the music, combined with its emotional depth, is remarkable.  A potentially devastating topic, a woman’s intuition of the Holocaust in which she died, is made utterly life-enhancing through the subtle negotiations of tragedy with grace, in which each is acknowledged to the full, and yet each shot through with the other, in a process that is profoundly redemptive.”

Iain McGilchrist, author of ‘The Master and his Emissary’

“…. His works stand out among recent choral publications in being based in a popular music idiom yet setting venerable English poets, mostly William Blake in this selection. (Perhaps this is no surprise since Blake’s Songs of innocence and Experience have always been an inspiration across a wide spectrum of musical activity, including bands such as Tangerine Dream and more recently U2.)

Marshall’s pieces are extremely well crafted for choirs, so that there’s no sense that a backing group is missing; he creates the idioms economically and effectively and expands them imaginatively with a broad harmonic palette. I found the stringent harmonies in The Sick Rose particularly effective, the choral texture being glossed, as in several of his settings, by a tenor solo pitched quite high (through not in relation to standard popular music, of course). Infant Joy/Infant Sorrow will please audiences with its ‘crisp yet relaxed syncopation’; there’s a central ‘quasi cabaret’ section in The Divine Image; and for the Christmas market there’s The Holly and the Ivy.”

Geoffrey Webber, Choir and Organ Magazine, August 2016

“Julian touches profoundly the human heart and his work simply spills radiance. Just wonderful.”

Jenny Quick, musician

“In his compositions Julian shows his immense experience in the world of music. With a wide range of stylistic techniques he can effortlessly conjure up different moods and sound worlds. Julian always writes "from the heart" and perhaps, more importantly, he has his own unique "voice," which in its individuality and beauty, is a very precious gift.

I hope that Julian's music will find its way into the hearts of many - as it has mine.”

Ian Belton, Brodsky Quartet

“Meeting Julian and working with him on the performance of his Blake settings was a delight; the singers' enjoyment in performing his music came from his own enthusiasm and excitement, both in having it performed and in conveying its meaning to the choir, and, undoubtedly, from the music itself.”

Steve Dean, Winchester Consort

“We were both captivated and lost in the music and wonderful performances - once again you have delivered a truly inspired and inspiring piece of music, that for me also had a very deep visceral impact - quite extraordinary and moving.”

Audience member, on The Angel in the Forest