King Arthur ENO/Mark Morris Production 2006 London and USA
‘…’Fairest Isle’ sung here with immense poise by Lawson…’ The Independent
‘...Mhairi Lawson shone in ‘Fairest Isle’..’ The Telegraph
‘The work’s best-known number, ‘Fairest Isle’, is delivered beautifully by Mhairi Lawson in a tableau all the more effective for its stillness.’ The Evening Standard
‘..the honours go to Mhairi Lawson...I’d say Lawson must be one of the best dancing singers I’ve seen since Kiri te Kanawa…’ Danceviewtimes.com
Recently released recordings of works by Vivaldi with La Serenissima
L’amore per Elvira
‘..Mhairi Lawson brings…characteristically bright and powerful tone and a strong sense of drama.’ Gramophone Magazine
‘Mhairi Lawson sings with an intensity that conveys the lover’s plight as though he were standing before us.’ Classic FM Magazine 
‘…virtuosic rhapsody..Lawson is an attentive swain, animating the recitatives, and investing the arias with a sure sense of line, fluency of ornamentation and acuity of nuance.’ BBC Music Magazine 
‘…vivid performances from Mhairi Lawson and la Serenissima. She responds to every nuance of the drama and produces a wonderful kaleidoscope of vocal styles and colours to inflect the words and the music. The results, which in lesser hands could sound mannered, are very vivid and taking…no-one can doubt the aplomb with which she sings this music nor the vividness that she brings to the drama. Lawson is of course a natural stage creature, but whilst these performances are dramatic she stays successfully within the chamber nature of the pieces.’ Musicweb – international
‘..in company with young soprano Mhairi Lawson, whose voice in this repertoire is one to die for. She recreates Vivaldi’s cantatas with riveting passion, and the entire disc…is an immensely enjoyable programme, one that you can just sit down and listen to from end to end.’ Manchester Evening News 
Top Ten for 2006
Top Ten for 2006Music for the Chapel of the Pieta
‘New Star: Mhairi Lawson delivers effortless serenity – giving a vivid vocal depiction of sorrowful departure.’ Classic FM Magazine Best Buy 
‘Mhairi Lawson sings with secure intonation, expressive sensibility and pleasing warmth of colour…..beautifully sung.’ BBC Music Magazine 
Mhairi Lawson demonstrates yet again what a marvellous singer she is. In my view, any singer of any tessitura should listen to her….meets the demands of the music superbly at every moment, contemplative when necessary, yet explosive and accurate almost beyond belief in her coloratura.’ Culturekiosque
‘…Mhairi Lawson’s inimitable artistry…bell-like clarity of her tone and lithe articulation…few singers in this repertoire have the ability to make the voice glisten and shine so beguilingly.’ The Evening Standard
Composer X Laudate Pueri
‘..a chance to experience the bright brilliance of soprano, Mhairi Lawson.’
Gramophone Magazine (Editor’s Choice)
Vivaldi in Arcadia
‘ …centrepiece is the heroic-pastoral melodrama ‘Dorilla in Tempe’, from which Mhairi Lawson throws off three arias with great style. ‘Rete lacci’ , with its dazzling ornamentation and high-wired devilry is particularly thrilling.’ The Evening Standard
‘All three [arias] give clear evidence of the increasing taste in Venice for the vocal pyrotechnics of the new Neapolitan style, and Mhairi Lawson’s singing surely brings a taste of the kind of visceral thrill the star singers of the day were able to offer their audiences. Her stunning, wholehearted performance of the Giacomelli aria may occasionally put microphones under pressure, but it is almost worth the purchase money on its own.’ Gramophone Magazine
‘Mhairi Lawson sings three arias from ‘Dorilla in Tempe only one of which is by Vivaldi, the remanling two being by Hasse and Vivaldi’s Piacenzan contemporary Geminiano Giacomelli….clear and forthright declamation…comfortable sense of style, above all in her handling of da capos, are a constant pleasure; but it is Vivaldi’s own centrally placed aria, almost as stylistically up to date as its neighbours which shines brightest here, and which most alluringly reveals the subtleties of Lawson’s sensitive artistry.’
BBC Music Magazine 
Preview of forthcoming disc of arias from La constanza triomphante and La fida ninfa’
‘...all fire-breathing coloratura and declamatory extravagance…..considerable technical dexterity...astonishing...in a slow, sexy aria from La Fida Ninfa, sung with such tonal beauty and grace that, for a moment, time seemed to stand still.’
The Guardian (Queen Elizabeth Hall, live performance)
And more…..
Venice/La Serenissima/Vivaldi’s Laudate Pueri
‘……sung with an effortless virtuosity……the highlight of the concert for me had to be Mhairi Lawson’s laser-bright top Ds in the motet, the kind of clear and brilliant notes that pin you to your seat, knock your hat off and then blow you a kiss afterwards…’ The Independent
Iford Opera/Wigmore Hall/ The Early Opera Company/Handel’s Alcina, Purcell’s King Arthur and Hasse’s Antonio e Cleopatra
‘…….Mhairi Lawson as the fantastically amoral Morgana, was in sparky form, middling every nuance of mood and helter-skelter divisions ….’ The Times
‘The show was stolen, as Alcina often is, by the Morgana, this time in the voluptuous person of Mhairi Lawson. Ms Lawson knows how to work an audience, and by the end of ‘Tornami a vagheggiar’ she had most of the front rows eating out of her hand, she was entirely convincing.’ S&H Opera Review Classical Music on the Web
‘Mhairi Lawson, who had to metamorphose herself into Philidel, Cupid, a Mermaid and Venus, did so bright of eye and keen of voice…lusty good spirit and unflagging energy…’ The Times
‘… non-stop virtuoso singing...arias of extraordinary variety and vocal challenge...Mhairi Lawson, besequinned, brightly shining vocally, was all flame and fire as Cleopatra.’
The Times
‘Mhairi Lawson has the vocal and personal glamour for Cleopatra, as well as the coloratura…she made Cleopatra’s simile aria as she accepts death both sexy and moving. ’Concerto.net
Sonnerie/ Wigmore Hall/ Sir John Clerk Cantatas
‘…sparkling performances of Leo Scotiae irritatus – a gloriously florid cantata on Scottish supremacy – and the Carissimi-like Odo di mesto intorno…Lawson is a gorgeous natural performer; sensitive to the phrasing of her fellow musicians, and, with prosecco-scented top notes that hit you like a shower of confetti and sunshine, a perfect ambassadress for this charming repertoire.’ The Independent
Usher Hall, Edinburgh/ Handel’s Messiah
‘ …. Mhairi Lawson’s soaring soprano almost defied superlatives’ Edinburgh Evening News
Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh/ Bach Christmas Cantatas
‘..outstanding line up of solosists…sung with warmth and compassion by Lawson….the chance to reveal the glorious range of colours in her voice…’ The Scotsman
McCreesh/The Lincoln Centre, New York/ Bach ‘St John Passion’
‘…Mhairi Lawson, a bright-toned soprano, radiated a joy that was a delight to see and hear..’ The New York Times
McCreesh/ Royal Albert Hall BBC Proms/ Purcell ‘Fairy Queen’
‘…Mhairi Lawson’s infectious wit….I’m a sucker for Lawson’s bright, flirtatious soprano…’ The Independent
‘Highlights abounded…Mhairi Lawson’s ‘Hark the echoing air’….made fun of the traditional soprano sport of total domination. Vastly entertaining.’ The Evening Standard
reviews
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