‘…a setting …of Caliban’s Tempest lines about the magical music that fills the isle. There’s a fine contrast of his loud but awe-struck reflections and the variety of delicate, elusive musics and voices - twangling, humming, lulling, menacing.’
The Observer (Andrew Porter), 15 September 1996

‘An atmospheric and subtly orchestrated piece, it compels attention from the opening wisps of sound on xylophone and mandolin, threading its way through forceful baritone phrases (William Dazeley, excellent) and Daphnis-like choral spirits into a perfectly-paced crescendo before dying away in a trance.’
Financial Times (Andrew Clark), 16 September 1996

‘… this dazzlingly conceived nine-minute tour de force… a mobile mosaic of beauty and subtlety.’
The Times (Barry Millington), 20 August 1998  

‘… refined aural sensibility and meticulous craftsmanship… What we experience, in this haunting soundscape of shifting metres, cross-currents of orchestral breath and vibration, baffling fragments of calling and humming voices, are not only the magical sounds themselves, but Caliban’s own responses. His frissons of sensuous delight, his bewilderment, above all - in a brilliantly achieved orchestral climax - his inchoate terror are all musicked into being.’
The Times (Hilary Finch), 6 May 2003

 ‘The British composer George Benjamin’s Sometime Voices, in its US premiere, was much anticipated and did not disappoint… a mystical masterpiece.’
The New York Times (Anthony Tommasini), 28 July 1999