In George Benjamin's masterful transcription of Henry Purcell's Fantazia No.7 (19 June 1680) the music is transposed up a fifth into G minor, otherwise not a note is altered. To match the celeste's ethereal timbre the other instruments play very quietly throughout, the clarinettist is asked to produce that very pure sound known as ‚echo tone', while the violin and cello are confined almost entirely to harmonics and pizzicato. This 5-minute piece has a formal scheme of five short ‚movements': a slow contrapuntal opening, giving way to a faster-moving section, a central chordal passage, a second fast contrapuntal section and a brief slow coda.
‚The Fantasia sounded completely unusual in Benjamin's adaptation: strange, lacerated and frayed. Wonderful evidence of Purcell's modernity.'
Die Welt (Stephan Hoffmann), 22 March 1996