"…..baritone Paul Carey Jones opted for Gerald Finzi’s superb setting of Hardy’s The Clock of the Years; a marvellous showpiece as long as the words are clear and the timing spot on, which they were.
"At this stage in the competition it looked to me as though these two baritones, Paul Carey Jones and Viktor Rud, were in a different class from the other contestants. Although they are pretty much at opposite ends of the baritone scale, Viktor with a creamy lyric voice and Paul whose voice carries real power and weight, there are many similarities between them. They had both chosen intelligent, well balanced programmes which played to their strengths, both had prepared them with scrupulous attention to detail, both actively communicated with their audience, and both used the platform space well to dramatise their presentation.
"Paul Carey Jones looked relaxed and began with Figaro’s Se vuol ballare, his face mirroring every detail in the text and sub-text, a model of barely concealed insolence. Mervyn Burtch’s When Satan Fell looks like becoming his signature piece, and effectively holds his audience in suspense whilst good and evil compete to tip the scales. Next he gave us an emotionally harrowing account of Britten’s Look! Through the port, before switching mood and tempo completely with Ireland’s Great Things. "
Serena Fenwick, Musical Pointers, February 2007