New Release Round-up,
Christmas New Releases 2021
Highlights from this year's crop of festive releases include traditional and contemporary carols from The Sixteen, The Choir of King's College Cambridge's second Christmas recording with their current Director of Music Daniel Hyde, an alternative Nine Lessons and Carols from La Chapelle de Quebec, two new albums from Belfast Cathedral, and a 'musical selection-box' from string ensemble Camerata Tchaikovsky.
Mixing traditional and contemporary carols, this Christmas programme from The Sixteen includes Bob Chilcott's Advent Antiphons, Mykola Leontovich's 'Carol of the Bells', Richard Rodney Bennett’s 'Susanni', Eric Whitacre's 'Lux aurumque', Cecilia McDowall's 'Of a Rose', and Jonathan Dove's 'I am the Day'. BBC Music Magazine recently described the album as 'a disc which shies away from the commercial clamour of Christmas, to a more contemplative, spiritual experience'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Named after the annual concerts which Labadie has given in Quebec since 2016 (themselves inspired by the Nine Lessons and Carols services from King's College Cambridge), Le Chemin de Noel is narrated by Colin Fox and includes a selection of traditional carols as well as music by Rameau, Pachelbel, Schubert, Cornelius, and Britten. Canadian contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux is the soloist in Adam's O Holy Night.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
In the Bleak Midwinter: Christmas Carols From King's
The Choir of King's College, Cambridge, Daniel Hyde, Matthew Martin (organ)
The majority of this programme was broadcast as part of last Christmas's Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, given from a congregation-less King's College Chapel in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic; Angels, from the realms of glory, Quilter's I Sing of a Maiden, Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour, and Holst's In the bleak midwinter (arr. Wilberg) were recorded the following June.
Read David's interview with Daniel Hyde here.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
This digital-only 'musical selection-box' from the acclaimed string ensemble features violinist Yuri Zhislin's arrangements of 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas', 'Silent Night' and 'I’ll Be Home For Christmas', and Bjorn Kleiman's transcriptions of 'Deck The Halls', Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride and 'By The Fireplace' from Tchaikovsky's The Seasons; Zhislin is also the soloist in the Largo from Vivaldi's Winter and the Mélodie from Tchaikovsky's Souvenir d'un lieu cher.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Ralph Vaughan Williams: An Oxford Christmas
Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital, Joshua Ryan & William Vann
Focusing mainly on arrangements which Vaughan Williams made for The Oxford Book of Carols in 1928 (supplemented with two later carols published by Oxford University Press), this programme features a number of world premiere recordings and includes arrangements of 'The Sussex Mummers’ Carol', 'The Bellman’s Song', 'Gloucestershire Wassail', and 'God Bless the Master of This House'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Praised in the Christmas edition of BBC Music Magazine for 'the choir’s tonal purity and impeccable tuning', this album of twentieth- and twenty-first century carols includes John Rutter's 'Mary's lullaby', Philip Stopford's 'Lullay, My Liking' and 'What Shall We Offer Thee, O Christ?', Philip Moore's 'In the Bleak Midwinter', Bob Chilcott's 'Wenceslas', and Elizabeth Poston's 'O Bethlehem' and 'Jesus Christ The Apple-Tree'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Owens's programme opens with Bach's Canonic Variations on Vom Himmel hoch, and includes music by Guilmant, Daquin, Walther, Liszt, Peeters, and Philip Moore; the album also features several world premiere recordings, including Howard Skempton’s 'Christmas Bells' and Gary Davison’s 'Seven Versets on Divinum Mysterium', both of which were written specially for this recording.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The award-winning British vocal quintet's first album seeks to 'conjure up the wonder of Winter’s changing landscape', with repertoire including Dobrinka Tabakova's 'Good-will to men, and peace on Earth', Byrd's Laetentur coeli, countertenor Barnaby Smith's arrangement of The Coventry Carol, William Ballet's 'Lute-book lullaby', and Toby Young's 'The Owl'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
This expanded version of the German tenor's 2020 Christmas album includes seven new tracks: 'Der englische Gruß', 'Auf, ihr Hirtensleut', 'Als Maria übers Gebirge ging', 'Zu Bethlehem geboren', 'Jetzt fangen wir zum Singen an' and 'Mariä Wiegenlied' (accompanied by dulcimer, harp, violin, clarinet and double bass), and 'Trois anges sont venus ce soir' (scored for string ensemble, and introduced to Kaufmann by his friend and colleague Ludovic Tézier).
Available Format: 2 CDs
This programme of nineteenth-century works from various countries features favourites such as Adam's 'O Holy Night', Reger's 'Mariä Wiegenlied' and Peter Cornelius's 'The Three Kings' as well as comparative rarities including Humperdinck's 'Weihnachten' and 'Der Stern von Bethlehem'', Huré's 'Communion sur un Noel', and Grieg's 'Julens Vuggesang'.
Available Format: SACD
The recital of Christmas songs by twentieth-century British and Irish composers includes Arnold Bax's Five Fantasies on Polish Carols, Peter Warlock's 'The Frostbound Wood' and 'Balulalow', Michael Head's 'The Little Road to Bethlehem', Mark Hankey's 'Lucy's Carol', John Ireland's 'The Holy Boy', and Malcolm Williamson's 'A Christmas Carol'.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
