Christmas with the Bevan Family Consort
The Bevan Family Consort, Graham Ross
A year on from their debut album Vidi Speciosam, the Bevan Family Consort (including sopranos Sophie and Mary) presents a programme of carols and music for Advent, including Francis Bevan's arrangement of Darke's ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’, Palestrina's five-voice Missa sine nomine, Weelkes's 'Gloria in excelsis Deo', Imogen Holst's 'The Virgin unspotted', Victoria's 'O magnum mysterium', Villette's 'Jesu dulcis memoria', and Howells's 'Here is the little door'.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Carols From Herefordshire
Derek Welton (bass-baritone), Iain Burnside (piano), Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, William Vann
This is the first complete recording of the Twelve Traditional Carols from Herefordshire which Vaughan Williams and folklorist Ella Mary Leather published in 1920, comprising one set of arrangements for solo voice and piano and another for unaccompanied choir. The solo set was recorded by Derek Welton (who sang Amfortas at this year's Bayreuth Festival) and Iain Burnside in 2011 and released as part of the album On Christmas Day, whilst the choral versions were recorded this February. The carols include 'God Rest you Merry, Gentlemen'. 'Dives and Lazarus', 'The Holy Well', 'Christmas Now is Drawing Near at Hand', and 'The Seven Virgins'.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 44.1 kHz, 24 bit)
Gabriel Jackson: The Christmas Story
The Choir of Merton College Oxford, The Girl Choristers of Merton College Oxford, Oxford Contemporary Sinfonia, François Cloete Benjamin Nicholas
The Merton choirs won a BBC Music Magazine Award for their recording of Jackson's The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ in 2020 and now give the world premiere recording of his new Christmas oratorio, which again sets a libretto by the chaplain Revd Dr Simon Jones, mixing Biblical narrative with liturgical texts and four specially commissioned poems by members of the college. Inspired by the sound-world of Schütz and his contemporaries, Jackson has scored the work for choirs and an ensemble of lute, percussion, strings, saxophone and three trombones.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Joanna Forbes L’Estrange: Winter Light
London Voices, Ben Parry, Richard Gower, Olivia Jaguers
Featuring a number of world premiere recordings and new arrangements, this collection of choral works celebrating winer, Advent and Christmas includes settings of 'Auld Lang Syne', 'Love Came Down' and 'In the Bleak Midwinter' plus 'Carol of the Crib', 'Green Christmas', 'Song of the Shepherds' and 'Spring Will Come Again'. The first half of the album tells the Christmas Story, whilst the second part of the programme is more secular in tone and shot through with jazz and folk influences.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 48 kHz, 24 bit)
On Christmas Night: Carols from Merton
Choir of Merton College Oxford, Benjamin Nicholas
The Merton forces have also released a digital-only collection of carols old and new, featuring favourites such as Peter Cornelius's 'The Three Kings', Gustav Holst's 'In the Bleak Midwinter' and John Gardner's 'Tomorrow shall be my dancing day' plus new works by Kerensa Briggs, Roxanna Panufnik and Dobrinka Tabakova, 'Bogoroditse Devo' from Rachmaninoff's Vespers, Poulenc's 'Hodie Christus natus est' and Bruckner's 'Ave Maria'.
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
News of Great Joy
The Choir of St John's College Oxford, David Bannister
This festive album from St John's College Oxford was the Christmas Choice in the latest edition of BBC Music Magazine, when reviewer Terry Blain noted that 'the performances are, in the best sense, unpretentious – there’s no straining after forced jollity or attention-grabbing effects'. The programme includes carols by John Rutter, Philip Stopford, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Imogen Holst, Peter Warlock, Elizabeth Maconchy, and Richard Rodney Bennett
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Welcome Yule: A Chorister's Christmas
The Choristers and Schola of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral Dublin, Stuart Nicholson
Two extended carol-sequences sit at the heart of this lovely programme of seasonal music for upper voices: John Rutter's Dancing Day from 1974 (with harpist Tanya Houghton) and William Mathias's Salvator mundi from 1983 (with the original piano-duet accompaniment). The programme also includes 'I saw three ships', 'The Wexford Carol' and two organ solos: Mathias's Toccata giocosa (played by David Leigh) and Gerald Near's Carillon on a Ukrainian Carol (played by by Stuart Nicholson); in a review last week, The Yorkshire Times's Andrew Palmer observed that 'both organists know the instrument well, using its full tonal colour to great effect'.
Available format: CD
Rogier Michael: Christvesper Dresden 1624
Ensemble Polyharmonique, Alexander Schneider
The Franco-Flemish composer Rogier Michael (c.1553-1623) spent nearly four decades of his life at the Dresden court, preceding Heinrich Schütz as Court Conductor and composing his Weihnachtshistorie in 1602. The work was performed at the court every Christmas for the next fifty years, and is interleaved here with seasonal pieces by composers including Michael Praetorius, Erhard Bodenschatz, Melchoir Franck and Samuel Scheidt to recreate the sort of Christmas Vespers which might have been heard in Dresden in the 1620s.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Edward Nesbit: Nativity
Angharad Lyddon (mezzo), Benedict Nelson (baritone), Anneke Hodnett (harp), Martin Owen (horn); The Choir of King’s College London, Joseph Fort
Composed in 2022, Nesbit's Christmas cantata sets part of the Tilethatchers' Play (from the York Cycle of Mystery Plays) and seasonal verse by Welsh metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan: the Tilethatchers' text is set as a dialogue between Mary and Joseph, whilst the Vaughan poems are allocated to the choir and framed as a commentary on the narrative. The choir's album of other sacred choral works by Nesbit received four stars in BBC Music Magazine and was named as one of Gramophone's Best Classical Albums of the Year, thanks to his 'distinctive voice that pairs a mysterious melodic beauty with a beautifully crafted texture.'
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Merry Harmonica
Konstantin Reinfeld (harmonica), Benyamin Nuss (piano)
If you're after something a little more light-hearted, try this quirky album of popular Christmas songs reimagined for harmonica and piano, including 'Jingle Bell Rock', 'Mary's Boy-Child', 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas', 'Santa Baby', and 'Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence'. Reinfeld and Nuss first performed these songs together in Dubai for Christmas 2021, and experiencing Christmas in warmer climes than usual inspired them to 'bring a more tropical 'hot' note into the arrangements'.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Digital EPs
Winter Night
UCI Chamber Singers, Irene Messoloras
The University of California, Irvine's auditioned chamber-choir presents a programme comprising 'Gabriel's Message' (arr. Jim Clements), 'The Wexford Carol' (arr. John Rutter), 'The First Nowell' (arr. Ola Gjeilo), 'Now May We Singen' (set by Cecilia McDowall), and Linda Kachelmeier's 'We Toast the Days'.
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Kristina Arakelyan: Christmas Piano
Kristina Arakelyan (piano)
The composer and pianist (whose beautiful 'Ave maris stella' features in the latest volume of Carols For Choirs) plays her own solo piano arrangements of Leontovich's 'Carol of the Bells', 'Auld Lang Syne', Mendelssohn's 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing' and Grieg's 'Ave Maris Stella'.
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
