This year's crop of seasonal releases includes a programme featuring Poulenc's Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël and a selection of contemporary carols from the Choir of St John's College Cambridge on Signum, an album of music for winter holidays from the Miró Quartet on Pentatone, a Venetian Baroque Christmas from Il Pomo d'Oro on Arcana, and Christmas favourites from around the world courtesy of the Berlin Philharmonic brass section on the orchestra's own label.
O Holy Night
Choir of St John's College Cambridge, Christopher Gray
This second album from the Cambridge choir and their new Music Director (who succeeded Andrew Nethsingha in 2023) includes Poulenc's Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël, Herbert Howells's Three Carol Anthems, a sequence from Mendelssohn's Christus, and several recent works: Errollyn Wallen's Peace On Earth, Sally Beamish's In The Stillness, Becky McGlade's setting of In The Bleak Midwinter, and Tamsin Jones's Noel: Verbum caro factum est. Look out for David Smith's Q&A with the young choristers on Christmas Eve...
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Natale veneziano
Il Pomo d'Oro, Giuseppe Maletto
Three figures dominate this survey of Christmas music from sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Venice: Andrea Gabrieli, Claudio Monteverdi (whose 'Beatus vir' from Selva morale e spirituale sits at the heart of the album), and Francesco Cavalli. The programme also includes Heinrich Schütz's Hodie Christus natus est, Giovanni Bassano's Quem vidistis pastores, and Alessandro Grandi's Magnificat from the Salmi a otto brevi.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Hearth
Miró Quartet
Described as 'superbly fresh and communicative' by BBC Music Magazine, this collection of music for the winter holiday season includes arrangements of traditional carols by Clarice Assad, Kevin Puts, Michael Begay and Jeff Scott, Jingle Bells (arr. Michi Wiancko), Hyung-ki Joo's Songs of Christmas Past, a version of the Hebrew hymn Ma'oz Tzur by Sam Lipman, and Anna Clyne's Mothers Lullaby.
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Frohe Weihnachten!
Berlin Philharmonic Brass
The brass players of the Berlin Philharmonic present seventeen Christmas songs from around the world in new arrangements by trombonist Joshua Davis: highlights include O Tannenbaum, O come, o come, Emmanuel, Praetorius's Es ist ein Ros entsprungen, the Byzantine carol Ερουρέμ, eρουρέμ, William James's An Australian Christmas, and the Hungarian popular song Kiskarácsony, nagykarácsony ('Little Christmas, Big Christmas').
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 48 kHz, 24 bit)
John Rutter: A Clare College Celebration - The Christmas Edition
Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Graham Ross
This expanded edition of the album which Clare College released in September to mark Rutter's eightieth birthday includes favourites such as the Nativity Carol, Shepherd's Pipe Carol, Christ is the Morning Star, Carol of the Magi, and Mary's lullaby in addition to all of the material on the original release (which BBC Music Magazine described as 'a superbly delivered, heartfelt tribute to a composer whose music has a cherished place in British choral life').
Watch David's hour-long interview with Rutter, filmed at the composer's home in Cambridgeshire in the summer.
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
All the Stars Looked Down: A John Rutter Celebration
Choir of King's College Cambridge, Britten Sinfonia, Daniel Hyde
This album takes its title from a carol which Rutter composed two years ago in memory of the late Stephen Cleobury (who spent almost three decades as Director of Music at King's). The programme also includes Rutter's All Bells In Paradise (which Cleobury commissioned), Dormi, Jesu and Nativity Carol, plus his arrangements of Silent Night, Away In A Manger and O Holy Night, and Sir David Willcocks's versions of O Come, All Ye Faithful, Unto Us A Boy Is Born, and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.
Available formats: SACD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
She Composed: The Holidays
Chloe Flower, Academy of St Martin in the Fields,English National Opera Chorus, Jessica Cottis, James Hawkins
Curated by the American composer, pianist and producer Chloe Flower, this collection of seasonal music by female composers includes Fanny Mendelssohn's 'December' (from Das Jahr), Florence Price's Song for Snow, Elfrida Andrée's Christmas Spirit, ninth-century Byzantine composer Kassia's When Augustus Reigned, Betty Jackson King's 'Winter Holiday' (from Four Seasonal Sketches), and Errollyn Wallen's Peace On Earth.
Available format: Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Feminine Voices at Christmas
Ensemble Altera, Christopher Lowrey
The Christmas Choice in the latest edition of BBC Music Magazine, this album from the American chamber choir includes Britten's A Ceremony of Carols (originally written for the women of the Fleet Street Choir), Hildegard von Bingen's O viridissima, Virga, Imogen Holst's Welcome Joy and Welcome Sorrow, Joanna Marsh's Magnificat, Cecilia MacDowall's Ave Maria, Kerensa Briggs's Coventry Carol, and music by Elizabeth Poston, Barbara Strozzi, Germaine Tailleferre, Ian Shaw and Adrian Peacock.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
On Christmas Night
Malakai Bayoh (treble), Emma Bell (soprano), London Choral Sinfonia, Michael Waldron
London Choral Sinfonia marks its tenth anniversary with a second Christmas album, which includes Alec Rowley's charming Christmas Suite, 'Walking in the Air' from Howard Blake's The Snowman, Adam's O Holy Night and Percy Fletcher's Ring Out, Wild Bells, plus fresh versions of Silent Night (arr. Bob Chilcott) and Ding dong, Merrily on High (arr. Owain Park and Mack Wilberg).
Watch James's video interview with Michael Waldron, filmed at Presto last month.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 192 kHz, 24 bit)
Joy to the World
Chanticleer
The GRAMMY-winning American vocal ensemble makes its debut on Delos with a seasonal programme which includes Joanna Marsh's Winter's Garland, Sarah Quartel's This Endris Night, Steven Sametz's A Christmas Fanfare, motets by Palestrina, Morales and Praetorius, and new arrangements of 'Silent Night', 'O Come, All Ye Faithful', 'I Wonder As I Wander' and 'Once in Royal David's City'.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Nowel: Advent & Beyond
Ensemble Pro Victoria, Rowan Williams
The former Archbishop of Canterbury's narration of the Nativity story is interspersed with music by composers including Herbert Howells, Hugo Distler, David McGregor, William Byrd and Philip Stopford. The programme opens with Piers Connor Kennedy's Advent Calendar, which sets poetry by Rowan Williams and was conceived as a counterpart to Britten's A Ceremony of Carols - scored for harp and six men's voices, it receives its world premiere recording here from the singers for whom it was written.
Available formats: CD, Download & Streaming (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit)
Engelbert Humperdinck: The Miracle
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Steffen Tast
This is the first complete recording of the music which Humperdinck composed for Karl Gustav Vollmoeller’s pantomime Das Mirakel, which premiered at London's Olympia Exhibition Hall in 1911 with a cast of almost 2000 performers; the story centres on the fallen Sister Beatrice, who is redeemed after a statue of the Virgin Mary comes to life, takes her place in the cathedral which she had fled and eventually restores the penitent nun to her former state of grace. The pantomime was made into two silent films in 1912, one of which was intended to be screened with a full orchestra performing Humperdinck's score.
Available formats: 2 CDs, Download & Streaming (up to 48 kHz, 24 bit)
