This is a priceless record not only of the centenary of the most famous carol service in the world, but of the last to be directed by Sir Stephen Cleobury after 37 years at the helm of chapel music at King’s College, Cambridge. The atmosphere of this very special Christmas Eve afternoon in Cambridge is captured perfectly in a recording to be treasured by all who value Sir Stephen’s immense contribution to choral music.

The whole album stands not just as a monument to the institution of Nine Lessons and Carols but as a brilliant summation of the tireless life and work of a man who, as the bidding prayer has it, is probably now marshalling the choristers “upon another shore and in a greater light”.