Choral, Hymns, Chilcott (composer)
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This album stems from a lockdown project designed to lif t the spirits, and boy does it still do so. The choir is warm and, as ever, pitch perfect, but it’s Taylor Scott Davis’s sparkling ,... —
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News of Great Joy: Christmas From St John's College, Oxford
The Choir of St John's College, Oxford
David Bannister
The performances are, in the best sense, unpretentious – there’s no straining after forced jollity or attention-grabbing effects, and each individual voice is comfortably embedded within the... —
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2024, Christmas Choice
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In Winter's House: Christmas With Tenebrae
RecommendedJoseph Edward, Grace Davidson (soprano), Joshua Davidson, Victoria Meteyard (soprano), Martha McLorinan (mezzo-soprano), Tenebrae, Nigel Short
Some might prefer Britten’s Ceremony of Carols to be a little rowdier, but this is otherwise a technically superb display of largely unfamiliar, and imaginatively chosen, festive music. One... —
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Building a Library, December 2024, Recommended Recording (A Ceremony of Carols)
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Christmas is often treated as a time of extroverted celebration, intimacy is the keynote of Noël, the Armonico Consort’s new seasonal collection. That’s partly because the choir has just eleven... —
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BBC Music Magazine, Christmas Issue 2023, Christmas Choice
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From the gorgeously shaped performance of Morten Lauridsen’s modern classic O magnum mysterium which opens the programme, to the urgent, ardent account of James MacMillan’s O radiant dawn which... —
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BBC Music Magazine, Disc of the month
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100 Years of Nine Lessons & Carols
RecommendedKing’s College Cambridge, Stephen Cleobury,Sir David Willcocks, Sir Philip Ledger
The opening track from 1958 sets the basic tone: the singing’s precise, sunny and rather dainty. Yet extra gusto soon arrives, and the modern carols Cleobury commissioned certainly stop tradition... —
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Presto Recording of the Week, 30th November 2018
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Rutter - A Christmas Festival
RecommendedMelanie Marshall, Clara Sanabras & Elin Manahan Thomas
Cambridge Singers, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & Farnham Youth Choir, John Rutter
The sparkling fanfare introducing 'O come, all ye faithful' gives a typical flavour, Rutter gleefully using the full resources of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to light the soundstage up... —
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Presto Recording of the Week, 8th December 2008
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Special offer. Carol of the Bells
Alexandra Kidgell, Edward McMullan, Mark Dobell, Robert Macdonald, Ben Davies, Rob Macdonald, Katy Hill, Tim Jones, Charlotte Mobbs, George Pooley, The Sixteen, Harry Christophers
The Sixteen have been around so long (40 years and counting) that it is easy to take them for granted. This newly recorded Christmas disc, however, acts as a sharp reminder of the choir’s abiding... —
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BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2021, Christmas Choice
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Special offer. Journey Into Light
Music for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany and Candlemas
The Choir of Jesus College, Cambridge, Mark Williams
Another Oxbridge college, another fine mixed-voice choir, another gorgeously captured chapel acoustic (Mike Hatch engineering) - this selection of favourite pieces by mainly British composers... —
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Away in a Manger
A children's nativity
Susan Smith, Felicity Souter, Margaret Howard, Martin Souter (piano), South Oxfordshire Youth Music and Drama Group, Martin Souter and Lin Marsh, Victoria Davies, Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Oxford and Stephen Darlington, Sara Stowe, Matthew Spring, Musical Box of Magdalen College, Oxford, Southend...
