Ensemble Galilei showcases their astounding playing as well as arranging talents on this release, Surrounded by Angels. Each member of Ensemble Galilei is renowned in thier own field - two winners of the All-Ireland Senior Championship, two winners of teh U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Championship, a four-time winner of the U.S. National Scottish Harp Championship, a Fulbright Scholar - they bring uncontested talents to this release. This release is so rich, soulful and deep that it transcends the genres of Irish or Scottish or Early Music.

Celebrate Christmas with America's oldest arts organisation, the Handel and Haydn Society, as they explore a fascinating and eclectic selection of festive music from traditional carols using American tunes to Christmas motets by Charles Ives and contemporary American composer, James Bassi. Also included are carols by the 'father of American choral music', Bostonian William Billings, and the captivating and instantly-recognisable Carol of the Bells by Mykola Leontovich.

REVIEWS:

There are some surprising and beautiful arrangements on the Boston-based Handel and Haydn Society’s Joy to the World – An American Christmas, conducted by their English artistic director, Harry Christophers. What Christophers has offered is an overview of the most popular carols sung in America (sometimes presenting them alongside their English counterparts), yielding not only the usual fare of Rutter and Howells, as well as a particularly accomplished performance of Morten Lauridsen’s O magnum mysterium, but some new works including Quem pastores laudavere, a wonderfully creative combination of traditional melodies and barbershop ideas by James Bassi.

-- Gramophone

This is not the brash affair that you might expect from the Christmas-card cover; even the pseudo-Handelian Joy to the World receives the most tasteful performance I’ve ever heard. It contains slightly more familiar material than the [comparable offerings from other labels]...there’s some material that isn’t specifically seasonal or familiar and the presence of Harry Christophers at the helm of the Handel and Haydn Society lends it distinction well above the run of the mill. Good recording and the inclusion of the booklet provide added incentives.

-- Brian Wilson

This Christmas collection consists of 19 numbers, many traditional and familiar. Included are two settings of ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ and three of ‘In Dulci Jubilo’. The superlative musicianship and the almost perfect blending of voices make this one of the best Christmas recordings I’ve heard. If you like “different” arrangements, there are ‘Joy to the World’ and ‘Angels We Have Heard on High’ with harmonies slightly altered from the usual. If you prefer the traditional, you can hear perfectly sung renditions of ‘It Came upon the Midnight Clear’, ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’, and ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’. Other high points include gorgeous choral sound in Marten Lauridsen’s ‘O Magnum Mysterium’ and James Bassi’s ‘Quem Pastores Laudavere’.

My favorites come near the middle of the program. Harry Christophers, the director, has included two songs new to me: ‘The Shepherd’s Carol’ by Bob Chilcott and Charles Ives’s simply-titled ‘Christmas Carol’. Both are simple, beautiful texts set to lovely music and scrupulously performed. Just these two selections make this recording worth owning. There is also a fine solo on ‘I Wonder as I Wander’, a beautiful diminuendo to end Herbert Howells’s ‘A Spotless Rose’, and at the end as perfect a ‘Carol of the Bells’ as one is likely to hear.

The excellent booklet includes texts and background information on the music and the performers. An excellent addition to one’s Christmas collection!

-- American Record Guide

When the Handel and Haydn Society sing holiday standards, it’s as though carolers stopped by your house—and happened to be top-ofthe-line professionals. Starting with a single pure voice, an a cappella rendition of “I wonder as I wander,” with pristine tone and impeccable intonation, opens the recording. The singers bring a gentle lilt to various settings of “In dulci jubilo” and blend seamlessly in a reverent “O magnum mysterium,” drawing attention to its arresting harmonic shifts. The ensemble also performs an exuberant “Joy to the World,” with florid accompanimental lines and calland-response sections buffeting the familiar melody, as well as a “Carol of the Bells” that highlights the vocalists’ pinpoint precision.

-- NJ.com

Following The Sixteen’s hugely successful album, “Song of the Nativity,” which featured Christmas music from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, this new seasonal offering explores a stunning selection of festive works from the Renaissance. The Sixteen captures the joy and sincerity of the most wonderful of seasons, from the joyous simplicity of plainsong chants ‘Resonemus laudibus’ and ‘Veni, veni Emmanuel’ to the shining purity of Lassus’ polyphonic ‘Videntes stellam Magi’ and Byrd’s jubilant ‘This day Christ was born.’ This album provides a perfect alternative to traditional carols for those looking for something a little different at Christmas. “The Sixteen gives a masterclass in the art of unaccompanied singing, and in close emotional engagement with the pieces chosen… It puts the music front and centre, in this beautifully realized Christmas sequence.” (BBC Music Magazine)

REVIEWS:

Glorious renaissance polyphony is interspersed with plainchant in this treasure love, and full texts, translations and information sleeves notes make this an enviable Christmas present.

-- Choir & Organ

[The album] was recorded in St. Augustine’s, Kilburn in 2017, the generous acoustic adding a sprinkle of seasonal fairy dust...the pieces range from less the two minutes to nearly 10, the latter Tallis’s monumental Videte miraculum. One of the finest pieces (a difficult choice) is John Sheppard’s Reges Tharis, with its delightfully scrunchy little moments of harmonic and melodic tension, known as false relations.

As usual, The Sixteen sing with an outstanding sense of consort and balance, with superb intonation. Their sopranos, a mixture of younger and more experienced singers, are particularly impressive, the clarity of their voices giving an almost boy treble-like quality in their Veni, veni Emmanuel verse.

-- Early Music Review

The satisfying program of A Renaissance Christmas is no mere academic exercise or collection of rarities for collectors. The Sixteen deliver these works with exquisite tone and polished diction, performing to their expected high standards and creating a memorable impression with this refreshing album. Coro's sound is quite clear in the resonant acoustics, and the singers have a warm and vibrant presence.

-- All Music Guide (Blair Sanderson)

Choral music has always played a significant and central role at Belfast Cathedral, since its consecration in 1904. This strong choral tradition continues to this day with the recently formed all-adult, fully professional vocal ensemble. This ‘new’ cathedral choir brings together some of the finest singers in Northern Ireland who lead the liturgy and worship of Belfast Cathedral and are featured here in their debut album for Resonus Classics. Featuring a varied program of seasonal carols from composers including Elizabeth Poston, John Rutter and Philip Ledger, this album celebrates Christmas from Northern Ireland’s national cathedral.

With "O Nata Lux", The Zurich Chamber Singers under the baton of Christian Erny release an album of Christmas choral music that stands out from purely liturgical Christmas albums while at the same time focusing on the core of the Christmas message. A musically diverse album with motets and songs from five centuries. According to the famous German Christmas carol “Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen”, Jesus was born “in the cold midwinter, in the middle of the night”. The light that disperses the cold and darkness is a central topic of Christmastide art and music, and an element of many winter-time traditions the world over. At Christmas, Christians celebrate the redemption of mankind at a time of darkness, expressed through the imagery of light. With their new album entitled “O nata lux”, the Zurich Chamber Singers highlight this symbolism as it has been represented for many centuries in the western art music tradition.

Following the chronology of the Advent and Christmas season, the album ranges from Renaissance works by Osiander, Tallis and Praetorius to song settings by Bach, Holst and Britten and contemporary works by Marcus Paus (with marimba) and Rhiannon Randle. Her work commissioned in 2018 by the Zurich Chamber Singers, has close musical ties with Tallis’s work from over four hundred years earlier. Written in memory of her grandmother, Randle’s choral work is at times meditatively introverted, then again self-assured with consolation and confidence. Through the different tonal languages, the young Swiss ensemble illuminates the various aspects of the Advent and Christmas season. The range extends from the clear and haunting simplicity of a hymn to Brucknerian sonority and the interesting combination of deep marimba tremolos with the choir's wavy, effervescent chord layers.

Following the release of the award-winning Sugarloaf Mountain: An Appalachian Gathering, which was a Top 5 Billboard Classical Crossover hit, Jeannette Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire present Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain. In this celebration of the American immigrant experience, fiddlers, medieval harp, hammered dulcimer, bagpipes and singers join with children’s voices to evoke the Celtic roots of an Appalachian Christmas. From Christmas Eve in medieval Scotland to folk carols and shape-note hymns at a toe-tapping Christmas gathering in Virginia, Apollo’s Fire follows the journeys of the Irish and Scottish settlers who bravely crossed the Atlantic, settled in the mountains and welcomed Christmas with love, singing, dancing and prayer. Acclaim for the premiere performances of this program was widespread: “The lightning strike of genius can happen, sometimes even repeatedly to those willing to earn it. Jeannette Sorrell is one such person. This show was intense, interesting, spectacularly performed, and deeply moving. If that’s not genius, I don’t know what is.” (Seen & Heard International)

REVIEWS:

Apollo’s Fire is a celebrated baroque orchestra, but their ventures into folk music are just as celebrated. This is music of and by amateurs, here arranged and performed with professional skill, but without sacrificing its vibrant folk quality to the glitz of showbiz. This recording is a must have for anyone susceptible to the allure of this tradition.

– American Record Guide

There are other ways to reveal fresh musical truths in the context of Christmas, and the determination of another early music group to do so has produced my vote for festive disc of the year. Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain from Apollo’s Fire charts the passage of Scottish and Irish immigrants to the Appalachian Mountains in the 1830s. The Baroque music group gives us sounds we don’t often associate with Bethlehem but are probably far closer to what was heard there: zingy harps, reedy winds and plenteous modality.

– Gramophone

The Newberry Consort and EnsAmble Ad-Hoc present A MEXICAN CHRISTMAS, an album of 17th century traditional music for worship and celebration. The collection features pieces commonly heard in both liturgical service and in the streets, and evoke the solemnity and fanfare heard in Mexico City’s convents and plazas, with jubilant vocals and lively strings, guitars, and percussion. Organ, harp, bassoon, and a variety of Mexican traditional instruments bring this exuberant and diverse music to life.

Peter Schreier is one of the legendary tenors of the twentieth century. Throughout his 60-year career and even after his passing, he has been celebrated by listeners, friends and colleagues, especially as Bach interpreter and Lied singer. To celebrate the Christmas holiday, he devoted himself to a selection of carols by the four great song masters of the late Romantic period: Peter Cornelius (1824- 1874), Joseph Haas (1879-1960), Max Reger (8173-1916), and Hugo Wolf (1860- 1903). From well-balanced, melodic and, above all, singable tunes to challenging piano parts, they offer a wide variety of emotional statements and subtle detail, not least through the interpretation of these two sensitive artists.

In this live recording- the second in The Dale Warland Live series- selected works of two 20th century composers, one British and the other American, are performed with exquisite choral acumen. The program consists of Benjamin Britten’s acclaimed ‘A Ceremony of Carols’ and Daniel Pinkham’s ‘Christmas Cantata’ with brass and organ. In addition, Pinkham’s rarely performed ‘Company at the Creche’ is included with four other Christmas works. The distinguished career of choral composer and conductor Dale Warland spans more than six decades and has made a profound contribution to the music of our time. As conductor, composer and founder of the Grammy-nominated Dale Warland Singers, he is one of only three choral conductors inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame.

This release—the Taylor Festival Choir’s second album for Delos—features original Christmas works by two distinguished American composers: Brian Galante, whose choral works and arrangements have met with worldwide acclaim; and the late, great Stephen Paulus, whose many choral and orchestral compositions have been performed by America’s leading choirs and orchestras. The two multi-movement works presented in this album—Galante’s So Hallow’d the Time and Paulus’s Christmas Dances—are heard here in world premiere recordings. Based in Charleston, SC, the Taylor Festival Choir (Robert Taylor, founder and conductor) has gained international recognition since its inception in 2001 as one of America’s finest professional choral ensembles; and proudly claims Brian Galante as its regular Composer-in-Residence. They deliver truly transcendental performances in this lovely recording.

The mezzo-soprano Dagmar Pecková decided to give herself and her friends and fans a very personal gift in the form of this Christmas album. The listener is treated to Bohemian and Moravian carols and to the tender poetry of Christmas songs from seventeenth-century Bohemian Baroque hymnals (Michna’s Chtíc aby spal is included in the collection, naturally). Dagmar Pecková has, of course, also turned her gaze beyond the hills on her homeland’s borders. Ultimately, whether it is carp or turkey on the festive dinner table, it is the birth of the Savior that is celebrated all over Europe. Good King Wenceslas is sung in England and Lulajze Jezuniu in Poland, while Stille Nacht and Adeste fideles are sung in many places in a variety of translations. But what about in Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, or Italy? The musical treasures of those countries are found here as well. Dagmar Pecková’s taste is unerring in her choice of musicians. Jaroslav Krcek enhances the charm of these songs both as the conductor of Musica Bohemica and as the arranger: within just a few bars, his unmistakable touch, inspired by Baroque and folk music, will enchant you with an incredible range of colors, from the intimacy of chamber music to an almost symphonic sound. Adding more color are the male voices of the Gentlemen Singers and other soloists. Please accept this invitation to tour Europe at Christmastide.

There's nothing like Christmas to bring out a composer's more unapologetically clever and enthusiastically indulgent, prodigiously inventive ideas, in apparent realization of childhood's most extravagant fantasies and enchanted imaginings, to say nothing of providing a wonderful excuse for an artist to simply go happily and uninhibitedly wild. The collection of Christmas-inspired orchestral "fantasies" on this CD is certain to become one of your favorite holiday listening traditions as you join these five composers in an upbeat--and sometimes unconventional--celebration of some of the season's most familiar Christmas carols and songs.

Of course, you can treat the material in a variety of ways, from the more straightforward yet impressively adroit fantasias on easily recognizable (if often rhythmically or melodically altered) tunes offered in Bryan Kelly's five-movement Improvisations on Christmas Carols to Victor Hely-Hutchinson's more deliberate attempt at symphonic style and structure in A Carol Symphony, where he actually incorporates carols such as Adeste fideles, God rest ye merry gentlemen, The Coventry Carol, The first nowell, and Here we come a-wassailing into a legitimate four-movement theme-and-development framework

At the program's mid-point we're treated to a string-orchestra arrangement (by composer and liner-note writer Philip Lane) of Peter Warlock's famed carol Bethlehem Down, followed by Lane's own three-movement Wassail Dances from 1973. This latter work shows a fine command of orchestral color and a healthy respect for the power of rhythm and momentum. Finally, we hear Patric Standford's A Christmas Carol Symphony, a big, robust, ruddy-cheeked tribute to this most happy and optimistic of holidays that proudly and relentlessly exerts its sparkling, brassy, brightly colored atmosphere through a mélange of at least a dozen carols, from Deck the hall and Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen to Ding dong merrily on high, The holly and the ivy, and We wish you a merry Christmas. The City of Prague Philharmonic proves a first-rate interpreter of these scores, conveying all the music's exuberance and spirit with flawless technical prowess and Technicolor-grade contributions from the winds and brass. Conductor Gavin Sutherland deserves credit for inspired leadership in these all-too-rarely performed works--any one of which would make a guaranteed audience-pleasing addition to a holiday concert. Having these together on one budget-priced CD is truly a gift worthy of the season it celebrates. And Naxos complements the whole production with top-grade sound. Adeste fidelis!

-- David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Over the past couple of decades, the Christmas recordings of John Rutter and his Cambridge Singers have claimed such a solid and widely enjoyed presence among choral music fans that we have to say that this group and its director/composer/arranger have long ago passed from phenomenon to tradition. This new release, which contains 19 previously issued but newly re-mixed tracks along with four never-before released selections, is both a celebration of that legacy and a re-affirmation of Rutter's uniquely influential contributions to a special genre that began years ago with his acclaimed carol arrangements and his now-classic anthem "What sweeter music". While this disc does not feature Rutter's own compositions--those can be found on an earlier companion disc, The John Rutter Christmas Album (type Q5895 in Search Reviews)--it does offer many of his carol arrangements (notably the infectious "Somerset Wassail") along with some of the finest by such masters as David Willcocks, H. Walford Davies, and Healey Willan (whose rarely-heard setting of "What is this lovely fragrance?" is happily included rather than the fine but ubiquitous Willcocks version).

The program also provides a very healthy dose of original pieces, from Victoria's O magnum mysterium, Handel's For unto us a child is born, Kenneth Leighton's Lully, lulla, thou little tiny child, and Britten's A New Year Carol, to Sweelinck's double-choir Hodie Christus natus est, John Tavener's The Lamb, and Peter Warlock's Balulalow and I saw a fair maiden. The disc ends with Vaughan Williams' rousing Fantasia on Christmas Carols. As you might expect, there's not a dull moment during this very generously filled 77-plus-minute CD, and there's so much joy and beauty in these well-chosen, perfectly sung pieces that a simple numerical rating doesn't do it justice. The sound is appropriately full, vibrant, clear, and dynamic. Add this to your list. [11/8/2003]

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

The international award-winning octet, VOCES8, has established itself at the forefront of British a cappella. Performing a repertoire ranging from Renaissance polyphony to unique Jazz and Pop arrangements, the group has been praised for stunning performance, exquisite singing and creating a sound that spans the entire range of vocal color.

REVIEW:

Voces8 offer polished and well-nigh flawless singing. The tone, however, seems rather ‘white’; frequently I found myself longing for a bit less studied technical perfection and a bit more by way of grit and feeling; much of this disc seems too smooth and effortless.

-- MusicWeb International