A glorious collection of Christmas music spanning over 900 years, centered around Britten's A Ceremony of Carols – a work seen as both a signal of Britten’s turn back towards English musical and cultural traditions and as a distinctly modern composition. Owen Rees and the Choir of The Queen's College, Oxford present this alongside works that alternate between the early 17th century – by that most prolific composer and arranger of Lutheran Christmas music, Michael Praetorius – and the present: music by Judith Weir (1984), David Blackwell (2011), Jonathan Dove (2000), Dobrinka Tabakova (2018), Toby Young (2017), and Cecilia McDowall (2007). At one point we interrupt the pattern of alternation to look back half a millennium further than Praetorius, with Hildegard of Bingen’s O virga ac diadema. ‘An undoubted jewel in Britain’s choral scene’ (BBC Music Magazine), the Choir of The Queen’s College Oxford is among the finest and most active university choirs in the UK. Previous releases with Signum A New Heaven (2017) and The House of the Mind (2018) both went straight to no. 1 in the Specialist Classical Chart in their first week of release.

The sublime Choir of St. John’s College, Cambridge return with the second volume in their Advent series - celebrating the advent season from within the Christian tradition; a season celebrated since at least the sixth century. This splendid live recording, from within the Chapel of St. John’s College itself, features Christmas favorites, including Britten’s Deo Gracias from A Ceremony of Carols as well as gorgeous performances of lesser known works by modern composers including Jonathan Dove, Arvo Pärt and Paul Manz. The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge (link is external) is one of the finest collegiate choirs in the world – known and loved by millions from its broadcasts, concert tours and over 90 recordings. Founded in the 1670s, the Choir is known for its rich, warm and distinctive sound, its expressive interpretations and its ability to sing in a variety of styles. Alongside this discipline, the Choir is particularly proud of its happy, relaxed and mutually supportive atmosphere. The Choir is directed by Andrew Nethsingha following in a long line of eminent Directors of Music, recently Dr George Guest, Dr Christopher Robinson and Dr David Hill.

REVIEW:

‘Advent Live, Vol 2’ is a real album, the mystery and expectation of Advent coursing through a repertoire that never stoops below this ensemble’s judicious idea of what constitutes high-quality music, whatever the century. There is unhackneyed Telemann, Wolf, Goldschmidt, Britten and some poised works, new to me, by McCabe, Milner and Manz. Cecilia McDowall’s A Prayer to St John the Baptist brilliantly unifies otherwise autonomous organ and choir. Judith Bingham’s introduction to Hark, the glad sound! is like a modernist narthex to an ancient cathedral. The qualities of the choir hardly need repeating. It sounds like a string quartet flexing as much as an organ breathing, with no room for show or antiquated ‘look at us’ habits.

– Gramophone

The organ loomed large from early on in Bach’s life. The foundations of his multifaceted career as a professional musician were clearly laid in the careful cultivation of Bach’ prodigious talent as an organist whilst he was still a child. - See more at: http://www.signumrecords.com/catalogue/david-goode/johann-sebastian-bach:-the-complete-organ-works/sigcd800.html#sthash.gfLILMva.dpuf

This release brings together two works by Alvin Lucier centered on the pipe organ, a perfect instrument for Lucier’s compositional practice. Both are first recordings. “Swing Bridge” was commissioned by this record’s ensemble, the Australian Art Orchestra, for the Melbourne Town Hall Grand Organ. The score requires that specific pipes be removed from the organ and run into three specially constructed offset chests, each accommodating two pipes (six pitches total). These pipes are manipulated by three or more performers, known as ‘pipe wavers.’ This music explores the phenomenon of the organ making its operation performative and visceral. We hear the way the energy produced by the organ ‘sounds’ the space in which the music was performed and recorded, and, for those who witnessed the performance, we experienced the physicality of air moving through pipes as the wavers shifted the tuning of each pipe microtonally with their hands. This is conceptual work of the highest order but it is also sensual, beautiful, and engrossing, with the textures of the ensemble woven into the pulsations produced by the organ and the resonances of the room. For “Sizzles” the composer writes: “Drums of various sizes are randomly placed throughout the performance space. Fine materials such as lentils, chickpeas, and candy hearts are sprinkled on the drumheads. As low organ tones are sounded, the skins of the drums vibrate sympathetically, causing the drums to sound and the material to move. Each drum is individually amplified with a contact or air microphone and a separate amplifier.”

Grammy Award Nominee 2006 'Best Classical Contemporary Composition' Composed in 2005 as a specially commissioned ballet score fo New York City Ballet, 'Piano Concerto No.2' comprises three movements: cumnock fair, shabards and shamnation. The work here receives its world premiere recording. It is a highly energetic work - a frenzy of folksong and dance; the first movement, cumnock fair, is a whirling fantasy of eighteenth-century Scottish dance melodies; shambards makes use of Burnsian folksong with fragments of the Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor drifting in and out of focus; shamnation is heavily influenced by Scottish folklore, often quite devilish. 'For sheer excitement...this half-romp, half tantrum of a work is hot stuff', wrote The Times. 'A Scotch Bestiary' was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the BBC Philharmonic to inaugurate the new organ in the Disney Hall in Los Angeles. This is a conertante work for organ (an instrument rarely used by contemporary composers) and orchestra, in two parts, and follows in a tradition of musical portraiture to which Elgar, Saint-Saëns and Mussorgsky have made significant contributions.

From the moment this organ project began, it was without doubt that the new Dobson organ at Saint Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue would be an instrument of world-class beauty and of historic importance. One of the fundamental aspects of this new organ was to have a multi-faceted instrument able to support the congregational singing, choral accompaniments and a vast span of the organ literature. When considering what to record on this disc, I decided to focus on music close to my heart – the wonderful and varied music of Great Britain, from both past and present. A combination of works originally for organ and transcriptions for the instrument allowed me to explore the full tonal palette of the instrument and tease out all that the organ has to offer.

A new work that features on this disc is Andrew Carter’s Lacrimae which was written in memory of John Scott after his sudden death in 2015. Throughout the recording of this album, I was constantly reminded of John and what a wonderful mentor he had been to me throughout my career – firstly as a chorister at St. Paul’s and later at Saint Thomas. It was poignant to be recording this disc on the organ that, sadly, he never saw come to fruition; I would like to dedicate this disc to him. Given that many of my performances of the works on this album are indebted to his immaculate recordings and performances (which were truly mesmerizing), I hope he would approve of this program as a means to show off the immense beauty of this instrument. [Benjamin Sheen]

The addition of a brass ensemble to Christmas concerts and carol services, combining with the more traditional sounds of choir and organ, has become increasingly popular in recent years. This recording brings together a number of works for the specific forces of choir, brass quintet, organ and percussion, some of which have been arranged specially for this release. Interspersed amongst these works are a selection of popular Christmas carols which have formed and integral part of Winchester College Chapel Choir’s core repertoire for many years. Winchester College was founded by William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, in 1382, and Winchester College Quiristers have for over 625 years sung services in Winchester College Chapel. In modem times they have formed a choir renowned for its excellence. Having celebrated its 25th anniversary in the 2017-18 season, Onyx Brass continues to be the leading light in establishing the brass quintet as a medium for serious chamber music, inspired by the pioneering early years of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. To this end, the group has commissioned and performed the world premières of over 200 new works, with many more in the pipeline for performance and recording.

REVIEWS:

The heart of this grouping of Christmas songs is the cantata A Winter’s Night by Cecilia McDowall. That is not really new music; all the tunes are traditional ones, arranged by the composer. Some seem unnecessarily complex, but that’s what contemporary composers do. In the end, it’s all very English, but not unfamiliar, and if you like organ and brass along with a choir you might well go for this.

– American Record Guide

Andrew Nethsingha and The Choir of St John’s, Cambridge present a tribute album to two former directors, Christopher Robinson and David Hill, who celebrate their 85th and 65th birthdays respectively. Taking the idea of new growth as a starting point, the album develops from the seed of a single treble line, gradually adding organ, then lower voices, a second choir (Yale Schola Cantorum), 150 additional singers, and eventually combining nearly 500 voices together (former members and friends of the college choir). The programme spans Hildegard of Bingen to a new commission by James Long (b.1987) and also includes works by three ex-St Johnians: Herbert Howells, Johnathan Harvey and Christopher Robinson. The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge is one of the finest collegiate choirs in the world, known and loved by millions from its broadcasts, concert tours and recordings. Founded in the 1670s, the Choir is known for its distinctive rich, warm sound, its expressive interpretations and its breadth of repertoire.

“We Praise Our God” captures the daily and uniquely beautiful rhythm of chapel worship at Nashotah House Theological Seminary, an Anglican seminary in Nashotah, Wisconsin, founded in 1842. Each day of the academic year begins with Morning Prayer and Holy Eucharist. The day ends with Evensong, the music taken from The Hymnal 1982 and the Nashotah House Plainsong Psalter or the New Nashotah House Anglican Chant Psalter. Once a week, on Thursdays, the day begins with sung Matins in the morning, followed by a community music rehearsal when new music and a brief singing lesson are offered. Thursday’s Solemn High Eucharist in the evening is usually attended by the wider community of student and faculty families. This album attempts to recreate the experience of the “Alleluia, Sing” LP recording of the early 1970s, from the opening track of Nashotah’s beloved bell, Michael, to new settings of the Mass Ordinary used in the chapel, along with compositions by Nashotah faculty. The album was primarily recorded from live services during the celebration of the Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Blessed Virgin Mary on March 24 and 25, 2022.

“Composers have been setting the Requiem texts to music since the late Middle Ages, and it was to these early settings that I was drawn when writing my own offering: with simple, flowing melodic threads combined to create a richer fabric. My thanks to Rupert Gough and the vibrant young voices of the Choir of Royal Holloway for taking those threads and weaving them into such dazzling tapestries of harmony - adorned with the warmth of Southern Sinfonia’s gorgeous strings, and the lyrical song of Maxim Calver’s soaring cello.” (Matthew Coleridge)