The acclaimed Magdalen College Choir celebrates the diversity of the twentieth-century English carol repertoire in a programme that combines well-loved standards and innovative choir favorites ranging in emotion from quiet contemplation to festive joy. The selection of carols and organ solos, led by director and organist Daniel Hyde, culminates in Ralph Vaughan Williams’s celebrated Fantasia on Christmas Carols with renowned baritone Roderick Williams in the solo part. Several carols focus on the sheer joy of the miraculous Incarnation itself. William Mathias’s A babe is born is a lively setting which gives full rein to the composer’s syncopated, jazzy parallelisms. Optimism is also the principal mode of Christopher Steel’s People look east. In its ebullient joy, the piece bounces off into a different key in the third verse and deploys the voices in canon, before swinging back to a final recapitulation, replete with a jubilant descant. Composers for organ have found themselves drawn to this treasury of festive folksongs. The French organist and teacher Marcel Dupre was requested by his daughter Marguerite to write a setting of the carol Il est ne le divin enfant. The resulting piece is a set of variations on the theme, with the rune variously in the pedals, decorated, and finally worked into a masterly fugue. In similar fashion, Herbert Sumsion transformed a number of carols into preludes for the instrument. Among them was The holly and the ivy which plucks little motifs from its source before gradually introducing the tune itself, building up to a grand statement before subsiding into quiet peace.

On 14 December 1918, women were permitted to stand for Parliament and were granted the vote for the first time in British history. As part of the centenary celebrations for this milestone and to raise awareness of persistent inequalities in society, Hilary Campbell and the distinctive choir, Blossom Street, present repertoire by famous and lesser-known female composers ranging from Rebecca Clarke’s richly moving Ave Maria to Stef Conner’s haunting setting of Hildegard von Bingen’s text ‘O Splendidissima Gemma.’ Blossom Street is a versatile and vibrant chamber choir composing some of the UK’s best young singers, which performs regularly on TV and radio as well as on the concert platform. Directed by Hilary Campbell, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, the group was formed over a decade ago, while the singers were studying at the University of York, and relocated to London in 2007. On the concert platform, Blossom Street has performed at many of the major London venues including Wigmore Hall, St. John’s Smith Square and St. James’s Piccadilly, and further afield at places like the Royal Palace, Madrid.

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REVIEW:

The music dates as far back as 1937 but is mostly contemporary, and it features the fine British choir Blossom Street under its director Hilary Campbell. Ten of the 14 pieces here are receiving their world premieres, and the program collectively suggests a continuity of female creativity. Blossom Street is involved with the texts, making them clear and often sounding gorgeous. A fine release that goes beyond its stated goal and reflects a bit on the nature of music by women.

– All Music Guide (James Manheim)