The Queen’s Six release their third album on the Resonus Classics label with a scintillating and varied programme of music for Christmas. Both modern and traditional carols feature alongside a selection of lighter and contemplative evocations of the festive season. The Queen’s Six bring their trademark flair to this broad range of arrangements for men’s voices, with works from the Renaissance to the present day, including a tribute to the life of the inimitable David Willcocks - forever associated with the Christmas season - and new works by Thomas Hewitt Jones, Richard Madden & Matthew Coleridge.

Renowned organist Stephen Farr returns to the Resonous label with a major survey of the complete organ works of the twentieth-century is composer Kenneth Leighton. This is the first time Leighton's complete solo organ works have been recorded together with the collaborative organ works, with appearances from John Butt, Chloe Hanslip and Nicky Spence in Martyrs for organ duet, These Are They Wodners for tenor and organ and Fantasia on a Choral for ivolin and organ. Recorded over three instruments, the monumental Rieger organ of St. Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, the city where Leighton spent most of his working life as a composer, is the centrepiece organ of the set, which also features the organs of Birmingham's Symphony Hall and St. Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, London.

Following on from their acclaimed debut album (Music of the Realm – RES10146), a capella vocal sextet The Queen’s Six return with a captivating exploration of secular jewels by the same six composers associated with the Tudor and Jacobean royal courts featured on that earlier recording - Thomas Tomkins, William Byrd, Thomas Morley, Thomas Weelkes, William Byrd & Thomas Tallis. Themes as diverse as royalty, balletts, birds, the natural world, dedications and love & death serve to celebrate the immense range of this golden age of English music.

The BBC Singers and conductor David Hill join with one of the world´s oldest continuously running orchestras, The Norwegian Wind Ensemble (NWE), to present this major new arrangement of George Frideric Handel’s most celebrated oratorio – Messiah. Arranged for wind ensemble by NWE member Stian Aareskjold, this version here receives its world premiere recording with a stellar cast of soloists who bring this visionary re-scoring of this famous work vividly to life. The BBC Singers hold a unique position in British musical life. The choir’s virtuosity sees it performing everything from Byrd to Birtwistle, Tallis to Takemitsu. Its expertise in contemporary music has brought about creative relationships with some of the most important composers and conductors of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including Britten, Maxwell Davies, Poulenc and Judith Weir, Associate Composer of the BBC Singers and Master of the Queen’s Music. The Norwegian Wind Ensemble is a unique institution in Norway’s cultural life. The orchestra’s eventful history stretches back to 1734 and the ‘First Brigade Band’ or ‘Division Band’ of Fredriksten Fortress in Halden. It is the oldest orchestra in Norway as well as the oldest cultural institution of any kind with an unbroken history.

London-based period instrument ensemble, The Amadè Players, with their artistic director and conductor Nicholas Newland, make their commercial recording debut on the Resonus Classics label with this innovative and fascinating programme of works from unjustly neglected composers of the early classical era. Inspired by Newland’s original research into the period, the group explore composers who inspired and cultivated innovation in eighteenth-century Vienna. Alongside Haydn and Mozart, these composers revolutionised the symphony in particular, while making drastic impacts on the concerto and sacred vocal genres. With concertos from violinists George Clifford and Dominika Feher, The Amadè Players are also joined by the Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (dir. David Skinner), for the Requiem Mass in E flat major by Johann Baptist Waṅhal.

The acclaimed Amsterdam-based early music ensemble Fantasticus returns to Resonus with this new recording of the complete Op. 12 flute quartets by the French composer and violinist Louis-Gabriel Guillemain (1705-1770). The ensemble is joined by the internationally renowned and celebrated period flautist Wilbert Hazelzet for this musical journey through this enticing and elegant set of six sonatas, the first of two sets of 'Sonates en Quatuors' by this engaging composer. Fantasticus plays Baroque music on historical instruments. When Fantasticus performs it is an act of creation that gives old music an immediacy and a relevance to today's listeners. The group believes in connecting with their audiences and sees each concert as a joint journey of discovery, passing peaks of intensity and intimacy along the way. The ensemble has, since 2010, been performing in important halls and festivals around Europe. They have also recorded a number of highly praised albums with Resonus Classics.

Continuing their ongoing series with Resonus Classics, the Saint Thomas Choir of Men & Boys, Fifth Avenue, New York and conductor John Scott release a compelling and powerful recording of choral works by French composer Gabriel Fauré, including his iconic Op. 48 Requiem. Featuring the version accompanied by chamber orchestra and organ, the choir and Scott are joined for Fauré’s best-known work by the excellent New York-based Orchestra of St Luke’s. Also featured on this recording are a selection of shorter works including the celebrated Cantique de Jean Racine and the striking Messe Basse for upper voices.

For most listeners, even those experienced with Christmas choral collections, the majority of original works and arrangements on this program will be unfamiliar. And that turns out to be a good thing—the selections are diverse enough yet compatible and complementary in style, all set with a sensitivity to text, to the spirit of the occasion—whether celebratory or contemplative—and, importantly, to singability and listenability.

So many Christmas collections in recent years, for some reason mostly from British choirs, have to their credit highlighted new music—but much of it unsingable by any but the most accomplished ensembles, and so difficult for the ear to reconcile alongside starkly more “accessible” works that the listening experience becomes uneasy and even intermittently unpleasant. Which is why I warily listened to the first several selections here—and found myself thoroughly and continuously surprised as the disc progressed. Here is a choral Christmas program that you can listen to straight through without fear, combining the delight of discovery—new composers, new music and texts, new arrangements of traditional carols—with the comfort and joy of a few beloved, favorite, familiar anchors, from Joubert’s There is no rose and Howells’ A spotless rose, to Warlock’s Bethlehem Down.

Beginning with Malcolm Archer’s A little child there is yborn, its bouncy, jovial character reminiscent of a John Rutter setting, the program progresses through a wide array of traditional texts and sometimes tunes—The angel Gabriel; In the bleak midwinter; Tomorrow shall be my dancing day; The Holly and the Ivy; Coventry Carol—but in inventive and always agreeable new realizations by composers and arrangers such as Paul Spicer (whose In a Field as I Lay is a highlight), Gareth Treseder (Blessed be that Maid Marie—another gem), Michael Higgins, Becky McGlade, Betty Roe, and Sally Beamish. And it doesn’t hurt that the singing by the 17 voices of Sonoro—yes, a professional British chamber choir—is consistently well-tuned, perfectly balanced, and projects a vibrant, characterful sound that gives the impression of concert-like spontaneity—a rare and welcome effect on a recording. The sooner you get this the more time you’ll have to listen. Highly recommended.

– ClassicsToday.com

The Prince Regent's band, featuring noted brass players, make their recording debut on Resonous Classics with a celebration of the legendary Distin Family. During the mid-nineteenth century the Distin Family blazed a traila cross Europe and North America performing countless concerts and promoting new and exciting designs of brass instruments. The Distins originally performed on a mixture of natural and keyed brass instruments but halfway through their career, thanks to a chance meeting with Adolphe Sax in Paris in 1844, they adopted the new valved brass instruments, and in particular the new "saxhorn", with which their names became synonymous. In "The Celebrated Distin Family", period brass specialists The Prince Regent's Band have recreated the lost Distin Family repertoire, performing on their unique collection of original saxhorns and other fascinating brass instruments of the period.

Cellist Robin Michael and pianist Daniel Tong present a fascinating new recording of the two sonatas for cello and piano by Johannes Brahms along with Robert Schumann's distinctive Op. 102 Fünf Stücke im Volkston. Taking a historically informed approach, this unique-sounding performance of these mainstays of the repertoire givves a captivating insight into the chamber music sound world of the late nineteenth century, performed on an 1890s Blüthner boudoir grand piano thought ot have been played and selected by Brahms himself from the maker's factory and a cello strung with gut.

Amsterdam-based Baroque trio, Fantasticus, return to the Resonus label, following a number of highly-acclaimed releases, with this scintillating and inspiring survey of works from the German stylus fantasticus period. Charting the rise of the Baroque era, Fantasticus explore the extravagance that flourished when composers and instrumentalists dared to traverse the established limits of the usual. Among the composers represented are Dieterich Buxtehude, Philipp Heinrich Erlebach, Johann Philipp Krieger, Johann Jacob Walther and August Kühnel in a scintillating combination of works for trio and solo.

Recorded in the inspirational surroundings of The Cobbe Collection of early keyboard instruments in England’s Hatchlands Park, the celebrated early keyboardist Menno van Delft makes his Resonus solo debut with J.S. Bach’s six keyboard Partitas – the first part of Bach’s Clavier-Übung series of keyboard works. Using an original 1784 instrument by Christian Gotthelf Hoffmann (one of only two remaining clavichords from this maker), van Delft makes the case for performing these works on Bach’s most favored keyboard instrument. Born in 1963 in Amsterdam, Menno van Delft studied harpsichord, organ, and musicology at the Sweelinck Conservatory in The Hague and the University of Utrecht. Amongst his professors were Anneke Uittenbosch and Gustav Leonhardt. In 1988 Menno van Delft won the clavichord prize at the C. Ph. E. Bach Competition in Hamburg and subsequently made his debut at the Holland Festival Early Music Utrecht. He teaches harpsichord, clavichord and basso continuo at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater in Hamburg.

The Amsterdam-based period violin and keyboard ensemble, Duo Belder Kimura, make their Resonus Classics debut with a comprehensive and compelling survey of the complete works for violin and keyboard by C.P.E. Bach. Rising star violinist Rie Kimura and prolific keyboardist Pieter-Jan Belder combine to breathe new life into these remarkable and challenging jewels of the early violin and keyboard repertoire.

For TRACKLIST/PERFORMERS SUMMARY, please expand note below:

Named as one of the world’s finest choirs by Gramophone, Wells Cathedral Choir and their director Matthew Owens make their Resonus Classics debut with a programme of carols typically performed during the Christmas season in Wells – A Wells Christmas. With an irresistible array of popular carols and more recent offerings this scintillating and varied programme is vividly realised by the combined boy and girl choristers and Vicars Choral that continue the 1100-year-old tradition of music in Wells Cathedral. Included in this compelling programme are works by David Willcocks, Andrew Carter, John Rutter, and Kenneth Leighton, Thomas Hewitt Jones. Also included are world premieres by Bob Chilcott, Jefferson McConnaughey & Matthew Owens.

TRACKLIST:

1 Bob Chilcott: Sussex Carol
2 Andrew Carter: A maiden most gentle
3 Jefferson McConnaughey: In the bleak midwinter
4 Malcolm Sargent: Zither Carol
5 Matthew Owens: Lullay, my liking
6 David Willcocks: Deck the hall
7 John Rutter: Donkey Carol
8 David Willcocks: Tomorrow shall be my dancing day
9 Ralph Vaughan Williams: This is the truth sent from above
10 John Rutter: Sans Day Carol
11 Alfred Hollins: Christmas Cradle Song
12 Bob Chilcott: The Sparrow's Carol
13 Thomas Hewitt Jones: What child is this?
14 John Rutter: Jesus Child
15 John Rutter: I saw three ships
16 Kenneth Leighton: O leave your sheep
17 David Willcocks: Jingle, bells
18 Richard Elliott: I Saw Three Ships
19 Arthur Warell: A Merry Christmas
20 Peter Gritton: Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Following on from their debut release on Resonus – 'Music for Troubled Times' – The Ebor Singers, with director Paul Gameson, returns to the label with a companion album of music for Christmas from the time of the English Civil War. With 'A Cavalier Christmas', the choir are joined by the Chelys Consort of Viols in exploring this fascinating, yet turbulent, period in music as Charles I sought to continue to observe the festive season in style, contrary to attempts by England’s Puritan-influenced parliament to ban such celebrations. Acclaimed for performances and recordings that sparkle with fresh insight and vibrant musicality, The Ebor Singers has earned a reputation as one of the most exciting vocal ensembles in the north of England. Based in the beautiful medieaval city of York, the choir performs regularly in the city’s stunning buildings, including York Minster.

-----

REVIEWS:

What Christmas music was sung during the English Civil War period? The York-based Ebor Singers answer that question in this fine anthology of works by Gibbons, Byrd, Dering, Jenkins and others.

– BBC Music Magazine

Paul Gameson coaxes fine singing and some admirable solo contributions from his Ebor ensemble, with the Chely’s Consort of Viols providing discrete accompaniment throughout.

– Classical Ear