Alexander Armstrong has given his baritone voice a rare outing in a new charity recording for Christmas.
The comedian and host of Pointless, the popular BBC TV quiz show, has joined The Sixteen in a special recording of Good King Wenceslas, proceeds of which will go towards Crisis, a UK charity for the homeless.
The chance to flex his vocal cords was a welcome one for Armstrong, who in his student days was a choral scholar in the choir of Trinity College, Cambridge. ‘I rarely get to sing these days,’ he says, ‘and what a privilege to perform with this great choir for a wonderful cause.’
Regular Radio 3 listeners may already be aware of his choral prowess – when, in 2007, he was a guest on the Private Passions programme, one of his choices of music was his own performance of the baritone solo in the Nunc Dimittis from the Stanford in G set of canticles.
Armstrong recorded the track with The Sixteen, the world-renowned choir, at St Augustine’s church in Kilburn. Overcoming the distraction of the choir’s array of splendidly awful Christmas sweaters, he sang the role of King Wenceslas while soprano Kirsty Hopkins sang the part of the page. Watch behind-the-scenes footage in the video below.
Click on the button below to buy the track, plus two other carols sung by The Sixteen, on iTunes for just £1.79.
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