COMPOSERS: Various
LABELS: Coro
WORKS: A Traditional Christmas Carol Collection, Vol. II: works by Holst, Vaughan Williams, Pettman, C Wood, Poston, Darke, Ord, Sullivan and Traditional
PERFORMER: The Sixteen/Harry Christophers
CATALOGUE NO: COR 16085
Ensemble singing of the highest quality is a given in this carol collection from The Sixteen, which mixes such regular favourites as Vaughan Williams’s arrangement of ‘The truth from above’, Ord’s ‘Adam Lay Ybounden’ and Darke’s setting of ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ to once popular but nowadays less-often heard carols such as Holst’s ‘Masters in this Hall’ and Vaughan Williams’s rarely heard ‘Down in Yon Forest’. More spontaneity and light-heartedness might occasionally help, but for a serious approach this would be difficult to better. Terry Blain