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The Vasari Singers’ annual carol concerts always provide a warming blend of traditional favourites and less well-known music from all periods and styles. Here, joyous and masterful 16th-century polyphony sits alongside eternally popular Victorian carols, and exquisitely crafted settings by Howells and Walford Davies join works as recent as Gabriel Jackson’s The Christ-child. Bob Chilcott magically superimposes traditional carols with entrancing new material, and no Vasari Christmas would be complete without some close harmony Swingle singing. The Vasari Singers have also recorded Gabriel Jackson’s Requiem (8573049).
The Vasari Singers’ Great British Anthems [8572102] was described as “essential listening” by Gramophone. The mixture of moving beauty and entertaining good humour in this programme makes it a disc which is sure to appeal to a very wide audience this and every festive season.
Founded in 1980, Vasari Singers is among the leading chamber choirs in Britain, performing music ranging from Renaissance to contemporary. The choir performs regularly in London as well as visiting many of England’s cathedrals to sing services, with recent trips to Canterbury, Salisbury, Bath and Ripon. The choir and Jeremy Backhouse are deeply committed to contemporary music and have commissioned over twenty works since 2000, including works by Francis Pott and Gabriel Jackson.
Bob Chilcott: On Christmas Night (text by Traditional)
On Christmas Night: I. This is the truth (I)
Traditional: Gabriel's Message (arr. J. Rathbone)
Gabriel's Message (arr. J. Rathbone)
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: Hodie Christus natus est
Hodie Christus natus est
Michael Praetorius: Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (arr. J. Sandstrom)
Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (arr. J. Sandstrom)
Herbert Howells: Sing Lullaby
Sing Lullaby
Pierre Villette: Hymne a la Vierge, Op. 24
Hymne a la Vierge, Op. 24
Bob Chilcott: On Christmas Night (text by W. Ballet and F.X. Gruber)
On Christmas Night: VI. Sweet was the song
Theodoricus Petri Nylandensis: Of the Father's Heart Begotten (arr. D. Willcocks)
Of the Father's Heart Begotten (arr. D. Willcocks)
Giovanni Gabrieli: Hodie Christus natus est a 10
Hodie Christus natus est a 10
On Christmas Night (text by Traditional)
On Christmas Night: VII. Rejoice and be merry
Henry Walford Davies: O little town of Bethlehem
O little town of Bethlehem
Cecil Armstrong Gibbs: The Stable Door
The Stable Door
Adolphe Adam: Cantique de Noel (O Holy Night) (arr. J.E. West)
Cantique de Noel (O Holy Night) (arr. J.E. West)
Harold Darke: In the Bleak Mid-Winter
In the Bleak Mid-Winter
Gabriel Jackson: The Christ-child
The Christ-child
Nativity carol
Nativity carol
Jingle Bells (arr. B. Parry)
Jingle Bells (arr. B. Parry)
Bob Chilcott: Christmas-tide
Christmas-tide
Greg Lake: I Believe in Father Christmas (arr. J. Rathbone)
I Believe in Father Christmas (arr. J. Rathbone)
Jonathan Rathbone: Carol Medley
Carol Medley
Christmas 2012
***
“Rathbone's energetically bouncing arrangement of Gabriel's Message is a good place to sample the Vasari Singers' warmly engaged performances”
November 2012
“I found [the Gibbs] utterly beguiling and count it as a real discovery...The Vasari Singers always close their Christmas concerts with some seasonal sweetmeats, as they do here...the standard of singing throughout the programme is very high indeed – as we’ve come to expect from this fine ensemble.”
Click on any of the works listed above for alternative recordings.
On Christmas Night: I. This is the truth (I)
