Hadley, P: I sing of a maiden

A new festive release from the Choir of Jesus College Cambridge under their director Mark Williams – with additional performances from organists Robert Dixon and Timothy Lambourn, and trumpeter Rebecca Crawshaw. The programme is drawn from pieces for the festivals of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany and Candlemas: "Of the annual Christian seasons, it is surely that from Advent to Epiphany which inspires believer and non-believer alike the most: the believer celebrates Christ’s birth whilst the non-believer considers hopes for rebirth and renewal as a New Year approaches … If aspirations surrounding the arrival of a new born child are universal, the Christmas music chosen here reflects the season’s inspiration through quite recent compositions, alongside music from the early part of the 20th century." Mark Williams

This 2-CD set contains an extremely wide range of music for boys' choirs, from the early polyphony of Allegri's Miserere to the present-day popular songs of Prince and Enya. Also included are some interesting works by some great 20th-century composers such as Copland, Britten and Ned Rorem.

The featured choirs are some of the world's most notable boys' choirs, from the Vienna Boys' Choir and the American Boychoir to, perhaps the best-known of them all, the Choir of King's College, Cambridge. The most recent of the choirs here is Libera, formed by their conductor, Robert Prizeman, from school boys from around south London.

So, for those who already find the freshness and youthfulness of boys' voices uniquely appealing here is the perfect compilation. For those who have yet to make the discovery this set should prove a delightful musical journey.

An ideal Christmas release in this Royal Jubillee year, from the Choristers of St George’s Chapel - the Queen’s chapel in Windsor Castle.

A selection of traditional favourites, combined with less well-known carols and Christmas music, sung by the angelic boys’ voices of St George’s Chapel Choir.

Original Christmas music and arrangements for treble voices.

The collection is completed with three seasonal organ solos, played by internationally-renowned organist and Director of Music of St George’s Chapel, Timothy Byram-Wigfield.

A wonderful showcase to demonstrate the art of the boy chorister!

This ‘songbook’ is unique to the Schola Cantorum choristers of Tewkesbury Abbey. “Essentially, it’s a showcase for the Abbey trebles,” their Director of Music Benjamin Nicholas explains. “We’ve been assembling our own 'Songbook' for quite a while now – the songs the trebles sing, from time to time, in boys-only concerts, and which they are taught in individual singing lessons. I’ve always been keen to build each boy up as a soloist, not necessarily with the express idea of them singing lots of solos, but so that they can learn to sing in a soloistic way.”

This is evident most of all in the distinctive singing of 11-year-old Laurence Kilsby, whose gifts won him the BBC Chorister of the Year competition in 2009. On this recording, he features as soloist in two Shelley settings by Roger Quilter, the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria and in John Ireland’s beautiful, sincerely-felt Passiontide motet Ex Ore Innocentium from 1944.

An unusual and ambitious collection of choral and organ music in honour of the Virgin Mary from this excellent parish church choir.

Includes Górecki’s famous setting of Totus tuus, written for Pope John Paul II.

First recording of Judith Bingham’s Ancient Sunlight.

Featuring the internationally-renowned Fine Arts Brass Ensemble in the Langlais Mass.