Pierpont: Jingle Bells

Jingle Wells offers an unusual and very festive collection of Christmas music from the choir of the famous thirteenth-century Cathedral of Wells.

There are offerings both sacred and secular, old and new, to suit all Christmas pallets sung by the highly acclaimed Wells Cathedral Choir, hailed by Gramophone in December 2010 as the highest ranking choir with children in the world.

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.

Christmas resonates with the sound of familiar seasonal music - music that is evocative, uplifting, cheerful, and above all, comfortable. There can surely be no other body of choral repertoire that has such immediate appeal, and this comes about largely through widespread familiarity and love of the tried and true favourites. The Graduate Choir, NZ needs little excuse to break out the tinsel or to indulge in the beauty of some of the most enduring pieces of seasonal music.

SAN FRANCISCO -An outstanding new release from America’s premier professional wind band! The Dallas Wind Symphony has a worldwide legion of followers and this is their first recording of holiday music.

Horns For The Holidays showcases an exciting 12-track lineup including brilliant original arrangements of festive favorites with many first recordings. This sonic spectacular also features the huge Fisk pipe organ at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, and is faithfully captured by Reference Recordings’ world-renowned team of engineer Keith Johnson and producer Tam Henderson. A treat for wind band enthusiasts, audiophiles, and all who love great holiday music!

And the liner notes are informative and a real hoot, as they might say in Texas!

Northern Sinfonia, conducted by Simon Halsey and joined by the amassed Newcastle-based choirs Northern Sinfonia Chorus and youth choir Quay Voices, ring in the holiday season with ‘Rejoice! Christmas at The Sage Gateshead’, a festive live recording featuring traditional carols, popular tunes and modern favourites.

Ring in the season with ‘Rejoice! Christmas at The Sage Gateshead’, with resident orchestra Northern Sinfonia conducted by Simon Halsey and joined by the amassed Newcastle-based choirs Northern Sinfonia Chorus and youth choir Quay Voices. This festive live recording features something for everyone – traditional carols such as The First Nowell, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and O Come All Ye Faithful, popular tunes including Sleigh Ride and Jingle Bells, and modern favourites such as Howard Goodall’s The Lord is my Shepherd – making it the perfect stocking filler for far-flung family and friends.

One of two releases in time for the Christmas period from the UKs' best-loved a cappella group The King’s Singers: 'Joy to the World' [CD] was recorded last year at one of their ever-popular Christmas shows in London’s Cadogan Hall.

The King’s Singers bring together a programme of popular hymns and carols alongside modern works and arrangements – all performed with their characteristic warmth and precision.

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s Christmas Concert, which takes place every December with performances in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen, is for many one of the highlights of the festive season.

This disc is a sample of the very best of these concerts, from well-loved family favourites – Twelve Days of Christmas, Jingle Bells – to the unique lesser-known works that make this event so consistently popular, such as Christmas Alphabet and The Penguin Song (which includes dance moves in the CD Booklet and above…)

The King’s School has its roots in the sixth century and its pupils live and work within the inspirational and ancient Precincts of Canterbury Cathedral and the grounds of St Augustine’s Abbey. Music has played a central role in the school’s life from its monastic foundations. The Crypt Choir, under the direction of Howard Ionascu, is the school’s senior choir. Its primary purpose is to provide music for weekly School services in Canterbury Cathedral, where the King’s School is part of the Foundation.

The choir also performs at outside venues, most recently St Paul’s, Knightsbridge, The Temple Church, St John’s, Smith Square and Westminster Abbey. It has toured extensively, including a number of European countries, New York, Boston, New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong. The Choir reached the final stage of the 2005 BBC Choir of the Year at the Lowry Centre in Salford. In July of that year the Choir was invited to perform Tallis’ Spem in alium alongside The Sixteen and Harry Christophers in Canterbury Cathedral. The Choir has been particularly active in performing contemporary music.

It has performed in the Sounds New Festivals, featuring works by James Macmillan, Paul Patterson and Gabriel Jackson. In December 2005 it gave the first performance of a commission by Howard Goodall, Of the dark past, in Canterbury Cathedral.