Gardner, J: Tomorrow shall be my dancing day

Bill Ives leads the famed Choir of Magdalen College Choir in this selection of choral favorites for Advent and Christmas.The music on this recording ranges from quiet reflection and anticipation to the excitement and celebration of the birth of Jesus and the coming of the Wise Men. Magdalen College is one of the oldest choral foundations in England, with an unbroken tradition stretching back to 1480.The Choir retains much the same shape as it had in the 15th-century, with 16 boy Choristers (educated at Magdalen College School) and 12 adult Academical Clerks (undergraduates of the College).

Performances of carols both ancient and modern have become central to the celebration of Christmas.

The choral music on this disc includes Holst’s surprisingly neglected Christmas Day, as well as music by Leighton, Joubert, Mathias, Gardner and Rutter.

The nostalgic mood of Howells’s evergreen carol anthems is echoed in Finzi’s In terra pax, which recalls the pealing of bells at midnight on a frosty Christmas Eve.

The City of London Choir, which enjoys an enviable reputation as a “leader among non-professional choruses” (The Times), makes its Naxos début with this delightful recording.

“The best choir of its kind in Britain? Very possibly…” (Michael White)

For their second release on Orchid Classics, Ex Cathedra present a brand new recording of Christmas repertoire based upon their highly successful “Christmas by Candlelight” Concert series.

Christmas has always been a special time for Ex Cathedra and their roots are firmly established in the wonderful repertoire associated with this joyful time of year. This is the first recording which features both the Choir, Consort, and their Academy of Vocal Music.

Featuring compositions and/or arrangements by Alec Roth, Benjamin Britten, John Gardner, John Joubert, Harold Darke, Naji hakim, Kenneth Leighton, Tomas Pascual, Felix Mendelssohn, Giovanni Gabrielli, Franz Xavier Gruber, Martin Bates, David Willcocks and Jeffrey Skidmore. The booklet contains full texts.

From its home in Birmingham, Ex Cathedra has established an international reputation as a leading UK choir and Early Music ensemble. Under founder and Artistic Director Jeffrey Skidmore, Ex Cathedra is known for its vibrant performances and a passion for seeking out not only the best but the unfamiliar and the unexpected in the choral repertoire. Ex Cathedra celebrate their 40th Anniversary in 2009 and this will be highlighted in articles about them and interviews with Jeffrey Skidmore, in the music press

A varied programme of Christmas music, including familiar and some unfamiliar items, recorded in the largest mediaeval church in Northern Europe with its spectacular acoustic.

First recordings of new carols by Richard Shephard and John Scott Whiteley.

Robert Sharpe’s first recording with the Minster Choir since taking up the appointment of Director of Music at the Minster in September 2008.

Described by Choir & Organ as ‘a tremendous choir, with superb technique and an immense, expressive range’, Orphei Drängar give proof of its versatility in a highly varied programme which still manages to stay within the theme of Christmas: original settings and new arrangements of Swedish folk songs and Christmas classics, English carols and Broadway songs – with Stille Nacht, a Russian hymn in praise of the Holy Virgin and Eric Whitacre’s widely admired Lux aurumque.

The Gloucester Cathedral Choir follow their imaginative and acclaimed first release on AVIE, In The Beginning (AV 2072) with a spirited holiday album of traditional and contemporary carols, including famous arrangements by Sir David Willcocks and Sir Philip Ledger, as well as the newly commissioned title track from Richard Rodney Bennett.

As the successor to the boys and monks of the Benedictine Abbey, The Gloucester Cathedral Choir boasts a tradition tracing back over 900 years. Henry VIII established their current incarnation, along with the Church of England, in 1539. Andrew Nethsingha, the choir’s Music Director at the time of this recording, was a chorister at Exeter Cathedral, where his father, the distinguished Sri Lankan-born English church musician Lucian Nethsingha, was director of music for 26 years. He studied at the Royal College of Music where he was awarded seven prizes and was the youngest cathedral organist in Britain when appointed to Truro Cathedral in 1994. In addition to singing in six services every week, the Gloucester Cathedral Choir is heard annually at the Three Choirs Festival, and regularly at the Cheltenham International Festival and on BBC radio and television broadcasts.