Warlock: Benedicamus Domino

Choirs and orchestras join for a beautiful celebration of 20th-century British Christmas favourites recorded in sumptuous Argo sound. Book-ended by two perennial favourites – Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols and Finzi’s In terra pax – this collection explores the subtle and radiant music of Howells, Warlock, Ireland and Holst, and includes an orchestral number popularized by Beecham, Delius’s Sleigh Ride. A magical Christmas journey!

Bill Ives leads the famed Choir of Magdalen College in this selection of choral favourites for Advent & Christmas. The music on this CD ranges from quiet reflection and anticipation to the excitement and celebration of the birth of Jesus and the coming of the Wise Men.

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).

Here is a beautiful new recording exploring the music and themes of Advent, including some well-known carols and antiphons alongside some newer, less frequently heard pieces. An ideal present!

The Choir of Queens’ College, Cambridge is well known in the UK, singing three times a week at services in Queens’ College Chapel. They also travel abroad outside the academic term, with recent tours to Hong Kong, USA, France, Germany, Italy and Belgium.

Silas Wollston, their director, has been principal continuo player and assistant conductor to Sir John Eliot Gardiner since 1999 and has a versatile and varied career as researcher, performer and composer.

This recital is the first ever by the girls and men of Exeter Cathedral. The programme features much previously unrecorded repertoire, reflecting the music sung by the choir throughout the Cathedral’s year.

In the run-up to Advent and Christmas, the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge under Andrew Nethsingha presents a joyous celebration of music for the festive season. The disc includes original works by John Rutter, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Elizabeth Poston, and Kenneth Leighton. These are complemented by arrangements of popular songs, and a selection of congregational hymns, all displaying strong ties to the Advent and Christmas seasons.

This disc was recorded in the College Chapel in full surround-sound, which means that it not only sounds spectacular, but recreates to a spectacular degree the experience of listening to the Choir perform in the Chapel.

The Choir of St John’s College, established in the 1670s, is today one of the finest college choirs in the world, known and loved by millions for its recordings, broadcasts, and concert tours.

Anthems and songs performed by one of the best choirs in the UK, that of Winchester Cathedral.