Head, M: The Little Road to Bethlehem

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

Here is a lovely collection of Christmas Carols from the ever-improving cathedral choir in Chester. A varied selection of old and new carols is interspersed with some short organ interludes.

Dame Felicity Lott, revered British soprano, says of this CD:

“ Summertime also has many of my favourite songs in English, French and German. We made the CD at a friend`s house, and the sessions were so relaxed, with no London traffic to cause endless retakes! It`s a real mix of beautiful songs of all kinds, on a summer theme. I chose songs I loved, from Gershwin to Christopher Robin….

Three centuries of song are represented here, and, as BBC Music Magazine's Hilary Finch put it “such is the skill of Johnson's programming that the entire recital seems to be a single, sustained exhalation of rapture and reflection”

She went on to say:

The upper reaches of Lott's still gleaming soprano inhabit Barber's 'Shining Night' and Fauré's Clair de lune'. And her robust English version of Schubert's 'Who is Sylvia?' finds an irresistible companion in Arne's 'Where the Bee Sucks', with its veritable midsummer night's dream of an accompaniment from Johnson. The artists' palpable sense of joy and well-being gathers momentum as they visit Berlioz's 'L'île inconnue' and as they sing on the water with Schubert. . . . And Lott and Johnson know well that the only way to face sentiment is to acknowledge its own integrity, as they do when they listen to Haydn Wood's 'Little Brown Bird' and eavesdrop with Fraser-Simson on Christopher Robin saying his prayers.

This CD features songs from a great variety of composers - Gershwin, Barber, Cole Porter, Bernstein, Brahms, Schubert, Arne, Schumann, Berlioz, and many more. A full 29 tracks of summer-themed songs!

The first of this month’s ‘double bill’ from Westminster presents a delightful and unusual selection of music for Christmas from the Abbey Choir. It encompasses all the diverse themes of Christmas which have inspired composers across the ages: light shining in darkness; the tenderness of mother and child; the fulfilment of promise; and the warm merriment of corporate celebration.

An excellent selection of contemporary carols features the composers Jonathan Dove and Bob Chilcott among others. The richness of twentieth-century church music is illustrated in works by Poulenc, Walton, Mathias and Leighton, and by the heartbreakingly lovely piece The little road to Bethlehem by Michael Head. Skilful arrangements of the traditional carols Silent night, In dulci jubilo and I saw three ships, complete this attractive seasonal release.

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.

Who is Michael Head? His name may be largely forgotten but the music here forms part of the rich seam of English song in the manner of Quilter, Gurney and Warlock. Born in 1900, he worked modestly as a singer, pianist, teacher, broadcaster and adjudicator, writing his first song (The ships of Arcady) aged 19, studying at the Royal Academy of Music, where he became a professor of piano aged 27, remaining there for the rest of his career.

At the centre of his composing life were songs, which he used to perform as a kind of one-man band, accompanying himself at the piano. Out of more than 100, here’s a choice selection: setting poets such as Walter de la Mare, John Masefield and Christina Rossetti, many of them focus on the pleasures of England—its flora and fauna, its changing seasons and lyrical landscapes.

They’re sung by three of the brightest stars in today’s vocal firmament, Ailish Tynan (making her Hyperion debut), Catherine Wyn-Rogers and Roderick Williams, accompanied by Christopher Glynn, who adds Head to his previous recordings of Reger and Brahms.

"The most wonderful natural soprano voice you will ever hear." Do not miss it.

Lynda has been singing since she was a young girl and today she has won many prizes and awards in Northern Ireland. She studied music at Queen's University, Belfast where she studied with the late great Irene Sandford. Much in demand as a soloist, Lynda also has been involved with Castleward Opera where she has sung a number of leading roles. She has also featured as guest soprano with the Ulster Orchestra in their series of Christmas Concerts as well as on television in different programmes for the BBC.

I first came across Lynda Barrett when she was singing as part of a choir that I was recording in St.Anne's Cathedral, Belfast. Suddenly in the solo section of an anthem a solo voice shone through that was something rather special and that nearly made me fall off my seat in amazement! It was a wonderful mixture of purity, clarity and beauty that was far removed from the average solo soprano. Not only was this a voice of rare quality but Lynda sang from the heart and not from the head. Here was a God given gift from a very modest lady, which i felt should be heard by a far wider audience. A CD was therefore born...

Lynda has recorded a programme of music that is delightful on the earand one that I feel best conveys the qualities of this superb voice captured for posterity.

The richly fascinating history of the Christmas carol spans some nine centuries, from the 12th Century until today, bringing together courtly and popular words and music to contemplate and praise the Christ child.

Acclaimed by The Guardian as ‘poignantly expressive’, soprano Monica Whicher joins one of the world’s foremost harp virtuosos and former Principal Harpist with the Toronto Symphony, Judy Loman.

Together they interpret carols both old and new, beloved and unfamiliar, many in Ms. Loman’s expert arrangements.

Mark Waddell’s “Rocking” included here was specially written for these choristers for this CD. Like David Hill’s arrangement of “Away in a manger”, it demonstrates the power of a good tune in the hands of a skilful arranger. This is one of the most respected Cathedral choirs in the country.

Noel Nouvelet is a typically vibrant Vasari mix of traditional carols and exciting arrangements of familiar tunes, reflecting the choir’s ongoing desire to dress up the traditional in new clothes, to blend tradition with innovation. So, for example, alongside Kenneth Leighton's beautiful Coventry Carol, Naji Hakim’s exuberant version of Ding dong! Merrily on high and Morten Lauridsen’s powerful O magnum mysterium sits Ward Swingle’s arrangement of Mel Tormé's Christmas Song, Jonathan Rathbone's sumptuous arrangement of Silent Night and Nigel Short's equally lush adaptation of Away in a manger. The CD also includes several world premiere recordings, including Love came down at Christmas by Humphrey Clucas and Andrew Carter's firmly tongue-in-cheek showpiece arrangement of The Twelve Days of Christmas.