This new recording captures the magic of the season as the RSNO and its Junior Chorus deliver a perfect selection of classic festive favourites in A Christmas Festival. These charming performances show why their joyous, fun-packed Christmas concerts, conducted by the inimitable Christopher Bell, are always a highlight of the Scottish seasonal calendar. The well-chosen programme finds traditional favourites, such as Jingle Bells, In a Cottage in a Wood and Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, sitting harmoniously alongside contemporary tunes from Michael Head and Howard Blake (The Snowman, The Bear). An unexpected but brilliant instrumental mash-up up of The Little Dummer Boy with Ravel’s Bolero gives centre-stage to the award-winning RSNO. Two fantastic medleys provide a one-stop shop of Christmas tunes both old and new which you’ll be hard pressed not to join in with! At turns rousing, sentimental, cheering and familiar, this is the perfect present this Christmas.

The RSNO Junior Chorus is one of the leading children and youth choirs in the UK, with over 400 members aged seven to eighteen. Formed in 1978 by Jean Kidd it has built up a considerable reputation singing under some of the world's most distinguished conductors. The RSNO Junior Chorus has sung on TV and radio, at BBC concerts and regularly appears at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Christopher Bell was appointed Chorus Director of the RSNO Junior Chorus in 1994 and is also Artistic Director of the National Youth Choir of Scotland and Chorusmaster of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus.

The RSNO has a worldwide reputation for the quality of its recordings, receiving two Diapason d’Or de l’année awards for Symphonic Music and eight GRAMMY Award nominations to date.

‘Scottish audiences will be familiar with Christopher Bell’s lively, eclectic Christmas concerts. The mix is infectious and the performances full of fun and panache.’ - The Daily Telegraph

Tracklisting:
1. Tàladh Chriosta (Christ Child's Lullaby)
2. Jolly Old Saint Nicholas (‘Christmas Time’)
3. Maria Wiegenlied (‘The Virgin's Slumber Song’)
4. The Little Road to Bethlehem
5. Mid-winter
6. Walking in the Air (from The Snowman)
7. Somewhere a Star Shines for Everyone (from The Bear)
8. I Pray
9. Up on the Housetop
10. Jingle Bells
11. (I'm Gettin') Nuttin' for Christmas
12. In a Cottage in a Wood
13. Christmas Carol Fantasy
14. Christmas Spirit
15. Little Bolero Boy (from A Classical Christmas Suite)
16. A Christmas Carnival
17. The Holly and the Ivy, Fantasy on Christmas Carols
18. Johnny Marks Medley
19. Schneewalzer
20. A Young Austrian Went Yodelling
21. Ring the Bells