The Spin Doctor Europadisc's Weekly Column

Whether you're looking for music to keep you company on the long winter nights, a soundtrack while you're putting up the decorations, or a present for someone else, each year the Christmas discs keep coming. This year's crop is particularly impressive, headed by our current Disc of the Week, Advent Live Vol. 3 from the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge (see review on our homepage). Captured over three years (2020-22), it's a tribute to outgoing music director Andrew Nethsingha's 15-year tenure, particularly during the challenging period of COVID-19 lockdowns and social distancing. As always, it's accompanied by thoughtful presentation that focuses on the Advent period's messages of hope and anticipation.

Looking forward to Christmas itself, the Signum label has come up with an especially wide-ranging festive spread. Phoenix Chorale's Christmas Album has a decidedly Hispanic flavour, as you'd expect from this corner of the United States, ranging from Francisco Guerrero's Beata Dei genitrix Maria to Ariel Ramírez's La Peregrinación. But it also finds room for absorbing arrangements of such traditional favourites as Holst's In the Bleak Midwinter, Gruber's Silent Night, and snappy covers of Pierpont's Jingle Bells and Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride. With Cecilia McDowall's Trinity Triptych providing a welcome meditative focal point, there's something for everyone, delivered with distinctive American panache.

Also on Signum, the Armonico Consort's Noël is similarly varied, from Victoria's O magnum mysterium and Jean Mouton's Nesciens mater to new and recent works by Jonathan Dove (The Star-Song) and Toby Young, plus favourites from Gruber, Darke, Poston, Rutter and Chilcott. The radiantly clear sound of the sopranos on this disc is a special treat for the ears. For a beefier selection of mainstream seasonal fare, turn to Hertfordshire Chorus's gloriously full-throated Nova! Nova! Joy to the World!, a selection of carols from across the British Isles and Europe in expert arrangements by Louis Halsey and directed with a combination of sensitivity and palpable enthusiasm by David Temple.

Two single-composer discs caught our attention this year. Patrick Hawes's The Nativity (setting words by his brother, Andrew) is the main work on a beaitfully atmospheric disc of his Christmas music sung with great commitment and communicativeness by the Voce Chamber Choir under Mark Singleton. This is yet another seasonal release from Signum, and it also includes Hawes's Latin-texted Four Christmas Motets. Over on the Delphian label, meanwhile, Bob Chilcott's Christmas Oratorio is the main work on an album of works by a composer who is fast rivalling John Rutter as a mainstay of the sacred choral repertoire. The Oratorio itself is a highly original take on a select genre, with tenor Nick Pritchard outstanding as the Evangelist (always accompanied by the harp - a very individual touch), original hymn settings acting as pillars, evening canticles, a cappella choral passages, and further solos provided by mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly (as Mary) and bass Neal Davies. The Choir of Merton College, Oxford, sing their collective hearts out for conductor Benjamin Nicholas.

A couple releases from the Resonus label are worthy of mention: A Winter Breviary, a disc of new works from (among others) Cecilia McDowall, Roderick Williams, Lucy Walker and more Chilcott, sung by St Martin's Voices under Andrew Earis; and a more traditional (and all-male!) mix on Christmas from the Chapel Royal.

For those hankering after something a bit more glamorous (albeit planned and performed with great sensitivity), dramatic soprano Lise Davidsen's Christmas from Norway (Decca) is bound to top this year's musical stocking fillers. A mixture of trusty favourites, and traditional Nordic items (including Sibelius's Julvisa) as well as a few surprises (Wolf's Schlafendes Jesuskind), it finds Ms Davidsen in radiant voice, sumptuously supported by the Norwegian Radio Orchestra under Christoph Eggen, who also provided many of the arrangements.

A fascinating disc of Christmas organ music by Isaac-François Lefèbure-Wély (father of the more famous Louis James Alfred Lefèbure-Wély) provides valuable insight into the development of the Noël subgenre, and is recorded and presented with all the expertise you'd expect from the Château Versailles Spectacles. Another distinctively Gallic disc couples Marc-Antoine Charpentier's popular Messe de minuit pour Noël with more of his Christmas music in the form of short oratorios and instrumental Noëls. This Harmonia Mundi disc from the excellent Ensemble Correspondances under Sébastien Daucé will be a treat for lovers of the French Baroque.

Finally, The Gesualdo Six directed by Owain Park feature on an exquisitely-sung Hyperion album entitled Morning Star. This is another varied programme, but here the balance between the early, the traditional and the modern (Judith Bingham, Joanna Marsh, Adrian Peacock and Park himself), between the comforting, the challenging and the festive, feels well-nigh perfect. In particular, the way in which the plainchant items set off the polyphonic items is utterly magical: witness the jaw-droppingly beautiful effect at the beginning of Johannes Eccard's Maria wallt zum Heiligtum. Of all the Christmas albums here, this is one of those that gave us the greatest pleasure. But whichever you choose, these discs will surely enhance your seasonal observances and celebrations

The Albums:
Phoenix Chorale: Christmas Album SIGCD762
Armonico Consort: Noël SIGCD754
Nova! Nova! Joy to the World! (Hertforshire Chorus) SIGCD755
Patrick Hawes - The Nativity SIGCD752
Bob Chilcott - Christmas Oratorio DCD34321
A Winter Breviary (St Martin's Voices) RES10328
Christmas from the Chapel Royal RES10327
Lise Davidsen: Christmas from Norway 4854358
I-F Lefèbure-Wély - Noël sous L'Empire CVS093
Charpentier - Messe de Minuit, etc. HMM902707
The Gesualdo Six: Morning Star CDA68404