MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUK AmazonUS
Download: Classicsonline


A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge/Stephen Cleobury
rec. live, Chapel of Kings College, Cambridge, 24 December 2008
Texts enclosed
Track-Listing at end of review
EMI CLASSICS 50999 6860822 [54:53 + 34:58]
Experience Classicsonline


 
The yearly broadcast of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s is for many the signal that Christmas has truly begun. This double CD is a live recording of the 2008 service and includes the customary mixture of the familiar and not so familiar, all carefully chosen to focus the mind and spirit on this great festival of the Church’s year.
 
Once in Royal begins with a confidently sung treble solo taken at a flowing speed. Stephen Cleobury’s descant is a fine alternative to the better known Willcocks version. It is moving to hear the Reverend Ian Thompson’s voice in The Bidding Prayer because he has tragically passed away since this recording was made. This CD is a fitting tribute to his memory.
 
Peter Tranchell’s If you would hear the angels sing has an appealing lilt and is pleasantly tuneful, if not terribly memorable. Ravenscroft’s Remember, O thou man is slightly effortful, with a few tuning issues, but the performance displays an effective use of dynamic shading.
 
Philip Ledger’s arrangement of Angels from the realms is given a lively rendition, and In dulci jubilo immediately captures the dance spirit. Cleobury uses the King’s acoustic to great effect in Tavener’s The Lamb - an atmospheric performance.
 
In Howells’ luminous carol A Spotless Rose Joel Robinson - listed as a tenor rather than a baritone in this performance - sings the solo with control and idiomatic phrasing. The last cadence, one of the glories of Anglican Church music, is expertly paced. Berkeley’s I sing of a maiden contains some fine hushed singing.
 
Mary by Dominic Muldowney, words by Bertolt Brecht, was specially commissioned for the service. Cleobury coaxes some ravishing choral textures from his choir and the use of a distanced sub-chorus is particularly effective, harking back to Britten’s Hymn to the Virgin. Cleobury gives the performance plenty of space and shape – a lot of care obviously went into its preparation. This is a highlight of the disc for me.
 
In Rutter’s What sweeter music the trebles sound more confident, revelling in the work’s generous lyricism, and in Judith Weir’s Illuminare Jerusalem – another excellent King’s commission - the teasing final cadence is deliciously done. Alan Bullard’s Glory, alleluia to the Christ Child! is a suitably joyous and festive way to end the choir carols.
 
The recording quality is perfectly acceptable given that it is taken from a live BBC broadcast. All in all this is a fine souvenir of a memorable occasion.
 

Robert Costin
 

Track-Listing

CD 1
Once in royal David's city (processional hymn)
Bidding Prayer - The Lord's Prayer - Blessing
If ye would hear the angels sing
First Lesson - Genesis 3
Remember, O thou man
Adam lay ybounden
Second lesson - Genesis 22
Angels from the realms of glory

Canticum Beatae Mariae Virginis seu Magnificat (Hamburg, 1602)
In dulci jubilo
Third Lesson - Isaiah 9
Nowell sing ye now
Unto us is born a Son
Fourth Lesson - Isaiah 11
The Lamb
A spotless rose
Fifth Lesson - St Luke 1
I sing of a maiden
Mary
Sixth Lesson - St Luke 2
Wither's rocking Hymn

 CD 2
What sweeter music
Seventh Lesson - St Luke 2
Infant holy, Infant lowly
God rest ye merry gentlemen
Eighth Lesson - St Matthew 2
Illuminare Jerusalem
Glory, alleluia to the Christ Child!
Ninth Lesson - St John 1
O come, all ye faithfull
Prayer & Blessing
Hark! The herald-angels sing
In dulci jubilo BWV 729
 
 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.