I guarantee that any
thoughts of this being just another
Christmas CD by yet another children’s
choir will be dispelled immediately
upon hearing John Rutter’s imaginative
arrangement of the opening carol, Deck
the hall. The Finchley Children’s
Music Group are clearly a highly accomplished
group of young people indeed, trained
with care, attention to detail and striking
musicality by their musical director
Grace Rossiter, herself once a member
of the group.
This disc proves a
fine vehicle for their talent, spanning
as it does, a wide range of carols both
old and new and coupling the original
with the familiar in typically skilful
arrangements by the likes of choral
specialists John Rutter and Andrew Carter.
Andrew Carter, well
known in the choral world and the provider
of a legion of arrangements and originals,
is well represented by his own carols
Sweet was the song the Virgin
sang and Mistletoe Carol.
The traditional words of Sweet was
the song are woven into a gentle
carol, beautifully sung with organ accompaniment
whilst the latter sets the composer’s
own amusing words in a lively curtain
closer that amongst other things warns,
with tongue in cheek, of the perils
of out of tune carol singers. Gustav
Holst, another keen supporter of amateur
music making in his day, wrote a good
quantity of choral music and of the
five carols recorded here, four are
grouped together to form a useful and
contrasting demonstration of the Finchley
Children’s Music Group’s talents. Solo
voices predominate in A babe is born,
the sequence ending with a full throated
and joyous Salvator mundi natus est.
Philip Langridge joins the choir with
considerable effect for Grace Rossiter’s
arrangement of the Sussex Carol,
although it is a pity that he only figures
on the one occasion. Grace Rossiter
also provides an attractive arrangement
of the haunting, Basque carol, The
Angel Gabriel whilst I also particularly
enjoyed Michael Head’s charming Star
Candles. Benjamin Britten’s fleetingly
lively King Herod and the Cock
is another delight amongst many.
Naxos pledges that
the proceeds from the sale of the disc
will go to HOPE, a children’s
charitable foundation founded in 1994
with the goal of assisting Handicapped,
Orphaned, Poor and Exploited
children in Britain and the developing
countries. Couple this with music and
singing that is bound to warm even the
coldest of Yuletide hearts and the result
is a delightful stocking filler of a
disc. At the usual Naxos fiver to boot,
even Scrooge can afford to put his hand
in his pocket.
Christopher Thomas
Em Marshall has also listened
to this disc
Naxos’s Bethlehem
Down is one of the more impressive
Christmas discs to emerge during 2004.
It incorporates a wide range of mostly
British carols from the very traditional
and familiar to the more obscure. The
programming is good - some brilliant
choices of works including Britten’s
moving and beautiful The Birds
and Corpus Christi, Warlock’s
haunting Balulalow, various gorgeous
Holst pieces (so good to have the Four
Old English Carols together!) and
Hadley’s beguiling I sing of a Maiden.
I find it slightly strange that amongst
the almost exclusively British works
is found the occasional foreign work,
such as the Basque and West Indian carol.
One can only presume that they were
included on account of their arrangements
by British musicians - yet I find that,
lovely though they are as individual
works, they don’t really work combined
with the rest of the repertoire and
tend to stick out like sore thumbs.
I also slightly regret that neither
John Gardner’s lively, nor Holst’s lilting,
gentle version of Tomorrow Shall
be my Dancing Day was used.
The disc opens with
Rutter’s version of Deck the hall.
This immediately sets a very high standard
for the CD, with excellent singing –
really good musicianship here from the
Finchley Children’s Music Group. With
the exception of one or two of the girls
who are just very slightly uncertain,
all the other soloists are superb, with
good, strong, clear voices and outstanding
enunciation (indeed all the words in
all the songs, not just solos, are extremely
audible). One Tim Lehner merits particular
mention for what is undeniably the most
adorable sound I’ve ever heard (one
shudders to use the word "cute",
but unfortunately there would be no
more apt example of it!). As he opens
Jesus thou virgin born, he enhances
an already stunningly beautiful carol.
Were one to comment on each carol individually,
this would read as an almost complete
list of eulogies. There were a couple
of disappointments – Warlock’s The
First Mercy is taken too fast, and
the choir is not quite able to capture
the tender, magical mood of the piece
– rather, their approach is an insouciant,
emotionless one, completely lacking
a sense of awe or mystery; have they
read the poem beforehand, do they know
what is it about? This is strange, considering
that they manage to summon the sombre
atmosphere of Bethlehem Down
perfectly. They are also unable to get
into the swinging jazziness of De
Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy – they
sing this West Indian carol with European
inhibitions, far too classically, with
clear, posh, staid accents, lacking
the free, loose and unrestrained spirit
that the carol evokes. I was also a
little dismayed at the choice of Carter’s
rather demanding Mistletoe Carol
as the concluding work rather than one
of the many carols of exquisite beauty
featured earlier.
Yet theses few quibbles
are far outweighed by the exceptional
quality and radiance of the singing
in all the other numbers; just listen
to Lullay My Liking, or to their
brilliant version of the Sussex carol,
with no less distinguished a guest singer
than Philip Langridge on top form. This
is one children’s recording that I can
thoroughly recommend. This must surely
be some of the most superlative children’s
singing I’ve ever encountered! It is
an excellent value budget recording
and one can feel virtuous as one enjoys
the carols over mulled wine and mince
pies, knowing that the proceeds from
sales are going to the HOPE charity.
What more could one wish for from a
Christmas disc?
Em Marshall
see also
review by William Hedley
John Evanson (piano) 
