MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... 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

Chandos recordings
All Chandos 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: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS

Celebrate Christmas
Timothy Byram-Wigfield (organ)
*Richard Pinel (organ solo)
Choristers of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle/Timothy Byram-Wigfield
rec. Exeter College Chapel, Oxford, England, 14-15 March 2011; *St George's Chapel, Windsor, England, 21 July 2011. DDD
REGENT REGCD 374
[62:17]

Experience Classicsonline
Celebrate Christmas
James PIERPONT
Once in Royal David's City (arr. Ralph Allwood) [2:58]
Malcolm SARGENT (arr.)
Zither Carol [1:59]
Edward BAIRSTOW
The Blessed Virgin's Cradle Song [2:44]
Louis Claude DAQUIN
*Noël Suisse [4:29]
Benjamin BRITTEN
There is no Rose (from: A Ceremony of Carols) [2:29]
A New Year Carol [2:25]
Howard GOODALL
In Dulci Jubilo [3:28]
John RUTTER
Il Est Né, le Divin Enfant [3:27]
Star Carol (arr. Kenneth Pont) [3:28]
Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day (arr.) [3:09]
Patrick HADLEY
I Sing of a Maiden [2:45]
David WILLCOCKS (arr.)
Rocking [1:56]
O Little Town of Bethlehem [3:26]
Ding Dong! Merrily on High [2:08]
Edwin H LEMARE
*Adeste Fidelis [3:11]
W BALLET
Lute Book Lullaby (arr. Geoffrey Shaw) [2:41]
Théodore DUBOIS
*Noël [4:10]
Gustav HOLST
Personent Hodie [2:34]
John STAINER
When Jesus Was Born (from: I Desired Wisdom) [5:09]
Johann Sebastian BACH
*In Dulci Jubilo (Chorale Prelude), BWV 729 [2:34]
Engelbert HUMPERDINCK
Angel's Prayer (from: Hänsel und Gretel) [2:58]
Felix MENDELSSOHN
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (arr. David Willcocks) [3:01]

 
Things are never quite what they seem at Christmas, and this festive CD from the gifted young Choristers of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, was mainly recorded in Oxford a year ago last March! Nevertheless, it does make an excellent Christmas gift for anyone who enjoys beautiful choral singing and appreciates the continuation of old traditions.
 
Unlike similar discs by the choristers of cathedrals like Wells and Rochester - released on Regent around the same time (REGCD 379, 399) - this one features boys' voices only, up to the age of thirteen. What attractive voices they are too: the blend is almost ideal, and the boys have admirable breath control, generally good diction, and a natural, expressive sparkle. Their director, Timothy Byram-Wigfield, himself a former chorister at Cambridge under David Willcocks and Philip Ledger, has achieved a sound of which the Chapel can be proud.
 
It is a sign of the times that even in genteel schools things are not what they were, and though the Choristers' Latin pronunciation in 'In dulci jubilo' is up to the standard of almost any adult choir in the UK, their French in 'Il est né' is rather hasardeux. Still, most of the songs are in English, and here they acquit themselves in a manner that would surely please the HM the Queen!
 
Their programme chiefly avoids secular favourites, lending it a more serious air than Wells or Rochester, enhanced by the interpolation of four atmospheric pieces for solo organ. However, it is less highbrow than Hereford Cathedral's (REGCD 388), and in general the Choristers sing with an appropriately exalting bearing.
 
Sound quality is very good indeed, splendidly capturing, as far as is possible, the ecclesiastical acoustic. Though only the organ pieces were recorded at St George's, the venue disparity is all but imperceptible. Other than biographies there are no notes to the music, but full texts are included for a Christmas sing-a-long - though Granny will need a good pair of reading glasses to make out the small print.
 
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk
 


 

 

 



 


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






Error processing SSI file