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The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge is no ordinary Oxbridge choir. Fielding no fewer than 30 choral scholars as well as professional stiffening, it ranks with the best in the world. In Bach’s Mass in B Minor, the penultimate event in the 30th Christmas Festival at St John’s, it delivered singing of the highest calibre in both the tightly wrought fugal movements and the freer, more celebratory...
This is the 30th Christmas Festival at St John’s, and it has been an exceptional one in terms of variety of repertoire, quality of performance and excellence of soloists. This penultimate evening featuring one of Bach’s greatest works precedes Handel’s Messiah on the 23rd and featured the superb Choir of Trinity College Cambridge and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Stephen Layton...
A couple of themes run through this attractive Christmas music compilation. One is the presence of a number of close harmony arrangements of Christmas ‘standards’. The other is Christmas music from the Nordic countries.
There’s an example of the close harmony fare right at the start in the shape of Ben Parry’s arrangement of Jingle Bells. This was done originally for the Swingle Singers, which is...
The Best Classical CDs for Christmas
Stephen Layton, too, has a first-rate ensemble in the choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, for “Yulefest!”, starting with a saucy, swingy “Jingle Bells”. There’s more decorum elsewhere (“Silent Night”, “Away in a Manger”), but it’s a treat to hear Trinity letting its hair down in a soupy “Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas”.
Geoffrey Norris
Le Chœur du Trinity College de Cambridge est l'un de ces ensembles d'étudiants si versatile qu'il parvient à donner de la consistance aux pages les plus secondaires: ainsi de cette guirlande de noëls clinquante tendue entre les deux rives de l'Atlantique. Jingle Bellsest taillé pour les Swingle Singers, Silent Night met son manteau blanc avant de prendre une voix de crooner, Irving Berlin assume...
Sublime singing of the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, under the direction of Stephen Layton, marks the a cappella collection "Yulefest!" (Hyperion). There's much poignancy in these winter anthems, though their sprightly "Jingle Bells" nods to the Swingle Singers. If you're not touched by mezzo-soprano Anna Cavaliero and tenor Cameron Richardson-Eames on Holst's "In the Bleak Midwinter," you...