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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...
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...
Performance *****Recording *****
Since going to Trinity College, Cambridge nine years ago conductor Stephen Layton has taken its choir to new levels of acheivement. And not just in ecclesiastical repertoire: the version of Jingle Bells which opens this recital is full of pep and sparkle. In fact all the popular selections - White Christmas, The Christmas Song, among others - sound notably relaxed...
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