DCD34331-CD

Gabriel Jackson: The Christmas Story

Long associated with the music of Gabriel Jackson, in 2020 the Choir of Merton College, Oxford and their director Benjamin Nicholas won a BBC Music Magazine Award for their recording of The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, a work which grounded its narrative of Christ’s suffering and humanity’s redemption in texts associated with the history of the College.

The Christmas Story, again with a libretto assembled by the College’s chaplain the Revd Dr Simon Jones, takes the same approach to tell the story of Christ’s birth. Spanning the period from Advent to Candlemas, it mixes biblical narrative with liturgical texts and four specially commissioned poems by members of the College.

The new poems are given to the College’s girl choristers (an independent part of its choral foundation since 2016), while the main body of the work is carried by the full choir and by an ensemble of flute, percussion, strings, saxophone and three trombones – the latter recalling the hieratic sonorities of the seventeenth-century works by Schütz and others which Jackson had in mind while composing The Christmas Story.

The Christmas Story is a very individual and strikingly original work. Both the music and the expertly constructed libretto are compelling ... Benjamin Nicholas leads a recorded performance that is assured and completely incisive. The singing of both choirs is marvellous. The clarity of diction and the disciplined singing is exemplary. As for the instrumental playing, it’s expert and accomplished from start to finish; I marvel at the sonorities and illustrative colours that Jackson obtains through imaginative scoring from just eleven musicians, plus the organ ... Gabriel Jackson has composed a work which is an important, eloquent and compelling addition to the Christmas repertoire. This highly accomplished and committed first recording makes the best possible case for it"

John Quinn - MusiWeb International
RECCOMMENDED - read his full review here

 

Release Date: 8 November 2024
Catalogue No: DCD34311
Total playing time: [73:41]

Recorded on 11-12 December 2023 in the Chapel of Merton College, Oxford
Producer/Engineer: Paul Baxter
24-bit digital editing: Jack Davis
24-bit digital mixing & mastering: Paul Baxter

Session photography: Will Coates- Gibson / foxbrushfilms.com Design: John Christ
Booklet editor: John Fallas

Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK www.delphianrecords.com


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The thrilling final moments of Jackson's The Christmas Story, filmed during recording sessions in Merton College Chapel ...

Album Booklet

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