DCD34197-CD

Cantique de Noel: French Music for Christmas

Geoffrey Webber and his choir have developed a reputation for exploring the unusual, and this album is no exception. A number of traditional French melodies have been adapted over the years to become familiar Christmas fare in English-speaking lands; on this recording, though, they are heard in their original French arrangements, and accompanied by the French-style organ in the chapel of Exeter College, Oxford, with its pungent reeds and powerful string stops.

The resulting Romantic fervour is an aspect of Christmas that is sometimes lost amid the Anglo-Saxon tradition of Christmas trees and domestic bliss, and it gives fresh context and meaning to beloved music from Berlioz and his successors.

 

"An academically and stylistically fertile album"

 

"beautifully sung and richly accompanied"

"Fervent, engaging, heart on sleeve interpretations"

"The choir sing with rich, open vowels in a way that makes them sound not at all like an English choir, especially one of this heritage."

Producer: Paul Baxter
Recording venue(s): Exeter College Chapel, Oxford
Recording dates: 4-6 April 2018
Number of discs: 1
Number of tracks: 19
Release date: 19 October 2018
Total playing time: 71:14
Album ID: DCD34197

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