A Lullaby Carol: Christmas at Christ Church

This is a beautifully-recorded mix of traditional and contemporary works on teh much-respected Avie label that celebrates the choir’s musical heritage,

It begins with a carol by William Walton, Make we joy now in this fest. Walton was an alumnus of Christ Church Oxford, so its placement is entirely apt. he music swings gently here; most noble is the attention to dynamics in this performance, whether a sudden piano or a perfectly calibrated crescendo:

Walton’s All this time is no less impressive:

Elizabeth Poston’s Jesus Christ the Apple Tree is certainly famous and heard in a lovely performance here, the chapel acoustic (it was actually recorded at merton College) well caught.by the Avie engineers.

It is good to see Simon Preston’s work here: he was organist at Christ Church from 1970, and he also lectured there. His There is no rose is deliciously dissonant, and well done to the choir for honouring those dissonances’ expressiveness. This is a true gem:

Giles Swayne’s Magnificat holds back no punches. It is surely remarkably difficult to realise. It was written for this very choir in 1982, commissioned by the then organist, Francis Greer:

The tuning in Piers Connor Kennedy’s A Spotless Rose is lovely (the composer was once a lay clerk at Christ Church); the piece is a response to the famous “Es isn din Ros’ entspungen”; and David Maw’s arrangement of I saw thee ships is deliciously spicy and contains a nice surprise in a sudden moment of reflection:

It sits next to Judith Weir’s lovely Drop down, ye heavens, from above, a little, tightly-constucted gem.

Like Prestom, a Christ Church organist, George Baker was clearly a virtuoso. A least, if his exhilarating, virtuoso Toccata-Gigue on the Sussex Carol is anything to go by. Benjamin Sheen isthmus organist here, offering hint of Messiaen at the ecstatic, dissonant climax:

Each ad every carol here is interesting in its own right. David Maw was new to me, but his “Lullay, lullaby, litel child ” is that rarest of things, dissonant lullaby:

Peter Warlock’s Benedicamus Domino is its obverse: upbeat dissonance! It does feel good to get on familiar territory, when we get to Stephen Darlington’s arrangement of Silent Night, a plateau of rest and the epitome of English choir singing:

Steven Grahl is he director of Christ Church Choir, and contributes a mesmerising O Nata Lux, the harmonies aglow with Christian mysticism – one has to admire the strength of this piece; Judith Weir’s more active Illuminare Jerusalem seems the eminently logical follow-on:

What a magnificent performance by organist Benjamin Sheen of Francis Pott’s Improvisation on Adeste fideles, a performance of true virtuosity of a wide-ranging piece – a real wild ride – that ends with a thunderous statement of the familiar melody and a stupendous move to the major:

Interesting to interpolate a Spiritual (Glory to the newborn King) before more Warlock ( the lovely Bethlehem Down) and, finally, piece by Cheryl Frances-Hoad: Good Day, Sir Christmas!, written for the BBC Music Magazine! Its ebullience is the perfect close, and the choir is on sparkling form. One can almost imagine them doffing their hats at the final “Good day!”: