Performer: Tenebrae
Conductor: Nigel Short
Format: FLAC (tracks)
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01. Chilcott: Shepherd’s Carol
02. Marsh: In Winter’s House
03. trad.: Angelus ad virginem
04. Vaughan Williams: The truth sent from above
05. Forbes L’Estrange: Advent O Carol
06. Park: O magnum mysterium
07. Naylor: Vox dicentis
Britten: A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28
08. I. Procession
09. II. Wolcum Yole!
10. III. There is no rose
11. IVa. That yongë child
12. IVb. Balulalow
13. V. As dew in Aprille
14. VI. This little babe
15. VII. Interlude
16. VIII. In freezing winter night
17. IX. Spring Carol
18. X. Deo gracias
19. XI. Recession
20. Beamish: In the stillness
21. Poston: Jesus Christ the Apple Tree
22. Collin: The quiet heart
23. Howells: Sing Lullaby
24. Parry: The Aldeburgh Carol
25. Phibbs: Sleep, little one sleep
Their fourth Christmas release, BBC Music Magazine Award winning choir Tenebrae return under the expert direction Nigel Short with a sumptuous album of Carols, Hymns and other celebratory works for Christmas.
Tenebrae is regularly engaged with the world’s finest orchestras appearing regularly with the Academy of Ancient Music and Aurora Orchestra and has performed at major festivals and venues including the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival, Leipzig Gewandhaus (Germany) and Melbourne Festival (Australia). ‘Passion and Precision’ are Tenebrae’s core values. Through its continued dedication to performance of the highest quality, Tenebrae’s vision is to deliver dramatic programming, flawless performances and unforgettable experiences, allowing audiences around the world to be moved by the power and intimacy of the human voice.
A former vocalist with the famous King’s Singers, Nigel Short founded the Tenebrae Choir in 2001. This choir combines vocal virtuosity with a high degree of precision, using atmosphere and light to create a new perspective for the audience during their concerts. The ensemble sings a familiar repertoire whilst commissioning new works from composers from all walks of life. For their fourth ‘Christmas album’, they’ve chosen to surround Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols with new pieces, some written exclusively for them by both male and female composers.
It was in the midst of the war—whilst sailing from the United States to England on a Swedish freighter threatened by German submarines—that Britten composed his famous cycle for children’s choir, to be delicately accompanied by the harp. Paradoxically, the work was premiered by a women’s choir, but the composer recorded it in its original version in 1958. The simplicity of the twelve parts of A Ceremony of Carols soon became part of the English choral repertoire. Presented here is a masterfully refined female version, featuring a young boy treble (soprano).
This beautiful chiaroscuro album begins with ‘The Shepherd’s Carol’, composed by Bob Chilcott in memory of his own experience as a boy singer at King’s College Cambridge during the magical Christmas period. Other pieces in this typically British programme include ‘In Winter’s House’, an angelic new piece for five singers composed by Joanna Marsh in 2019 for Tenebrae, and ‘Vox dicentis’, the beautiful Advent anthem composed by Cambridge College organist and composer Edward Woodall Naylor in 1911.