Christmas Carols & Motets

"Christmas is a season when music, like hire purchase, is freely arranged, so much so that any surviving originals seem as out of place as the needy in Oxford Street. All is not lost, however. Among these 15 items, medieval carols, renaissance settings of Ave Maria and German chorales, about half are likely to be already familiar, though most likely in some 'improved' form. The three medieval carols sung by male voices, Angelus ad virginem, Nowell sing we and There is no rose are instantly attractive, whilst the one with a soprano line, Nowell: Dieu vous garde, though rhythmically complex, is amusing in its musical mazing. Three versions of The Coventry Carol are a very early duet, a more familiar version but with original rhythm and some false relations and Byrd's exquisite Lullaby, sung with unusual clarity, each part always distinct. Ave Maria appears for four voices by Josquin Desprez, for seven voices by Philippe Verdelot and for four voices and for double choir by Victoria. The continuous sostenuto of the first two settings produces some delicious mild metal in the voices, whilst the Victoria settings command a fuller tone. Hieronymus and Michael Praetorius of Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen, Joseph lieber, Joseph mein, In dulci jubilo and Wachet auf (with one verse by J S Bach) are refreshing in their straightforwardness, if sometimes surprising. A lovely record, beside which much of our accustomed Christmas musical fare seems meretricious."

Gordon Reynolds (Gramophone, December 1986)