O Holy Night [CD]

The young professional singers of Michael Waldron's London Choral Sinfonia open fresh perspectives on the music of Christmas with a captivating debut album for Orchid Classics. O Holy Night unites familiar carols - arranged by Sir David Willcocks, Andrew Carter and Max Pappenheim - with little-known seasonal treasures by, among others, Peter Maxwell Davies, Humphrey Clucas, Robert Saxton and ex-Swingle Singer, Carol Canning. The tracklist also includes Lo, He comes with clouds descending and O Holy Night in spellbinding arrangements by composer and theatre sound designer Max Pappenheim, former organ scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge. London Choral Sinfonia's Musical Director, Michael Waldron, built his Christmas album around five traditional carols. The recording's repertoire mix includes Martin Neary's fresh take on We Three Kings, a dramatic setting of the Coventry Carol by Jonathan Rathbone, Richard Pantcheff's haunting A Christmas Carol, and the beguiling No Small Wonder by Paul Edwards. Within the span of twenty tracks, the London Choral Sinfonia embraces everything from the radiant beauty of Gabriel Jackson's Tomorrow go ye forth and Thomas Wilson's There is no rose to the exuberant energy of Sir Christèmas by William Matthias.