EMR CD009 | DETAILS
  EMR CD009
   
  John Gardner: CANTATA FOR CHRISTMAS etc.
  Hilary Davan Wetton (cond.) | Chris Gardner (cond.)
City of London Choir | The Holst Orchestra
Stephen King | Paulina Voices
   
  Released 1 November 2012 | EAN 5 060263 500087
John Gardner's Christmas Carols are sung and enjoyed the world over. He was Director of Music at St Paul’s Girls’ School and wrote several settings especially for the girls to sing. Here, then, are the definitive versions, sung by current Paulinas and recorded in the School’s Great Hall itself. Alongside the much-loved ‘Tomorrow shall be my Dancing Day’ and ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ are some of Gardner’s less well-known carol settings, as well as the World Première recording of the sparkling ‘Cantata for Christmas’ and the intriguing Chamber Concerto for Organ and 10 Players.
TRACK LISTING AND AUDIO EXTRACTS
     
John Gardner (1917–2011)
CANTATA FOR CHRISTMAS (World Première recording)		    
1. I. ‘Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern’  
2. II. An Ode on the birth of Our Saviour  
3. III. ‘Les Anges de nos Campagnes’  
4. IV. ‘O magnum mysterium’  
5. V. ‘Puer nobis nascitur’  
6. VI. Coventry Carol  
7. VII. ‘In dulci jubilo’ and ‘Zwingt die Saiten’  
     
CHRISTMAS CAROLS (†World Première recordings)
    
8. Angels from the realms of glory†  
9. O little town of Bethlehem†  
10. Sunny Bank Carol†  
11. Entry of the three Kings  
12. Good King Wenceslas†  
13. Tomorrow shall be my dancing day  
14. The Holly and the Ivy  
15. We wish you a merry Christmas  
       
CHAMBER CONCERTO FOR ORGAN AND 10 PLAYERS, op.102
(World Première recording)
16. I. Toccata  
17. II. Duetto  
18. III. Finale  
REVIEWS
Beautifully shaped by Benjamin Frith... Beguiling sounds, graced by the tawny richness and unexaggerated line of Richard Jenkinson’s cello playing... The sense of purpose and sureness of line of Ian Venables’ music is pure oxygen.
EMR CD31 | BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Exquisitely rewarding... Ravishing accounts.
EMR CD029 | CHOIR AND ORGAN
This is music of great beauty and integrity and the performances fully do it justice. It would be criminal to let it pass you by.

EMR CD028 | INTERNATIONAL
RECORD REVIEW

The Bridge Quartet approach these pieces with a sympathetic and insightful warmth, and confirm their ambassadorial credentials for British chamber music. A lovely, radiant disc.
EMR CD025 | Gramophone
Duncan Honeybourne’s playing is astonishingly affectionate, yet never saccharine... Honeybourne plays with suave confidence.
EMR CD024 | INTERNATIONAL PIANO
Rupert Marshall-Luck is an ideal interpreter: generously but not effusively lyrical; agile and athletic... The warm, folk-song like slow movement is at times almost painfully beautiful, with a shimmering pastoral central section... Marshall-Luck is, again, indefatigable and keenly picks up on the work’s melancholic strain.  Finely recorded and with comprehensive booklet notes, this is a must for fans of 20th-century English repertoire.
EMR CD023 | THE STRAD