Reviewed by Tony Cummings

If, like me, you vividly remember Peter Skellern's Top 10 hit in 1972 "You're A Lady", you will approach this album with fascination. Skellern is the president of the Aeolian Singers, one of Hertfordshire's leading choirs whose choral repertoire takes in "music from Buxtehude to Bernstein". So what of 'The Nativity' which Skellern specially wrote for the choir and was given its world premier in 2003? It really gets going with the third piece, "Look At The Star", where a brass band (Skellern's speciality you will remember) bring a delightful counterpoint to the children's choir (Royal Masonic School For Girls) while "Ere Dad" written in core-blimey cockney vernacular is a clever telling of Joseph and Mary being given the stable by a reluctant inn keeper. Then "Magnificat" shows the choir in fine voice and though the work isn't quite up there with Handel it does convey the quiet wonder of Mary. The concluding piece of 'The Nativity', "Angels Sang" succeeds in conjuring up images of a massed choir of angels and again the mix of choir and the Chameleon Brass works well. To fill out the CD there's a selection of other Skellern Christmas songs with five of his carols and a piece "Waiting For The Word" he wrote for BBC's Songs Of Praise in 2001. Overall, a refreshing and inventive telling of the Christmas story with not a sleigh bell cliché in earshot.

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