Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

As one would hope, given that this is a Christmas release, there are 70 minutes of joy on this latest release from Pembroke College, Cambridge. All but four of the 21 tracks are by living composers and of the four that are not, three are new arrangements by the members of the Pembroke Girls' Choir, leaving just "The Evening Star" by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (died 1912) to represent the old folks. It is a lovely setting of a poem by Thomas Campbell and is clearly a piece that the choir loves to sing. As conductor Anna Lapwood points out in her liner notes, other than there being a star in the poem it has nothing to do with Christmas but they wanted to include it and I, for one, am glad they did. The three new arrangements were all prepared by the Girls' Choir and while most will recognise the tunes of "Gaudete!", Sara Teasdale's "Christmas Carol" now retitled as "The Pembroke Carol", and "Silent Night" all sound almost new with the witty and melodic new arrangements and we tip our hat to Hannah Lewis for her charming solo on the first verse of "Silent Night". Of the contemporary pieces, all deserve comment and so far as this listener is concerned, none are weak links so all I can do is tell you the ones I especially enjoyed. "O Adonai" by Roderick Williams (born 1965) is the most demanding listen but is well worth the effort. To fully appreciate it I think surround sound would be helpful although on my standard stereo it still sounded amazing. The sopranos are up in the gallery imitating angels, the choir is downstairs, behind the congregation, and the celebrant, here sung most excellently by baritone Tom Unwin, tells us the story. What at first sounds random to the point of chaotic gradually comes into focus and brings us closer to the majesty of the Lord God. Breath-taking. In contrast, Emma Johnson, graduate and Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College and also patron of the Girls' Choir since it was established in 2018, has written a new setting for the old favourite "I Sing Of A Maiden" and accompanies the choir on her clarinet. Well worth hearing. Another piece with an accompaniment is "Serenity" by Ola Gjeilo (born 1978) with Wallis Power on cello. This reminded me a little of Sir John Tavener's "Protecting Veil" but with voices as well as cello and is another that is well worth hearing. No Christmas collection is complete without something by John Rutter and Pembroke give us his "The Very Best Time Of The Year" in an arrangement by Owain Park, a tuneful conclusion to a splendid album that contains so much more than I have space to describe. To sum up, there is nothing here that is not worth hearing and everything is performed to the very highest standards.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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