Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

Roderick Elms is a prolific composer, arranger and orchestrator as well as a keyboard player of repute. On this generously priced release he leaves Stuart Nicholson to play the organ with the aptly named Joyful Company Of Singers in fine voice taking care of the words and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra doing the rest. Between them they give us a rousing Christmas party. We open with one of 11 world premiere recordings: "Fanfare da Festa" that incorporates snippets of nine well known Christmas tunes. This is followed by Elms' arrangement of the 15th century "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" featuring the tenor Mark Wilde. We get several more new arrangements of old carols, a beautiful arrangement of Bach's "Sleepers Awake!", three arrangements of festive drinking songs with the unfortunate title of "Wassail Down The Wind", and finish up with a jolly version of "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer". Some of the new arrangements are charming and witty and we can understand why they have become so popular so quickly. Some, though - and I am thinking of "Coventry Carol" and "Silent Night" - are too sentimental for this reviewer but it's Christmas, so let's just enjoy the fun.

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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