Reviewed by Andrew Rolfe

They're about as similar as chalk and goat's cheese, the two CDs I review this month (Feb 06). On the one hand is a bunch of Jazz-style Christmas Carols with hardly a voice poking through the snow. And on the other is this CD featuring the instruments as a backdrop to full choirs with a smattering of solo artists...or should I use the more noble "artistes", this is high church we're talking about. Listening, I was transported back to 1906,a time when the only drum machines were used to make containers for oil. How the world has changed. I found the classic hymns totally settling. Looking out of the window at the snow-filled street, I expected to see horses and carts parading the gentile classes in their Sunday best. The choir-quality is way up there, I could imagine that they have all won prizes - The Scottish Festival Choir, Chester Cathedral Choir, the choir (plus congregation for a change) of St Margarets in Prestwich, each conducted by a different man. The music is provided by eight people on four instruments, organ (no surprises there), piano, oboe and flute. Then we have 10 soloists, five female and five of the other variety. Hymns include "Crown Him With Many Crowns", "Be Thou My Vision", "Man Of Sorrows" and "The Lord's My Shepherd". Like I said, the ensemble is a calming fusion of choir, solo (artiste) and instrument, no one's rushing around, no one's screaming out lyrics too loud to hear, nothing moves except the powerful lungs of the choirs and the organ bellows. The calm is usually put on hold for about 10 seconds at the end of each track when the organ and choir work themselves up into a climatic and sometimes thunderous conclusion (Oh look! There are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse!) but apart from that we're more often than not talking about a lulling sense of security. For its genre it doesn't get much better - voices are as crisp as fresh snow, soloists never miss a beat, the musicians know their scores backwards and if there were a Top Ten for choral music these people would provide a steady stream of number one hits.
9 squares
Andrew Rolfe

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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