Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

Not a good start, I am sorry to report. The material is interesting and the singing seems good but there is something wrong with the sound balance. This is a budget release of a live recording from the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in December 2004 so we should not expect audio perfection but, to my ears, it sounds like a microphone is unplugged. One can hear, even above the coughs, but it is not as clear as we could hope. This is a shame as the opening carols, all sung unaccompanied, are worth hearing. We have "Come, Thou Redeemer Of The Earth" by Michael Praetorius, Richard Rodney Bennett's "Out Of Your Sleep", John Tavener's "The Lamb" and his pupil Judith Weir's "Illuminare, Jerusalem". Then we move into familiar material with "O Come, All Ye Faithful" before the orchestra takes over with the Sinfonia from Bach's Cantata BWV 42. We get three more selections from Bach, including "Jesus, Bleibet Meine Freunde" from Cantata 147 that gets a well deserved ovation from the audience. Next we have 30 minutes of extracts from Handel's 'Messiah' featuring some excellent singing by the Australian Soprano Sara Macliver and a final treat with Rutter's Baroque arrangement of "Joy To The World".

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