Not Such A Merry Christmas

The Christmas Edition of BBC Music magazine doesn't feature a Christmas themed free cover disk every year but this is one of those years when it does. The disk is titled A Choral Christmas and is a specially recorded programme by the Rodolfus Choir directed by Ralph Allwood. The first ever edition of BBC Music that I bought eleven years ago also featured a marvellous Christmas themed disk of choral music from the Hyperion label and I return to that each year at this time. Sadly, that is not going to be the case with this offering from the Rodolfus Choir. The programme is well thought out ranging from Ravenscroft and Byrd from Tudor times, including continental European works by masters such as Victoria and Palestrina, moving on to early 20th century England with Vaughan Williams, Holst, Parry, Warlock and Leighton, taking a diversion with Tchaikovsky and Poulenc and ending with the saccharine sound of contemporary America personified by Lauridsen and Whitacre. My problem lies with the English collegiate sound of the choir which washes all of the colour and individuality out of the material and produces a bland homogenised sound in which all works appear to share a similar background and culture. Exceptions which show more life are Vaugham Williams's The Truth Sent From Above, where the ancient melody withstands the choir's blandness and John Tavener's lively Today The Virgin, which introduces ( belatedly since it is the final track ) a welcome change of pace.