Christmas

Christmas round-up

John Rutter ’s name is synonymous with Christmas, and Orchestral Carols offers an EP-length selection of his seasonal compositions. There are six tracks in total (seven if you buy from Apple Music), and three are Rutter arrangements of popular carols. Of these, Silent Night is given a dreamily impressionistic interpretation, with silken vocalism from the King’s College Choir. In Rutter’s own All Bells in Paradise vocal connoisseurs will relish the immaculately modulated phrasing of the King’s trebles, and the easy flow of Daniel Hyde’s conducting. (King’s College KGS0069) ★★★★ Voktett Hannover ’s Tidings of Joy is a first-class example of small-group a cappella singing. Founded in 2012, the ensemble has eight members, who blend mellifluously together in Mendelssohn’s ‘Im Advent’, the programme opener. Jan-Åke Hillerud’s ‘Veni, Emmanuel’ spotlights Voktett’s adept part-balancing, and its fine-tuning of interpretations with discreet dynamic shadings. Hugo Distler’s ‘Es ist ein Ros entsprungen’ is another highpoint, its poignant harmonies underpinned by the singers’ faultless tuning, while ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ is touchingly schmaltz-free. A richly enjoyable programme. (Rondeau Production ROP6220) ★★★★★ Felix Klieser was born without arms, and plays the French horn with the toes of his left foot, the instrument stabilized by a tripod. A Golden Christmas offers Klieser’s take on 16 vocal pieces specially arranged for horn and orchestra, highlighting the full range of his interpretive talents. Nimble articulation and liquid trilling distinguish Klieser’s take on ‘Großer Herr, o starker König’ from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, and his ebullient Deck the Halls. In the ‘Abendsegen’ from Humperdinck’s opera Hänsel und Gretel Klieser distils a dreamy poetry, built on exceptional breath control and a glowing tonal quality.

The Wiener Concert-Verein provides warmly sympathetic accompaniments. (Berlin Classics 0303074BC) ★★★★ The Norwe