Spirited Performance Festive music by Vaughan Williams reviewed by PATRIC STANDFORD Naxos    8.570439

The Guildford choir serve Vaughan Williams well in their spirited performance of the extended cantata that he completed in 1954 when he was 82 -- a remarkably youthful and buoyant achievement, though those who knew him well were not surprised! It is a well shaped hour of music ranging from solo and choral songs [listen -- track 6, 0:00-0:39], a hymn, a lullaby, a pastoral and a series of linking 'narrations' which tell the story of Christmas and are, in fact, commentaries sung by a children's choir -- a part taken commendably on this recording by St Catherine's School Middle Chamber Choir [listen -- track 9, 0:04-0:26].

The hymn Bright portals of the sky is a tenor solo (Peter Hoare) heralded by trumpets [listen -- track 13, 0:01-1:16] and the soprano Janice Watson sounds well in the song It was the winter wild. Stephen Gadd is a rather less convincing baritone, and also features as the single soloist in the short Fantasia on Christmas Carols, written over forty years earlier [listen -- track 1, 0:31-1:53] and again the Guildford Choral Society are rewarding to hear.

This is a pleasant enough addition to the RVW collection, though not altogether as outstanding as hoped.

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Record Box is Music & Vision's regular series of shorter CD reviews