Sydney Morning Herald

I’ve lost count of the classical music icons who have released kitschy Christmas albums that I received with justified trepidation. This is a Christmas album with a difference, and is extremely welcome. Taken from three live concerts – two in Melbourne and one in Germany – it presents (as the PR material says) a historical Christmas “pick of the pops” from the late 1400s to the end of the baroque period. Most of the works are little known, but they are full of beauty, serenity and elegance. They are superbly performed by the Australian Chamber Choir – a relatively new choir, but already one of Australia’s many choral treasures – whose 18 singers have been finely honed by artistic director Douglas Lawrence into a single pulse of unity and beauty. It opens with excerpts from a Mass by the High Renaissance master Josquin des Prez, and features many of the greatest names (Tomas Luis de Victoria, Gabrieli, Sweelinck, Scheidt, Praetorius and, naturally, J.S. Bach), but if the names are familiar most of the works are not. Personal favourites include the great Lutheran hymn Vom Himmel Hoch, and the encore, a Basque carol arranged by … David Willcocks.
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