Title: A Spare but Sumptuous Disc
Review: I can't say that this is the best version available of Britten's Ceremony of Carols, only because I've not done anything resembling an exhaustive comparison with other recordings. To my untrained ear, however, this rendition is exquisite. My only quibble, shared with at least one other reviewer, is that the disc is on the quiet side, but as noted in that other essay, all you have to do to correct is turn up the volume a bit. The Ceremony of Carols takes up half the release, the other half given over to other, shorter works by Britten, including the Missa Brevis in D. What you hear is the Choir is Westminster Cathedral, accompanied only by harp and/or organ, and their sounds are by turns contemplative, insistent and joyous. Recommended.
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