Reviewed 22 December 2025
If you are looking for a Christmas disc then this provides rather a different look at some classics along with more unusual repertoire, all beautifully performed
For their second Christmas album, Michael Waldron and London Choral Sinfonia explore new and unusual version of the more traditional Christmas tunes. On Christmas Night on Orchid Classics features music by Percy Fletcher, Jim Clements, Howard Blake, Harold Darke, Alec Rowley, Holst, Adolphe Adam and Iain Farrington along with some traditional tunes with soloists Emma Bell (soprano), Malakai Bayoh (treble), Martha McLorinan (mezzo-soprano) and Jimmy Holliday (bass), with four new orchestrations by Owain Park.
All the items are beautifully performed by choir and string orchestra, with the addition of harp, percussion, keyboards and trumpets at various times. The result is a well-upholstered and rather different look at a number of familiar classics along with some lesser-known gems, with Owain Park's orchestrations meaning that Waldron has been able to cast his net quite widely.
We begin with Percy Fletcher's Tennyson setting, Ring Out, Wild Bells, written originally for choir and organ. Despite being written in 1914 it has something of an Edwardian feel about it, but makes a colourful and vigorous start to the disc. This is followed by a newish piece. Jim Clements' setting of Henry Vaughan, Awake, Glad Heart, written originally for the choir of Worcester Cathedral (again with organ accompaniment). Richly textured with lush harmonies, it is a colourful piece with a fine central section for soprano solo (Emma Bell in poised form).
Bob Chilcott's arrangement of Silent Night for choir and strings is effective enough, and comprehensively reinvents the simple carol into something more elaborate. Howard Blake's version of his song Walking in the Air dates from 1984, a couple of years after the film The Snowman from which it was drawn. Blake makes the accompaniment more complex and here the solo is sung by treble Malakai Bayoh, though the recording seems to make him slightly recessed and prioritises the orchestra a little too much. Harold Darke's setting of In the Blake Midwinter has become a Christmas classic (though I rather prefer Holst's version). Here, we have it with string accompaniment, expanding things somewhat, but I confess I found the unaccompanied verse rather more affecting.
I performed Alec Rowley's music when I was at school; he is best known for his educational music but wrote much else besides. His Christmas Suite from 1930 consists of seven short movements, each built on a different carol, though some of them are not so well known now. The Bitter Withy anyone? The result is somewhat like a Christmas version of Warlock's Capriol Suite, as Rowley's approach is similar. Even with the better-known carols, the tunes are disguised in a highly effective manner and apart from the Prelude and Finale, each movement is in a particular dance form.
RVW's Fantasia on Christmas Carols is moderately well-known, but Holst's Christmas Day rather less so. Here in Owain Park's orchestration the choir and orchestra make a strong case for its appealing mix of tunes, very effectively strung together, with fine solos from choir members Martha McLorinan and Jimmy Holliday.
Bob Chilcott's arrangement of Away in a Manger uses a rather different tune to that best-known in the UK, with Chilcott using the original American version. It makes a rather different, very effective take on a classic. About Mark Pappenheim's arrangement of Adolphe Adam's O Holy Night (in an orchestration by Owain Park), I have more mixed feelings. The opening solo sung by Emma Bell moves the piece more into grand(ish) opera, but when the chorus come in, Pappenheim seems determined to overcomplicate things and introduce all manner of other melodies. The result stretches what is a simple yet effective piece into a long seven minutes. The arrangement of Ding Dong! Merrily on High by Mack Wilberg, one-time music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, is more straightforwardly effective.
The disc ends with a new piece, Iain Farrington's Nova nova. Wonderfully jazzy and lively, Farrington succeeds in making the carol upbeat without seeming to try too hard. This deserves to become a classic and I hope that Farrington had a version for choir and keyboard handy!
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- Beyond St Cecilia: Purcell's large-scale ode plus Humfrey & Blow from The English Concert & Harry Bicket at Wigmore Hall - concert review
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- A piece close to his heart: pianist Julian Chan on recording Leopold Godowsky's Java Suite for the Royal Academy of Music’s Bicentenary Series on Linn Record - interview
- Challenges & rewards: Tredegar Town Band celebrates the brass music of Robin Stevens with Brass Odyssey - record review
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