1} Once in royal David's city (arr. Arthur Henry Mann & David Willcocks)
2} A tender shoot (Otto Goldschmidt)
3} How shall I fitly meet thee? (Johann Sebastian Bach, trans. John Troutbeck)
4} In the bleak midwinter (Harold Darke)
5} Of the Father's heart begotten (arr. David Willcocks)
6} Angels from the realms of glory (arr. Reginald Jacques)
7} An Old Carol (I sing of a maiden) (Roger Quilter)
8} In dulci jubilo (arr. Robert Lucas de Pearsall & Daniel Hyde)
9} The angel Gabriel (Philip Moore)
10} O come, all ye faithful (arr. David Willcocks)
11} Sussex Carol (arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams)
12} While shepherds watched their flocks by night (Este's Psalter, after Christopher Tye)
13} Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour (arr. Charles Herbert Kitson & Daniel Hyde)
14} The Shepherd's Cradle Song (Karl Leuner, arr. Charles Macpherson)
15} In the bleak midwinter (Gustav Holst, arr. Mack Wilberg)
16} I saw three ships (arr. Elizabeth Poston & Daniel Hyde)
17} Still, still, still (arr. Bob Chilcott)
18} Prelude to 'Hark! the herald angels sing' (Matthew Martin)
19} Hark! the herald angels sing (Felix Mendelssohn)
20} Improvisation on Adeste, fideles (Francis Pott)

Is it just me or is the earth's orbit around the sun getting shorter and shorter every year, because it sure feels like Christmas comes around faster and faster every year. But as Music Director Daniel Hyde points out in the booklet notes: "I'm very aware that there's an annual cycle to this job that is never going to change ...", and I myself as an organist, now working in a small country church, can well attest that by the time you've put the Christmas music away it's time to start working on it again. But hey, when you are a musician, it's definitely the music that lends Christmas its mysterious, inexplicable warmth and beauty. Especially when its expressed as well as it is in this new recording by the Choir of King's College.

Despite the fact that this was the program for the 2020 celebration of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, and was prerecorded in an empty Chapel in case the Christmas festivities were to be cancelled -- and they were -- due to the pandemic lockdowns at the time, it still projects that "special", traditional King's College sound and spirit broadcast around the world every Christmas. Now, during the 30 years I spent working in music retail, I must have heard hundreds of Christmas music recordings, and I can immediately identify the ones that were recorded out of season, because the "spirit", the special "glow" is absent. Definitely not the case here. As a matter of fact, four of the included carols were recorded in June of 2021 to be added as extra music to this CD. One of these is the In the bleak midwinter by Gustav Holst, admired by many for its gentle cadence and rich harmonies. It's heard here in a wonderful arrangement by Mack Wilberg that actually bolsters and elevates its harmonic beauty. And its performance in this recording could melt the heart of a yeti. Every time I hear it I get a lump in my throat and teary-eyed, and it's not even Christmas yet.

And for all us organists out there, the disc ends with a daring Improvisation on Adeste, fideles performed with flair and gusto by chapel organist Matthew Martin. All of this wonderful music captured in King's College Chapel's unique and warm acoustics. Merry Christmas!