This brand new Christmas album from The King’s Singers features 25 tracks covering everything from contemporary choral gems and folk songs through to well-loved carols. Dotted throughout the album are several of the most famous English church carols, which take The King’s Singers right back to their earliest singing days, and which also reflect the group’s heritage at King’s College, Cambridge. In Christmas Carols with The King’s Singers, the group bottle that frosty, moonlit, fireside Christmas wonder and pour it into their sound.
★★★★ “What’s not to love? It’s a typically varied programme with reaches across the decades, performed with pitch perfect vivacity and no small amount of joy. Very glad tidings” – BBC Music Magazine
“Distinguished by beautifully chosen repertoire and a vocal blend to tight and delicate it becomes a picture of the Christmas miracle itself. There is something untouchingly precious about the full a capella Once in Royal David’s city and Berlioz’s The Shepherds Farewell…never less than totally convincing…Perfection is not always what you want from a Christmas disc, but here it takes listeners to a special place” – Gramophone’s The Christmas List
“It is a fitting tribute, combining traditional carols with new ones…and all sung with those hallmarks of the King’s Singers’ sound; neat, precise, finely polished, with every note perfectly placed, every syllable beautifully enunciated, and every phrase deliciously moulded…there is a real sense of intimacy which gives a sincerely personal feel to the recording….luscious arrangements and gorgeously blended and balanced voices. Solos emerge from the group like branches spouting from a tree, and their easy delivery, all seem as natural as breathing…the overriding effect of this recording is of warmth and comfort…Cleobury would have loved it all; The King’s Singers have done his memory proud.” – Music Web International
“The six voices blend as only King’s Singers can, all the arrangements are appropriate, and the a cappella singing is a joy throughout” – Cross Rhythms
“In all the items, the groups familiar sophisticated sound creates an atmosphere at once distinct and recognisable” – Planet Hugill
“Familiar carols share space with enticing rarities, and hearing just six voices gives the music a winning immediacy. Highlights include a rhythmically snappy version of “Gaudete!”, brilliantly arranged by founder member Brian Kay, and a joyous transcription of the Catalan carol “La filadora”, replete with bell effects…Gloriously recorded too” – The Arts Desk
“The arrangements are, as always with this group, brilliantly chosen. The ending of Tomorrow shall be my dancing day is particularly inventive and effective…[O magnum nysterium] again a stroke of programming genius” – Classical Explorer