Christmas with the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus

The Cincinnati May Festival Chorus has an impressive heritage as the artistic heart of the Cincinnati May Festival, the oldest continuous choral festival in the Western Hemisphere. Their Christmas album is a beautiful mix of traditional carols and lesser-known gems, including Franz Biebl’s sumptuous “Ave Maria”, the thrilling, restless “Carol of the Bells” and Morten Lauridsen’s reflective, ravishing “O Magnum Mysterium”. A real highlight is Britten’s “A Hymn to the Virgin”—there are over 140 singers in this choir, yet they achieve genuine intimacy and a remarkable breadth of dynamics.