100 Years of Nine Lessons & Carols

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the carols from King’s, and 2018 marks the centenary of the choir’s first performance of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. This album mixes archival and brand-new recordings, and features three of the choir’s great music directors—Sir David Willcocks, Philip Ledger, and Stephen Cleobury—as conductors, arrangers, and composers of some stunning descants (including Cleobury’s for “Once in Royal David’s City”). There are many old favorites here, but also a handful of modern carols by Pärt, Weir, Adès, Tavener, and others. And the fabulously generous acoustics of King’s College Chapel plays as important a role as the magnificent choir’s singing. A wonderful collection.