Monday, Nov 7, 2016
Friday, November 11, Naxos will release a much-anticipated holiday recording – Carolae: Music for Christmas - featuring the Westminster Williamson Voices, conducted by James Jordan, performing James Whitbourn’s Missa Carolae, whose Introit and Kyrie are dramatic elements of Westminster’s annual Evening of Readings and Carols concerts in Princeton.
The recording also includes arrangements by Professor Steve Pilkington, including I Wonder as I Wander, which is also a traditional part of the Readings and Carols concerts, and performances by Assistant Professor of Organ Daryl Robinson and Assistant Professor of Voice Eric Rieger.
“The music on the Carolae recording is a fusion of two great Christmas traditions from England and America,” says Whitbourn, referring to the well-known Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols that originated at King's College Cambridge in 1918 and Westminster’s Evening of Readings and Carols, which has been performed in Princeton since 1992.
This is the Westminster Williamson Voices and James Jordan’s third recording of music by James Whitbourn. The first, Living Voices, received four stars from Gramophone magazine. The second, Annelies, the first choral setting of the Diary of Anne Frank, was nominated for a 2013 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance.
Carolae: Music for Christmas is available now as a pre-order from Amazon and on iTunes, and it will be available for purchase and download on Friday, November 11.