2019年10月より新音楽監督に就任したダニエル・ハイドによるアルバム第1弾

イギリスが世界に誇る合唱団、ケンブリッジ・キングズ・カレッジによるクリスマスの1枚。
1930年から毎年行われている「9つの聖務日課の祈りとキャロル」の礼拝ですが、2020年のクリスマスは、聖歌隊とオルガン演奏者、そして祈祷者のみが教会内に入り、キャロル礼拝が行われました。これはその時の録音です(一部別日に録音されたトラックも含む)。2019年10月に新しくケンブリッジ・キングズ・カレッジ合唱団の音楽監督に就任したダニエル・ハイドの指揮による、ファースト・アルバムとなります。
キングインターナショナル

発売・販売元 提供資料 （2022/01/06）

The title of this Choir of Kings College, Cambridge album, In the Bleak Midwinter, refers to the poem by Christina Rossetti and its settings to music here by Harold Darke and Gustav Holst, two popular Christmastime choir tunes. However, it also refers to the choirs return to the Chapel of Kings College for its Christmas Eve broadcast of the Festival of Nine Carols and Lessons in December of 2020, in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic (four of the tracks were recorded the following June). Led by Daniel Hyde, the director of music at Kings College since 2019, with organist Matthew Martin, the Kings College Choir is well-rehearsed and in fine form, as one has come to expect, even after online learning that didnt allow for rehearsals as a group. The sound from an emptier than usual chapel, with some furniture removed and no audience, is resonant and is captured well in this recording, and Hyde takes advantage by letting the sound ring an extra beat throughout at appropriate times. Amid everything else that made the 2020 Festival different than previous years, O come, all ye faithful is moved to the middle of the service, and a hauntingly beautiful, intimate arrangement of Still, still, still by Bob Chilcott -- a notable alumnus of the Kings College Choir -- takes its place after the final blessing. As is tradition, Hark! the herald angels sing closes out the service, and even without the congregation joining in, it is joyous. Issued in time for the 2021 holiday season, this will be a welcome return to some normalcy for many listeners.

Rovi