If you're in the market for a disc of mostly English choirs performing mostly English carols, then this is the set for you. It opens and closes with a matched pair of discs by the
Choir of King's College, Cambridge, under either
Philip Ledger or
David Willcocks, and in-between it has a disc by the
Clare College Choir, Cambridge, under
John Rutter; a disc by the
Taverner Consort,
Choir, and
Players under
Andrew Parrott; a disc by the
Huddersfield Choral Society under
Owain Arwel Hughes, the
Bach Choir under
David Willcocks and the
Hallé Choir under
Maurice Handford; and a disc featuring eight different sets of carols almost entirely by non-English performers like
Hermann Prey,
Barbara Hendricks, and
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. The Anglophone repertoire naturally favors perennially popular carols like "The First Nowell," "Away in a Manger," and "O Come All Ye Faithful," but also makes room for many more later hits like "The Little Drummer Boy" and, of course, "The Twelve Days of Christmas." Recorded between 1957 and 1996, the sound here is consistently big, bold, and brazen. For Brits and Anglophiles, this set can't be beat.