Britten: A Ceremony Of Carols - Layton, Trinity College Choir Cambridge (2012)

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Britten: A Ceremony Of Carols - Layton, Trinity College Choir Cambridge (2012)

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2013 sees the centenary of Benjamin Britten’s birth and Hyperion starts celebrating early with this disc of two of the composer’s most popular choral works, both with a Christmas relevance. The cantata Saint Nicolas tells the story of the original ‘Santa Claus’, a fourth-century saint whose acts—revitalizing three boys who had been pickled by an unscrupulous landlord being among the more dramatic—led to his canonization as patron saint of children and sailors. Britten’s lively setting is distinctly operatic, full of incident and colour—with the story brought ‘home’ through the use of congregational hymns. The part of Nicolas (here sung magnificently by Allan Clayton, already acclaimed as the heir to Peter Pears and Anthony Rolfe Johnson) is one of Britten’s great heroic tenor roles.

A Ceremony of Carols is a setting for treble voices and harp of some of the medieval texts which Britten loved so much, and is heard every Christmas in cathedrals, churches and concert halls throughout the land. This fresh, sparkling performance completes a thoroughly festive release.

Composer: Benjamin Britten
Performer: Sally Pryce, Katherine Watson, Zoë Brown, Allan Clayton
Conductor: Stephen Layton
Orchestra/Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia, Holst Singers, Cambridge Trinity College Choir

Reviews: Britten’s Ceremony has been recorded many times, and almost as often by a four-part mixed choir as by the original treble chorus. Initially, Britten had a female chorus in mind and one was used when the original set of seven was first performed. With the exception of the Hymn to the Virgin , it is by far Britten’s most-recorded choral piece. The cantata, Saint Nicholas , on the other hand, is not often heard or recorded. For both, Britten’s own recordings are still in print. It is good, then, to have an “original” version of the Ceremony available (here in its later expanded revision). For this recording, which coincides with this year’s Britten centenary, Stephen Layton uses the upper voices of the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, with incidental solos therefrom, nicely sung by Zoë Brown and Katherine Watson. As one might expect, the choir produces a bold sound, at times rather grainy, but there is no doubt about its commitment to the text, which is admirably clear. Sally Price plays the harp part with sensitivity and subtlety.


The association of Nicolas of Myra with Christmas is a late invention and Britten makes no nod in that direction. Indeed, its first performance was on June 5, 1948, at the first concert of the first Aldeburgh Festival, but, at Britten’s request, its official first performance was declared to be a month and a half later in celebration of the centenary of the school that had commissioned it, for whom St. Nicolas is one of its patron saints. It requires “any numerically big chorus,” part of which is at the back of the performing space, amateur string players “preferably led by a professional quintet,” a good percussionist, an organist, a piano duo, a highly skilled tenor, a treble, and an audience. My own experience of performing this piece has shown me that it makes a good effect. And yet …


For all the noise and tumult, for all the quite wonderful things the tenor gets to do, and for all its studied naïveté, it never quite gets off the ground in the way Britten’s later and similar piece, Noyes Fludde (1957), bursts with energy. I think this is in part due to the unrelenting earnestness of Eric Crozier’s text, but it is in no little part due, as well, to the fact that, unlike in the Fludde , the story is told, not shown, and Britten had by then amply demonstrated that the showing of stories was his real strength as a composer. Britten’s notions of what an amateur chorus could manage are probably right, but its sections, and, oddly for Britten, their accompaniments, are, frankly, uninteresting. The real glory of this piece lies in the imaginative writing and accompaniments for the tenor soloist. Alan Clayton does an admirable job as the narrating Nicolas, although I wish his opening statement had a bit more juice in it.


Stephen Layton has worked hard to infuse this cantata with commitment and purpose and to give it a sense of direction. He does, however, tend to push his tempos and this occasionally presses Clayton. But he also comes the closest I have ever heard to making a success of the worst fugue Britten ever wrote. The three choirs are clear and understandable. I was pleased, too, to hear the forthright treble of Luke McWatters. There are six other recordings of the piece available, including Britten’s own with Peter Pears and David Hemmings, but I would keep this one before all of them.