The Carols of Christmas

Dagmar Pecková's new Christmas album: 30 carols and songs from Bohemia, Moravia and other European regions.
The highly acclaimed Christmas album Nativitas is now joined by a new festive album, bearing the title "Exaltatio". While in Colloquial Latin the word means "exaltation" and "elation", in Christian theology it has a more profound connotation: "elevation"…

After experiencing two devastating miscarriages in 2021, I subsequently felt a profound need to channel grief into something constructive. Whilst a collection of traditional Christmas carols might not seem an obvious musical choice for a personal journey through loss, I have always taken comfort in the warmth, feelings of nostalgia, and hope that festive music inspires. Arranging these carols for solo harp has been a healing experience for me as an artist, and I hope that the Christmas message shines through in each arrangement. Arranging often feels like an easier option than composing from scratch as there isn’t the pressure to formulate an original idea.

The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, is one of the world’s best-known choral groups. Founded in the 15th century, it ranks among the oldest of its kind, and, while originally created for singing the daily services in the college chapel, now enjoys an international tour schedule that has seen it perform all over Europe and beyond. Every Christmas Eve, millions of people tune in to watch the choir’s A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s – a service which has been continuously broadcast since 1928.

This recording presents three traditional ways of celebrating Christmas in music – medieval carols, Renaissance motets praising the Virgin Mary, and German chorales. The medieval pieces are sung in their original forms, without modern ‘arrangement’. All those performed here are of English provenance, and culminate in three versions of the Coventry Carol, which include Byrd’s famous Lullaby.

For many, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the sound of carols sung from King’s College Chapel, and each year over the festive period millions around the world enjoy the Choir’s A Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols. This two-part collection celebrates 100 years of the iconic service with a mix of brand-new performances and historical recordings not heard since the original BBC broadcasts.