Cantique de Noël: French Music for Christmas from Berlioz to Debussy

The Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, demonstrate their class on a Christmas album with a delicious French flavour. Smoky organ accompaniments and characterful singing—beautifully recorded at Exeter College, Oxford—lend a different slant to the traditional seasonal fare. There are many favourites here, such as Berlioz’s heavenly “L’adieu des bergers à la sainte famille,” Gounod’s “Noël,” and Massenet’s “La neige” (the latter two with piano accompaniment), but also a few rarities that add to the enjoyment. A different harmonization by Gounod of “Adeste fideles” (“O Come, All Ye Faithful” to English speakers), presented as a Portuguese hymn, closes the programme with panache.