'The freshness of attack you get with younger voices is put to incisive use by conductor Ralph Allwood, whose Rodolfus singers are all products of the famous Eton choral courses. Parry's Welcome, Yule! can seldom have had a more sheerly ebullient performance, but the choir also brings formidable precision of pitching and ensemble to quieter settings, such as Tavener's The Lamb and Poulenc's O Magnum Mysterium. Some of the emotional deepening which comes with vocal maturity is occasionally missing, but there are many qualities here that compensate' (BBC Music Magazine)
PERFORMANCE RECORDING
'This beautifully sung sequence ranges through 500 years of Christmas music, with a bias towards the twentieth century and some of the exquisite carols and anthems composed by the likes of Vaughan Williams, Holst, Morten Lauridsen and John Tavener. The mood is one of quiet reflection rather than overt jubilation, although Parry's Welcome, Yule! and Tavener's rhythmically punchy Today the Virgin are exceptions. but there is a broad spectrum of texts and technique to lend the programme stylistic variety' (The Daily Telegraph)
'From Signum comes A Choral Christmas, a fine collection of largely unfamiliar seasonal music from the Rodolfus Choir conducted by Ralph Allwood, who has recently stepped down after 26 years as Eton's director of music. His choir are youngsters, aged between 16 and 25, who applied for choral scholarships at the college. Their discipline and diction throughout a testing programme is exemplary' (Daily Mail)