Terry Blain
BBC Music Magazine
December 2015
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING

Since going to Trinity College, Cambridge nine years ago conductor Stephen Layton has taken its choir to new levels of achievement. And not just in ecclesiastical repertoire: the version of Jingle Bells which opens this recital is full of pep and sparkle. In fact all the popular selections—White Christmas, The Christmas Song, among others—sound notably relaxed and idiomatic, the choir's stylistic versatility confidently demonstrated. Arrangements are often interestingly unfamiliar, and for sheer fun and virtuosity Robert Rice's arrangement of Sleigh Ride takes the seasonal biscuit.