Church Music Quarterly

Press ‘Play’; Track One: ‘How far is it to Bethlehem?’ sings a soprano soloist. ‘Not very far’, comes the SATB response. With just a handful of singers, oboe, harp and recorder we do indeed enter a very different sound world from the Oxbridge college chapel choirs. This is a collection of carols composed by the Manchester-based recorder player John Turner. He has played with leading orchestras such as the Hallé and English Chamber Orchestra, and recorder concertos have been written for him by the likes of Kenneth Leighton, Alan Bullard and John Casken.

This CD of Turner’s compositions is a pleasing, seasonal listen. In the accompanying booklet he explains that each Christmas he would send a specially composed carol to his friends. There are 21 such works, plus one early carol and, as he puts it, an instrumental piece sent as a Christmas card one year when inspiration failed! As far as words go, there’s no shortage of source material: John Turner has tapped familiar and much-loved texts – ‘Adam lay a-bounden’, ‘I sing of a maiden’, ‘Away in a manger’ to name but three. There is some marvellous word-painting here – the rocking rhythm for example in Christmas Lullaby or the medieval vibe in Gloria Carol, a rather busy piece for SSA (published by the RSCM). Turner’s style is pleasantly melodic, though angular in places. Singers have to have their chromatic wits about them; the well-blended Intimate Voices directed by Christopher Stokes give effortless, fluent performances throughout. The CD is well recorded too.

—Stuart Robinson