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Congleton Chronicle

This is an approachable album of American choral works; it’s not a Christmas album but if your Christmas is made better by some nice singing, this is for you. Despite the title, the choir, Alban Voices, is a chamber choir formed for St Alban’s Abbey, and it has featured in both “EastEnders” (December 2003) and on the radio, its recording of a Christmas song, accompanied by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, played on Scala Radio and Classic FM in the run-up to Christmas 2022.

As the title suggests, these are choral classics, not choral songs of one style, so we go from the grand melancholy of Randall Thompson’s “Alleluia” and Samuel Barber’s “Agnus Dei” to George Gershwin’s

“Summertime”, then “Shenandoah” and, for the closing piece, Aaron Copland’s “I Bought Me a Cat”, which we guess must make a comic highlight for many a choral concert.

The arc of the programme is thus from high art to the closer (“I bought me a cat, my cat pleased me, I fed my cat under yonder tree, My cat says fiddle eye fee”), good contrast from Thompson’s opener, which is essentially a plea for peace written in 1940.

First play through, the variety is perhaps a little surprising, but it makes for an enjoyable programme. The set includes Aaron Copland’s “Simple Gifts”, the main theme of his ballet “Appalachian Spring” and better known to us as “Lord of the Dance”.

Alban Voices sing clearly so you can pick up the lyrics — none are given, and we Googled the cat song — and we’d guess that more than one amateur choir member will wonder if this programme is a doable live show.

Out on Divine Art, DDX 21106.