Christmas in the Greek Tradition

The new recording from Divine Art for this year’s Christmas season celebrates the Greek tradition of singing carols on Christmas Eve (the “Kalanda”). Greek-Cypriot composer Cilia Petridou has written many carols, settings of texts by Greek authors and a full program of these is presented on the new album ‘The Mystery of Christmas: Carols of Joy and Celebration’ (Divine Art DDA 25186) which will be released in November. The composer has been resident in the UK for many years; her earlier Divine Art production was a double album of vocal and chamber works which received glowing reviews (‘Sounds of the Chionistra’ – Divine Art DDA 21226). Written mainly for solo voices, the singing is shared by three fine sopranos: Jenni Harper, Lesley-Jane Rogers and Alison Smart, all accompanied by pianist Sarah Down. The final two tracks feature all three in beautiful trio carols.