Nowel: Advent & Beyond

01. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Advent Calendar
02. Rowan Williams – Isaiah 9_ 2, 6–7
03. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10_ No. 1, Es ist ein Ros entsprungen
04. Rowan Williams – Luke 1_ 26–38
05. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10_ No. 2, Das R?slein, das ich meine
06. Rowan Williams – Luke 1_ 39–45
07. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10_ No. 3, Meine Seele erhebt-Wir bitten dich
08. Rowan Williams – Luke 2_ 1–7
09. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10_ No. 4, Das Blümelein, so kleine
10. Rowan Williams – Luke 2_ 8–16
11. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10_ No. 5, Die Hirten zu der Stunden
12. Rowan Williams – Matthew 2_ 1–12
13. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10_ No. 6, Lob, Ehr sei Gott, dem Vater
14. Rowan Williams – Luke 2_ 25–32
15. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Seven Chorale Variations from Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, Op. 10_ No. 7, So singen wir all Amen
16. Rowan Williams – John 3_ 16
17. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Nowel el el_ I. Procession O Emmanuel
18. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Nowel el el_ II. That lovely lady sat and song
19. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Nowel el el_ III. Owt of your slepe aryse and wake
20. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Nowel el el_ IV. This flour is fayre and fresche of heue
21. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Nowel el el_ V. Puer nobis natus est
22. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Nowel el el_ VI. Nowel el el
23. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Nowel el el_ VII. O sisters too
24. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Nowel el el_ VIII. Of a rose, a lovely rose
25. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Nowel el el_ IX. When Cryst was born of Mary fre
26. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Nowel el el_ X. This rose is reed of colour bryght
27. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Nowel el el_ XI. A babe is borne of hye natewre
28. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Nowel el el_ XII. Recession_ O Emmanuel
29. Ensemble Pro Victoria – A spotless rose
30. Ensemble Pro Victoria – O Oriens
31. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Lulla, Lullaby
32. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Lully, Lulla, Lullay
33. Ensemble Pro Victoria – Es ist ein Ros entsprungen

Christmas comes in new and unexpected guises – like last leaf’s fall, in Rowan Williams’s poem Advent Calendar. Following three acclaimed Delphian recordings of Tudor music, Toby Ward and Ensemble Pro Victoria bring fresh, contemporary colours to the seasons of Advent and Christmas; the mood is quiet anticipation, guarded joy, sometimes even fear and uncertainty, as the Virgin – the spotless Rose at the still centre of it all – sings her son to sleep amidst death and persecution. Williams narrates the Nativity story, around which the choir weave Hugo Distler’s searching polyphonic variations; Piers Connor Kennedy’s Nowel el el for harp and just six men’s voices is an intimate companion piece – or contrast – to Britten’s famous carol cycle, and has its first recording here by the group for which it was written.