Winter Tales: The Britten Christmas Album – RIAS Kammerchor & Justin Doyle

With the album Winter Tales, the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin and Justin Doyle celebrate Christmas with a programme centred on Benjamin Britten’s choral masterpieces. At its heart is A Ceremony of Carols, complemented by the early masterpiece A Boy Was Born, the sonically captivating Missa brevis, and the rarely performed A Hymn of St Columba and The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard. Together, they place Britten’s best-known masterpieces alongside rarely performed works, allowing listeners to experience his choral music in an unexpected context. Released to mark the 50th anniversary of Benjamin Britten’s death, the album pays tribute to one of the defining composers of twentieth-century British music.

Former Westminster Cathedral chorister Justin Doyle has been immersed in Britten’s music since childhood and is now recognised as one of its foremost interpreters. For this recording, he worked from scores containing Britten’s own handwritten markings, and gains valuable insights into Britten’s performance practice and sound world.

The RIAS Kammerchor Berlin, one of the world’s leading professional chamber choirs, is joined by the boys of the Staats- und Domchor Berlin, Anna Viechtl (harp), Marcel Andreas Ober (organ) and Philip Mayers (piano). The result is a recording that brings together Britten’s best-loved Christmas music with some of the most rewarding discoveries in his catalogue.