Sacrum Mysterium : A Celtic Christmas

   in Early Music Today (Dec, 2012)
This is an intriguing blend of Celtic medieval and folk music for Christmas and the winter solstice, sung and played with gusto in this US-Canadian collaboration. Most unfamiliar are the extracts from the thirteenth-century office of St Kentigern (a.k.a. St Mungo) of which this is only the second recording. I liked the wire harp accompaniment here (for a fuller exploration, seek out Cappella Nova’s ASV recording of more of the office, also with harp), and the instrumental contributions throughout this disc are highly colourful. My main reservation is how diversely directors Jeanette Sorrell and Sylvain Bergeron have sourced their material: sure, it’s fun to listen to, and is bound to cheer …