WINTER TALES The Britten Christmas Album / RIAS Kammerchor Berlin, Justin Doyle | Deutsche Grammophon

On their upcoming album Winter Tales, the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin and Justin Doyle celebrate Christmas with a programme centred on Benjamin Britten’s choral masterpieces.

Released to mark the 50th anniversary of Britten’s death, the album combines some of his best-loved Christmas music with rarely performed works, offering an unexpected perspective on one of the defining composers of 20th-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, gaining 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.

The album will be released digitally and on CD on 16 October. Pre-order the CD version in the DG Store.

Listen to a first pre-release track There Is No Rose, the third movement of A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28.