Love Enfolds Thee Round

Tenet Vocal Artists/Jolle Greenleaf (soprano and director) (Olde Focus Recordings)

"Tenet Vocal Artists’ seasonal album is on a much smaller scale, this New York ensemble fielding just seven singers and a lutenist. You know this’ll be good when they begin Parry’s 'Welcome Yule' in irresistibly perky fashion, the essence of Christmas distilled into barely 90 seconds. I love the sound this group make. There’s no grandstanding. and it’s refreshing to hear the better-known carols unadorned. The highlights are too many to mention, but their version of Vaughan Williams’ 'Wither’s Rocking Hymn' is sublime. We get Peter Warlock’s 'Bethlehem Down' and Holst’s 'Lullay my liking'. Bass-baritone Jonathan Woody’s version of 'What child is this' is a tad more idiomatic than Jonas Kaufmann’s (see below). An exquisite anthology."