Bach: Christmas Oratorio Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Stephen Layton Hyperion CDA 68031/2 (2 CDs)

Stephen Layton's performances of Bach's Christmas Oratorio are an annual staple at St John's Smith Square in London. His new recording, made in the chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, with soloists Katherine Watson, Iestyn Davies, James Gilchrist and Matthew Brook, has all the sureness which such a background might suggest. The acoustic is generous and the recorded sound big and warm, with voices and instruments presented in close perspective. The music-making is generally of a style to match and not without mannerisms, especially in the impressively agile choral singing, which has moments that may
test your tolerance for swelling accentuation and the sharpness of the slope in hairpin diminuendos. url.ie/4qdb MICHAEL DERVAN