Incarnation

For Paul McCreesh, "the greatest Christmas music captures a sense of awe-struck wonder at this miracle" – the Incarnation. So you won't find here any of the all-too-familiar seasonal filler McCreesh brands as "saccharine and sentimental – all tinsel and glitter, and very little else". His choices in this all-English programme alternate between the medieval and the 20th and 21st centuries, with works by Matthew Martin, Herbert Howells, Francis Pott, Jonathan Dove and Kenneth Leighton, leading up to the major inclusion – Benjamin Britten's A Boy Was Born. The singing in this collection, which shifts effortlessly between true intimacy and genuine grandeur, is first-rate. url.ie/gb48