''The thread that ties this music together is a striving for something out of the ordinary, a special sound... reserved for this most wonderful time.'' The introduction to this delightful collection spells out the aims of any Christmas record: a sense of occasion, a balance of the serene and the jolly, a hint of showmanship. This quartet of women's voices conjures up a fricassee of reflection and revelry, and serves it with panache.
Those used to more traditional expressions of yuletide cheer need not be told that this is an 'early music disc'. The tunefulness of medieval English music (especially in its most straightforward manifestation, the carol) was ever remarkable, and the strangely familiar lyrics provide a touch of exoticism. There's an element of culinary skill required in putting together a Christmas programme, and I'm bound to say the dish is just about perfect: half-minute antiphons lead straight into rollicking carols; dazzling bursts of florid motet-writing offset haunting love-songs (converted into devotional poems, of course!). The many-sidedness of the medieval mind binds all together.
So too does the singing of Anonymous 4, whose sustained warmth gives a gentle sheen to each interpretation. Perhaps certain carols might have been delivered more robustly; one might point out the odd lapse of intonation (on certain pedal-notes), or question some editorial decisions (most importantly, the omission of part of the refrain in Alleluya: A newe werke, and the addition of parallel fifths to the canon in Nowel: Owt of your slepe). But given the season, it seems churlish to quibble.'