RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958): Hodie, Fantasia on Christmas Carols.

Description: An hour-long work of the composer's old age (1956), Hodie is a brilliant mosaic of musical styles setting equally diverse poetic texts with a boys' choir narration of the Nativity story holding the whole thing together. Its vitality and inventiveness bely Vaughan Williams' age and, though much longer, it is scarcely less fresh-sounding than the 1912 Fantasia. No texts. Janice Watson (soprano), Peter Hoare (tenor), Stephen Gadd (baritone), Guildford Choral Society, St. Catherine's School Middle Chamber Choir, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Hilary Davan Wetton.