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SITE RATING:  1/10 SITE REVIEW:  Previously released in 1976 on the Everest label (SDBR 3398), and originally credited to 'Soloist, Chorus and Chamber Orchestra of the Pro Musica Antiqua', label Metacom Inc. re-released this album crediting the choir and orchestra of St. Paul's Cathedral under the baton of Randolph Jones.  Madacy records has also released this album (again credited to "Pro Antiqua") as part of its Ultimate Christmas Collection box set, but regardless, it's the same recording.  Whatever guise it appears in, it needs to be avoided, since the sound is abyssmal, the performance is ham-handed, and the track order is completely random.  I suspect that this release was mastered from vinyl sources - there is an underlying "buzz" in the recorded sound which sounds throughout, as well as occassional distortion in the upper and lower ranges.  As to the performance, it's strictly by-the-numbers: the chorus sound like a basic community choir with wide-spread vowels; the tenor soloist is cursed with a wobbly vibrato in his otherwise boyish tone, the orchestra plays well, but with little distinction, the alto soloist is similarly b-class; the bass soloist combines all the worst qualities of throaty, heavy singing, and the soprano occasionally slides up to her upper register.  Consider this recording one for the scrap heap.

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