Composed in a remarkably fecund period following the success of Peter Grimes, the 1948 cantata St Nicolas wedded amateur chorus with professional soloists and string orchestra in a highly effective re-telling of the story. The unusual forces, together with Britten’s ever-fresh musical ideas, create a work of charm and considerable dramatic impetus. The companion work on this CD is the rarely-heard student work Christ’s Nativity of 1931, featuring a carefully chosen sequence of texts to unify this short suite. These fresh and atmospheric accounts were originally released on Collins Classics.