Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

This collection is made up of some of the many cherries picked from the Naxos back catalogue. The recording dates are from 1994 to 2000 but there are no performing credits in the CD booklet. A visit to the encyclopaedic Naxos website shows us that there are seven conductors on display so it is a plausible deduction to conclude that seven albums have been used. In point of fact one of the two CDs on offer, now subtitled 'Favourite Wedding Hymns', is a re-issue of a 2005 release entitled 'Abide With Me', a collection of 22 traditional Anglican hymns sung by the Choir Of St George's Chapel at Windsor under the direction of Tim Byram-Wigfield and favourably reviewed elsewhere on this website. This leaves CD One, 'Favourite Wedding Anthems', which looks and sounds to me like a well chosen selection from the splendid Naxos English Choral Music series, many of which have also been reviewed elsewhere on the Cross Rhythms website. In total we have 17 anthems and 22 hymns taking about two hours and 20 minutes to play. The blurb on the back cover suggests that this is a resource for those planning a traditional church wedding although I suspect that it may leave many spoiled for choice. However the minister or choir director may be better placed to use this as a resource by making some tactful suggestions as to what will work and I warmly commend this release as a useful addition to any church music library. For those of us who are not planning a church wedding this is still a pleasant compilation, although if you are in the habit of picking up Naxos releases on the excellent grounds that they are generally worth hearing and always affordable it may be wise to check the full track list and comparing it against what you already have just in case there are too many duplicates.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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