Great but for a Bit of Scholastic Research
I have listened to 4 different versions of Britten's Ceremony of Carols, one of these a private recording made by the Columbus Boychoir in the 1950's, and the remainder as commercial productions. Of the 4, The Columbus Boychoir's version was the best even though the sound quality was poor. Now one would expect that since the Columbus Boychoir changed their name to the American Boychoir, this recording ought to be perfect. For the most part, the boys are exceptional. A couple of solos are, however, not up to the choir's standards. The bad: Britten used a set of 15th century poems. The words are Middle English. How Middle English is spoken is a matter of scholarship. But we do know that many currently used vowel sounds were not used in the 15th century. So my quibble: Deo Gratius (latin) the "a" is not pronounced like the "a" in rain. And so on. Still, a good work particularly when compared with others.
