Customer Reviews

Advent Procession

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a former Benedictan monk, the community sang these O Antiphons during Vespers as well as includes the Biblical readings and hymns that are part of recording. The selections are on target and the etherial and timeless beauty of the singing is something we can only aspire to. The recording of Gabriel's Message is the most powerful one I've ever heard. When I listen to these selections, I feel I am in the antechamber of heaven. I highly recommend this recording for everyone.

This CD is truly a World-Class recording, and it belongs on the shelf of anyone remotely interested in choral works in general, as well as any listener interested in Christmas, Advent, "Holiday" recordings. The opening Processional; "Let My Prayer Come Up" is alone worth the price of this disc, and you really have to hear it to believe how beautiful it is. The recordings & interpretations on the CD are once Sublime, Peaceful, and MASTERFULLY performed by The Choir of St. Marks in Seattle, with Scriptural Readings, Carols, Meditations and Gregorian, or "Sarum Chant". Appropriate for the Season of Advent, but I would HIGHLY recommended this recording for any listener for quiet meditation year-round. As a matter of fact, I've listened to this recording dozens of times, including at any time of the year when stress overtakes me from the sometimes hurried business of life, because it draws the Listener back to a time when our culture valued times of quiet reflection & meditation. Finally, the recording engineers at Loft/Gothic are to be highly congratulated on the sense of realism & depth they have captured here.

Excellent recording of excellent choirs and readers. The Advent 'O' antiphons are presented in both plain song and choral settings in the context of 'Lessons and Carols.' (The 'O' antiphons, themselves, are for use as antiphons from December 16-23).

I've had this album through three Advent cycles and we've never managed to get through the entire presentation. It's probably a matter of taste and theology: the album is a very fine example of contemporary American Episcopal cathedral music. If you respond to the themes and rhythms of contemporary American Episcopalianism, low/broad church variety, you will resonate with this album and find it enjoyable and conducive to prayer. If you are more traditionally or more Catholically-minded, inclusive language and its theological imperatives do creep in and can be a bit annoying, and you will encounter the modalities of progressive Protestant religion. Some will be delighted; others should be forewarned.

Hallock is as fine an organist, composer, and arranger as this country produces, and so from a musicological perspective the album is really excellent. For anyone interested in the history of contemporary American sacred music, the album is a necessary point of reference and you will not be disappointed in it. Happy listening.

I bought this cd in the hopes of enriching the Advent season, but was disappointed. It just comes off as a lot of grandstanding, with most of the songs having been written by Peter Hallock, the founder and musical director of the choir. He is a Doctor of Sacred Music, and it definitely sounds like it. If you also have a music degree, you may like it as well. But I thought it was unnecessarily complicated and hollow. I gave it two stars because of the Scripture readings; they didn't manage to mess those up.