Customer Reviews

The Best Carols in the World...Ever!

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This album provides 2.5 hours of excellent carols, from excellent choirs and soloists, and with great sound. I was worried that a compilation this large, and with such an extravagent title, would be B-side offerings, but that's not the case at all.

This isn't an album if you are looking for something "fresh and new." The arrangements are traditional, and even newer carols are done in a fairly conservative style. But that said, some of the pieces provide the best orchestration and voice arrangement I have ever heard. This is like the pinnacle of the classic English Christmas carol; clean, precise, glorious and celebratory.

If you love Christmas carols, you will find this to be a real treasure trove. This double-CD is compiled from various Christmas albums recorded by English choirs. Between them, they seem to have included every famous carol and a lot of obscure ones.

The seven choirs are the choir of King's college (Cambridge), the Bach Choir (London), the Clare College singers (Cambridge), the Temple Church choir (London), the Taverners choir, the Midiaevel Baebes and the Huddersfield choral society. A brief history of each is included in the liner notes.

Some of these carols are world famous including Hark the herald angels sing, The first noel, O little town of Bethlehem, Away in a manger, Silent night, Joy to the world, We three kings and O come all ye faithful.

Some others are famous in Britain but (judged on what I've seen of American Christmas albums) are not especially well known in America. These include While shepherds watched, Once in Royal David's city, In the bleak midwinter and The holly and the ivy. I have come across American covers of these songs - but not often.

There are yet other songs which are obscure even to me, but it's great to have them all in one collection. At the import price, it might look expensive, but what would you have to spend to get all these Christmas carols any other way?

If you enjoy Christmas carols, I doubt if you'll find a better collection anywhere, although a modified version of this compilation (Best Christmas Carols...Ever is also available with a different sequence and some different tracks. Really, there's not much to choose between them in quality, so compare the prices and availability and select accordingly.

This album contains traditional carols performed in a traditional way at the best quality. It is an excellent album to ensure the spirit of christmas is present and to bring the true meaning of christmas back. The double CD selection has all the golden favourites as well as not so wellknown carols to complete a very good christmas album. Merry Christmas to you all!

The Best Carols in the World...Ever! is not the only CD needed to build an excellent Christmas carol collection, but it is definitely a key ingredient. My CD shelves are arranged left-to-right in roughly descending order of enjoyment. The Best Carols in the World...Ever! sits on the far left, accompanied by Noel: Christmas at King's, A Traditional Christmas Carol Collection, and Christmas with the Academy.

The album is interesting just for the breadth of carols on it: "Gaudete," "A Virgin Unspotted," "Masters in This Hall," and "Methinks I See an Heav'nly Host" are included along with more standard offerings like "In the Bleak Midwinter" and "Once in Royal David's City." And the breadth of carols is highlighted by excellent performances and high-quality recording.

The artists include Mediaeval Baebes, Choir Of King's College Cambridge, and Taverner Choir. These are excellent performers with solid material. And the recording quality is a bonus: I've more than one excellent Christmas album blemished with tape artifacts and other technical flaws. It can be frustrating to hear a gorgeous piece of music touched with a fault that's not from either the music or the performance. This CD is generally free from those flaws.

Really, there is no glaring fault on this album. I can't call it perfect:that would infer no other albums are necessary. But it's really a very excellent recording, at an extremely attractive price. It is an integral piece of my Christmas music collection.

This two cd offering has almost all my favorites.the classics, not the Rudolph ones. Can't recommend enough.Listen and read Dickens...That's enough Christmas for anyone.

Of all Christmas cds I have collected over the years this 2 cd set is a masterpiece! If you love choral music and traditional carols from the days of Charles Dickens this is a joy. No Jingle bell Rock or grandma getting run over by a reindeer. This music is the stillness and peace of Christmas Eve when all the rushing is done and you remember all the joys of Christmas' past. This music will take you there.