Customer Reviews

Bright Day Star: Music for the Yuletide Season

5 star:		(7)
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Had enough of animated snowmen and over-sweetened carol arrangements? Here's a hugely enjoyable recording of songs and dances done with flair by the Baltimore Consort. There are a few familiar tunes, such as the lilting arrangement of "Ding, Dong Merrily On High" and a beautiful solo flute version of "Lo, How a Rose 'Er Blooming." But most the songs are off the beaten track, and are therefore fresh and new despite their antiquity. Custer LaRue brings feeling and energy into the songs. This has become the most played Christmas CD in our household.

This is my favorite Christmas CD, and it is very different from everything else we hear this time of year.

'Twas the day after Thanksgiving, and all through the house, Christmas spirit was stirring and starting to rouse feelings of joy and expectation in the hearts of the people who were there. Beautiful music and Custer LaRue's singing filled the air.

Wonderful songs, written by people long dead, caused pictures to form and stories to dance through each listening head. Stories of a virgin bearing a child, stories of the little Savior's entrance into this world...meek and mild.

Each song is sung with such haunting beauty and care. The Consort's playing could not be more wonderfully fair. Each song is a masterpiece--"The Cherry Tree Carol," "In dulci jubilo," and "Quem pastores laudavere." Each song's focus is on the true meaning of Christmas--no appearance made by St. Nick--but with singing like this, in your head they are sure to stick.

More beautifully than snowflakes this music drifts down. In sheer loveliness, "Christmas Is My Name" deserves the crown. Oh but each tune is strong--like "Ding Dong Merrily" and "The Wren Song." Most come in at under three minutes each, none is overlong. Each is stunning...how can the listener go wrong? How they twinkle...they are most merry. One even makes mention of Cherries.

(...)

I highly recommend this disc.

I purchased this CD after listening to another work by the Baltimore Consort. The quality of the recording, of the music and the vocals are all top notch. After listening to this CD for a few days, my wife and I decided it would be an ideal gift for other music lovers. Each person who has since received it has also thoroughly enjoyed it. While the CD is themed for the yuletide season, I don't know that it has to go away with the garland and tinsel.

Hands down one of the best Christmas albums I've found to date. Not all the songs are favorites, but some of them are worth buying the album for (10x over). Hearkens back to old Christmases without sounding remotely cheesy, or like a half-hearted attempt to recreate what's gone before. Brilliant instrumentation. Beautiful vocals. A must have.

This might be my favorite holiday album. It's one of the first I pull out in November and doesn't get put away until February.

A perfect way to celebrate the Christmas spirit any time of year with some truly "old" favorites, performed with spirit and heart by the Baltimore Consort. Period selections imbued here with the consort's singular sound and creative improvisations include "Ding Dong Merrily on High", "The Old Year Now Away is Fled", "The Cherry Tree Carol", "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day", "Es ist ein Ros", "In Dulci Jubilo", and many more that may charm you for the first time. The Baltimore Consort is: Mary Anne Ballard, viols and rebec; Mark Cudek, cittern, guitar, viols and bandora; Custer LaRue, soprano soloist; Larry Lipkis, viol, recorder and gemshorn; Ronn McFarlane, lutes; and Chris Norman, wooden flutes and pennywhistle; with Webb Wiggins on organ.