Customer Reviews

Carols Around the World

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

 

 

This fabulous cd is now the standard mood-setter in my house at Christmas time. It's not your typical Rudolf or Little Drummer Boy fare, but a collection of carols you'll KNOW you've heard before even though you don't know the names, and everything, even the unfamiliar, eminate a serene, peaceful holiday feeling. Quink's voices are pristine and soaring, the arrangements are beautiful, and the melodies (especially "What Sweeter Music") haunt me all year long. Put it in your changer and hit "REPEAT".

i merely wish to bring the average score on this recording up to a more appropriate level.

I often woke up to this cd playing in the house during the holidays. If songs like "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree," "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," and "Jingle Bell Rock" are your style of classic carols, you might not appreciate the beauty and soothing tone of this collection. This album is definitely a quiet mood setter.

I love good choral singing, and this small a capella ensemble is very good.

The selection of music is intelligent and wide-reaching with many of the carols being from the 20th century and which have become standards in the Choral field - the sort of tunes you would hear in a good college choir's Christmas concert. So, no Jingle Bells here.

The quality of singers are very good, particularly the men. The women are occasionally exposed as being human, so you hear a slight wobble now and then. It's the sort of thing you would hear in a concert and not think twice about.

On occasion, a song's interpretation may be somewhat pedestrian, with the tempo often seeming to be a little on the slow side, but they are at least tasteful.

The songs sung in English have a noticeable Dutch accent, which is a little strange to hear at times to this native English speaker's ears. I had a couple of moments of realizing with a start, "wait, they're singing this song in English". They are also in the first section of the CD, so when one prior reviewer mentions how horrible it is - they have a point, though they exaggerate. In fact, the weakest song is the first one ("What Sweeter Music"), and my favourites are the last two, sung in German, Distler's Es ist Ein Ros' Ersprungen", and Heinz Werner Zimmermann's "Uns Ist Ein Kind Geboren".

It's not a perfect recording. The sound is somewhat distant and seems to be recorded at a rather low level.

Still, I play this recording at least once every year during the season, which is more than I can say of many other Holiday CD's that I own. This recording is not for a rowdy party - it is for playing while sipping an egg nog in front of a cozy fire.

The CD was a true disappointment. The songs/carols are almost unrecognizable. I wish I had never ordered it. My expectations were so much higher. It didn't meet my tatse at all even though I don'yt go for the regular Holiday ho-ho-ho music either. But stay away from this CD, after 10 minutes you are sick of it.