Customer Reviews

Carols from the Old and New Worlds

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This album on the surface may appear to be a classical music cd; however, it owes much to the folk tradition as well.

The opening carol is Sherburne, a tune well known to shaped note singers. The American composers - Daniel Read, Jeremiah Ingalls, and Supply Belchers - are all early American singing school music. There are several American pieces simply labeled "Traditional American" - other "Traditional" pieces are Bavarian, Austrian, Latin, and English.

The result is a very well balanced cd in which familar words and tunes are mixed with the less familar. For example, Away in a Manger is sung to the Afton Water tune - one of three traditional tunes for it. While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks at Night is set to Sherburne and later to Eltham.

As usual, a choir conducted by Paul Hillier performs excellently. With the multiplicity of styles, languages and moods of this music, that is a notable accomplishment.

Enjoy this as a required folk and/or classical Christmas album.

I've been buying at least one Christmas album/CD per year for over thirty years, and have listened to many more. This recording is one of the best I've ever encountered -- a near perfect balance between the familiar and the unfamiliar, exquisitely performed. Too many Christmas recordings go for the schmaltz; others veer off into esoterica. This one gets it just right.

This is a wonderful collection of Carols from around the world, beautifully performed by the Theater of Voices. I don't know what CD the first reviewer heard, because this one doesn't contain strident voices - the choir is very well blended, and the soloists are outstanding. I highly recommend it.
It is hard to choose best tracks, as they are so varied and well done, but my personal favorites are Gaudete, Personent Hodie and the four german tracks. The women's choir does especially well on Still, O Himmel, authentically capturing the sound of an Austrian choir.

Traditional texts, beautiful (and some unique) arrangements/melodies, and some of the tightest choral singing one can find, make this a singularly satisfying album. No tricked up, "olde worlde" nonsense as in many recent releases, you will listen to this each and every year with increased enjoyment. My best friend at the holidays.

This is beautifully directed and performed. Some people truly have the gift of music, TOV is on the top of the list.

A thrilling collection of carols, mostly new to me, and beautifully sung. Listen to the first sample, Read's "Shepherds," to see what I mean. This has my favorite rendition of "Personent Hodie" (from Piae Cantiones). I now watch for more recordings by Paul Hillier and his ensembles.

This has become one of my favorite Christmas discs. An unusual selection of carols, lovely arrangements (Shepherd's Star is stunning!), and the human voice the only featured instrument. Well worth the purchase

I think the performances here are top notch and the arrangements are interesting. Some of the songs in this collection are performed in the "shape note" manner, which results in a different sound from the choir than is traditional for high church choral works. Others have non-traditional or obscure arrangements. I like this album as a change of pace - it presents many old familiar charols in new and unfamiliar arrangements and melodies. I like this collection's uniqueness because I already have a few other collections of traditional carols sung to their traditional melodies. If you are looking for a collection of carols you recognize, sung to the traditional melodies you recognize, I would steer you elsewhere. If you are looking for a change of pace this might be right up your alley.

I have truly enjoyed listening to this album which contains many carols I have not ever heard before! I will probably select this album as the one I give to friends at Christmas time this year.

Most of the reviews of this CD focus on the diverse repertoire performed on this recording. The diversity of repertoire on this CD, unfortunately, does not make up for the absolutely HORRIBLE singing given by the choir.

The choir's sound is often very strident, vowels are sometimes strikingly spread, the sopranos sing the correct pitches sometimes, etc. The first thing I was struck with when I listened to the first CD track was how nasal sounding the choir's tone was and how they were not in tune with each other. The choir's lack of attention to tuning and balance is mostly illustrated in the faster, rhythmic pieces, when the choir barrels through each selection with about as much attention to musicality as a dog might at dinner time. Even the slower pieces, though, are significantly unbalanced, and sung with a shrill timbre.

This is one of the worst choral CDs in my collection...soon to be OUT of my collection.