Customer Reviews

Choirboy's Christmas

5 star:		(7)
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Anthony Way really shines on this CD. I have every disc by Anthony Way ever sold... but this one just might be my favorite. It may be a 'Christmas' CD, but I listen to it all year.

Really good stuff. :) Anthony if you're listening, won't you please create another disc of your early music and offer it for sale?!

I thought this CD was excellent. Like Anthony, I was a Cathedral Chorister. I used to sing in Peterborough Cathedral Choir, in the UK. Christmas to me is just not the same without some of the great music that is on this CD.

The recording was really good and St.Pauls Cathedral Choir lived up to their reputation. Anthony was brilliant in the solo parts and backed up well by the choir. The choice of music was great, with all the songs I used to really enjoy singing.

Get this CD, I can assure you that it will be played Christmas after Christmas.

Excellent! This is the voice of an angel, not that awful Charlotte Church. He's much cutter than that little witch and he can sing much better too! The selections are traditional but unpretentious. Check out "Balulalow" from "Ceremony of Carols". It is absolutely sublime. This is one of my favoite Christmas cds.

Anthony Way is revered by many - including myself - as one of the finest treble soloists to have ever been recorded. This disc gives every reason why. His is really as perfect a voice as I have ever heard, and is enjoyable listening for hours on end - more than can be said for some otherwise excellent trebles. I must take issue with the reviewer who claims that Anthony's voice was showing the signs of voice change in this recording. In my opinion, Anthony sounds better on this recording than on almost any of the other recordings I have of him. His voice seems to have reached its greatest potential here. Another recording with his choir made only a month before this one - "Passiontide at St Paul's" - shows him at the same pinnacle of perfection in his little verse tidbit of Gibbon's "Drop, drop, slow tears". His voice inflection, spot-on vocal control, and incomparable musicality are stunning.

The selections on this recording enable it to be far more than a soloist record. They range from the almost obligatory - but never old - Willcocks arrangements of "O Come all Ye Faithful" and "Once in Royal David's City", to a unique performance of Cornelius's "The Three Kings" - with Anthony singing the solo (and it's so glorious that I wish it was always performed this way), to a really spine-chilling rendition of "Do You Hear What I Hear". No, I'm not kidding. That last really is powerful, and the choir sings it full-bloodedly - as though their life depended on it, not as if it were a little candy-song. The "king of cathedral choirs", that of St Paul's, is featured here in all its glory, and in the more "intimate" acoustics of the Temple Church - more "intimate", that is, when compared to Wren's massive cathedral, which is the choir's home. The English Chamber Orchestra comes on board to lend a vibrantly festive air, and all is merry and bright. That the recording was made in July and August seems to have had no effect on the performers. They sound as though there were snow outside, and this church was a warm haven of Christmas joy. In fact, it is the warm fervency of this recording that makes it so special. There are innumerable Christmas carol recordings. Very few sound as though the musicians loved, believed, and adored everything that they were singing. This does. What higher praise can be given? Perhaps I have already given it; crediting this recording, while on NPR's From the Top show, with introducing me to, and entrancing me with the Anglican men and boys' choir tradition. I have never been the same since. This is pure magic!

I'm a big fan of the sweet former chorister Anthony Way. His voice on this particular CD has started that inevitable change and is a little huskier than on his previous albums, but no less enjoyable for this.
My favourite track is Balulalow which is beautifully sung by this unique boy soprano, with much expression and a gentle delivery.
Anthony is joined by the men and boys of St.Paul's Cathedral on this Christmas release, but it doesn't sound like your average mundane choir recording. Anthony Way's vocals could never be described as mundane and the arrangements of these traditional Christmas carols are also different and very pleasing.

Brilliantly performed Christmas classics. Alone or with the choir of St Paul's Cathedral, Anthony is an amazing vocalist.

A beautiful holiday collection. Anthony's voice is that of a true professional, a hardworking treble who really delivers the
magic of Christmas, a must have in any collection. This cd is diverse from other "choral collections" as it focuses on the sweet voice of this young former choirster who called St. Pauls home for many years before branching out into other classical vocal recordings.