Customer Reviews

Christmas Carols

5 star:		(3)
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This is the CD I listen to the most during the Christmas season. I like the clarity of the choir and the variety of carols. Some of them are straightforward renditions of carols with organ accompaniment. Others are choir only. Some were familiar to me and others were new to me when I bought the CD, but have become Christmas favorites. This is a good CD for those who are tired of the typical compendium of Christmas carols by listless artists. This one always has something new to offer at every listening.

We have dozens of classical carol CDs, from medieval to modern. This is our favorite. Great selection, great performances. Some, including Rocking, Salve Puerule, Alleluja! Freuet Euch, and Puer Natus, are poignant enough to make you weep. The modern selections--a new setting of Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day, for example--stay focused on Christmas spirit without falling into the wretched excesses choral music is prey to. And the standards, such as Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, are delivered with admirable directness and good taste. My wife & I love this album. If we could have just two, it would be this and Carols from the Old & New Worlds (Hillier, Theatre of Voices), which complements Simon Preston's efforts--both CDs possess both freshness and an admirable gravitas--not an easy combination to come by. Listen to the audio snippets on this Web site. If your heart and your ears work, they should convince you.

I purchased this CD solely to get a very clear and fine choral performance of "Good King Wenceslas" (Track 20). I was pleasantly surprised to find that this CD includes a "blockbuster" among its consistently fine (though artistically varied) performances. It is Track 11, Andreas Hammerschmidt's "Alleluja! Freuet Euch, Ihr Christen alle Achtstimmige," a motet from "Vierter Theil Musicalischer Andacten, 1646." I am sure that Herr Hammerschmidt would very much approve of this English choir's arrangement and delivery of his thunderously joyful "carol." Although not all of the selections on the CD appeal to me, those that do are magnificent. A keeper.