Customer Reviews

Christmas Music from Medieval Hungary

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

 

 

This was purchased on a whim, but has become a favorite, one that I have given to several friends & family members. We listen to it year-round, not just during the Christmas holidays. The singing is sublime, and the women's voices so perfectly attuned that it sometimes sounds like only one voice. This is one of the very few recordings I own that I can use just as background music, or for falling into sleep & (sometimes rapturous) dreams, or for paying rapt attention when I have the time. The chants are deceptively simple, but unfold complexities when listened to carefully. To my ear, this recording approaches perfection.

I purchased this in a effort to expand my Christmas collection. I had great hopes for this album because of its title. I am not rating it mediocre for the recording or preformance. The women's voices are beautiful, the chants are lovely. My problem is that there was nothing to distinguish to the untrained ear that these chants were focused on Christmans. Though I read a bit of latin, I couldn't follow the words well enough when they were sung to feel this was "Christmas" music. For a lover of Latin chants, this would be a terrific album. But for an amateur, this is rather unaccesible.

No this isn't really Christmas music. Most of the pieces are antiphons which don't hold interest. And the melismas on track 19 (a motet) are warbly - on the edge of losing control. It does make nice background music because there is little to capture your attention.