Customer Reviews

Holly & The Ivy

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Although either a little late for the last or early for the next Christmas, the Vanguard reissue of The Holly and the Ivy (OVC 8023) is in my opinion the best Christmas recording ever made. With Alfred Deller and his Deller Consort, accompanied only by recorder and lute, this offering sounds (to me) the most authentic of all such programs. If you want to know what caroling probably sounded like Way Back Then, I believe this recording gets us closer than others, even down to the countertenor voice which was so in demand in the past. With two more tracks than the original 1956 LP, this is a definite Grabbit.

"What sweeter music can we bring than a carol!" So sing the Deller Consort on Track 19 of this delightful CD. 25 carols are heard, dating in time from C14th Germany to C19th America. Four pioneering members of the Deller Consort are heard, and accompaniments are sometimes provided by recorder and lute. If you are old enough to have possessed these recordings in their original early stereo format, you'll notice that the sound is much cleaner, with most but not all background hum erased. Additional items have been poached from other Deller Consort LP releases to bring the duration of this CD to 60 minutes.

Concerns for authenticity, variety and musicianship are all met here. Liner notes include a history of the English carol by Russell Hope Robbins and a personal appreciation provided by Alfred Deller's son Mark.

This is a record my father bought used in 1957 or 1958. We have worn out the grooves. It is one of our favorites and Christmas is not the same without this music. I am ECSTATIC that it has been reissued--I'm ordering 4, one for each household in my family.