Customer Reviews

The Sound of Christmas

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

 

 

Before they disbanded in the 1950s, the Trapp Family Choir made a series of recordings on the Festival label. Years of singing together and touring had brought their work to a much higher level of performance than can be heard in the recordings they made soon after they arrived in the USA in 1939. From these 1950s recordings, a selection of Christmas carols, issued in 1992 on this CD, is all that is currently available. Sadly, I cannot report that this issue will do much to perpetuate or enhance the family's reputation. A process of dubbing has reduced the original sound quality and introduced an audible hum, defects I don't hear when I replay the items as they originally appeared on LPs. While hoping for better reissues, I meanwhile welcome this extremely inexpensive 37 minute memento. The delightful carols are arranged by the choir's conductor, Dr Franz Wasner. A verse of the well-known "Silent Night", in its original form, is sung first in German, then in English, and then hummed.

The von Trapp's have such wonderfully blended voices and this CD just shows that. Silent Night is the most beautiful version I have ever heard in my life. There singing is so fresh, original and different then most music today!