Customer Reviews

Spirit of The Season: Christmas with Sissel and The Mormon Tabernacle Choir

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This concert was probably the single best musical Christmas concert I have ever attended. The choir is sounding better than ever. Mack Wilberg's choral arrangements continue to be first class. Sissel was outstanding with an almost surreal voice. Add to that the solid orchestra and Craig Jessop's dynamic conducting and you have one truly incredible performance.

The Mormon Tabernalce Choir in the past few years has invited singers and personalities from the United States and the world to perform in their Annual Christmas concerts in Salt Lake City Utah.
Some of those in the past include......Angela Lansbury, Walter Cronkite, Rene Felming, Auroa McDonald and others.
This year they have really out done themselves, by inviting Sissel to perfrom in the annual event.
I bought the CD and listened to who in my opinion is the finest soprano in the world. I had no idea who Sissel was. After some research I found out to my surprise she had done work on the soundtrack of Titanic.
I was able to catch the Christmas performance on PBS and instantly fell in love with her voice. I found myself listening to certain songs over and over. I even bought the DVD because it had more songs than the PBS version. In short I could not get enough of her.
Oddly enough one of my favorite parts is when she reads the account of Christmas from the bible. Hearing Sissel perform with the Tabernacle Choir as well as the Orchestra is an experience you have probably not had before, nor will you ever have again. This has become my favorite Christmas CD.
My favorite song from her on the DVD/CD is In the Bleak Midwinter, Mitt hjerte ailtud Vanker, which she claims is her personal favorite. In dulci jubilo is another favorite of mine,however everything she does is outstanding. You can see her love for these songs as she performs them. I can assure you, that you will listen to this several times. Her voice has a purity and beauty I have never heard before. What she has is nothing short of God Given.
This in my mind is the finest Christmas CD of the year. You will file this one with your very favorites.....Merry Christmas............................

Five weeks (so far...) and still going as #1 on the Billboard Classical Chart! Add to that a couple of Grammy nominations, Sissel's first US release Christmas album, the legendary MoTab, and Mack Wilberg's AMAZING arrangements and you have a groundbreaking album. This one will stand the test of time. The energetic pieces will have you spontaneously shouting "hallelujah" so if you are embarresed about that sort of thing, play it LOUD so no one notices... :)

(This CD deserves to be played at REFERENCE volume levels -- a concert in your home. My attention was riveted for the duration.)

Buy two and give one as a gift to an unsuspecting music lover or audiophile... seriously.

Final Note: The choir and orchestra are all volunteer -- props go to any who perform at this level for the pure JOY of creating music!

Put this CD into something with a great sound system. Go to the track entitled "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room." Sit quietly with the lights dimmed in your most comfortable chair. Take a deep breath and close your eyes . . . you will be soothed and filled with an angelic contentment and long for the song to go on forever.

"Spirit of the Season" featuring Sissel and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has been nominated for 2 GRAMMY Awards: "Best Classical Crossover Album" and "Best Engineered Album, Classical." The Tabernacle Choir has issued the following statement, "Members of the Choir and Orchestra will be watching with great anticipation when winners are announced at the 50th Annual GRAMMY Awards which will be held on Feb. 10, 2008, at Staples Center in Los Angeles! Whatever the outcome, the nomination alone attests to the enormous appeal of this latest offering in a long tradition of beloved and memorable Christmas recordings."
This is an amazing album and the Grammy nominations just validate that. I highly recommend this album, mostly because Sissel has such an amazing voice.

This is a wonderful Christmas CD with great singing from the MTC and the spectacular Sissel. She does eight songs out the sixteen on the album. She sounds like the proverbial angel. All of the arrangements are suberb, and the recorded sound is marvellous. My only negative is that since this is on the MTC label, the Choir is billed as the star and Sissel is hardly seen on the front of the CD case. To my way of thinking, the CD will only be successful, if people KNOW that this is a Sissel recording. Buy this album.

I have been a Sissel fan for years but she doesn't do many concerts in the U.S and when I heard she was doing this concert last year I was extrememly disappointed when I was unable to get to Utah to attend. Having this beautiful CD is some consolation, but only makes me wish more that I could have been in attendance. Sissel's voice is light and clear with warmth and great range and flexability. Some of the Norwegian carols may be unfamiliar to U.S. listeners, but they will grow on you quickly. I have already given several of these albums as Christmas gifts this year.

We attended this concert in person though we had never heard of Sissel beforehand. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert is always worth seeing, but Sissel's angelic voice put it out of this world. The CD is my favorite holiday CD by far. Do not miss this CD for the world!

These are wonderfully recorded songs from a content standpoint as well as sonically; the CD was up for a Grammy in the latter category. There are a familiar Christmas songs in beautiful arrangments including a definitive "Silent Night," and great Norweigan songs sung by Sissel that provide a scandinavian glimpse of the holidays.

I had tickets to the Sunday morning concert of Sissel's appearance with the MTC, but a snowstorm and the fact that I had never heard of Sissel before this, made me stay home. Big mistake! Huge! I saw the performance on TV and was stunned by the opening processional of Bring a Torch..., (obviously from Mack Wilberg's fertile mind, with a penchant for great choral arrangements and pageantry--I spent five years singing under him at Brigham Young University), and I knew how big a mistake I had made.

When the CD and DVD came out, I bought them both. The DVD gives you the whole concert.

I have fallen in love with Sissel's ethereal, but full voice. Her interpretation of "In the Bleak Mid-Winter" is stunning. It is one of those pieces you can go your whole life and not hear. And to top it off is her Vitae Lux, and then "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room." A piece I have never heard before, but is now one of my favorite songs of all time. It brings me to tears.

The CD and DVD are now essential Christmas listening. But just wait for next year, a CD and DVD with the King's Singers! Talk about a musical match made in Heaven.