Notes and Editorial Reviews
One of the best Christmas albums I have ever heard. Not to be missed.
This unusual and very welcome Christmas collection, mixing music and readings, is a sheer delight.
The polished multi-part singing of Peter Broadbent’s Joyful Company of Singers is justly celebrated and surely needs little comment from me. This album includes, as can be seen from the listing above, a dozen or more Christmas carols and songs delivered with refinement and, where appropriate, gusto and humour. Felicity Lott’s lovely soprano voice rings over and blends with their voices in a number of tracks. The music ranges from Tudor times – Byrd’s bell-like rhythms of
This Day Christ Was born and the rapture of Victoria’s
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O Magnum
Mysterium to the
modern sound complete with the acceptable and telling dissonances of Rhian Samuel’s
Jolly Was that Shepherd.
Gabriel Woolf’s readings add immeasurably to this celebration. All the readings are apposite. There’s John Clare’s golden portrait of a traditional country Christmas delivered in dialect. In Northern Country argot Woolf delivers
God’s Speech from
The Wakefield Plays, rendering it all the more direct and sincere. One of the most affecting readings though is that of Captain R.J. Armes’s letter from the mud and horrors of the Great War trenches describing how, for one blessed Christmas Day, enemies became friends. Humour is not forgotten: Dylan Thomas remembers, or tries to remember his childhood Christmases. E.V. Lucas relates how ladies squabbled over their church decorations and hilariously, how the recipient of the presents delivered over the
Twelve Days of Christmas first entranced the recipient, then bemused, then annoyed, then angered and finally made him threaten the bestower with legal action.
Towards the end of the programme songs and readings are judiciously and very effectively mixed together.
Alas I have to carp a little about the standard of the booklet text: there are no track timings nor total timings and there is no room in its 8-pages for the texts of the songs.
One of the best Christmas albums I have ever heard. Not to be missed.
-- Ian Lace, MusicWeb International
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Gabriel Woolf reads:
John Clare: December
From The Wakefield Plays: God’s Speech
Anon: I Sing of a Maiden
T.S. Eliot: The Journey of the Magi
Laurie Lee: Christmas in Seville (excerpt)
Dylan Thomas: Memories of Christmas
E.V. Lucas: Christmas Decorations
John Julius Norwich: The Twelve Days of Christmas
Cpt. R.J. Armes: Christmas Truce (A Letter)
Leonard Clark: Singing in the Streets
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Works on This Recording
1.
Here we come a-wassailing by Traditional
Performer:
Felicity Lott (Soprano)
Conductor:
Peter Broadbent
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Joyful Company of Singers
Written: England
2.
O magnum mysterium by Tomás Luis de Victoria
Performer:
Felicity Lott (Soprano)
Conductor:
Peter Broadbent
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Joyful Company of Singers
Period: Renaissance
Written: by 1572; Spain
3.
Psalmes, Songs and Sonnets...fit for Voyces or Viols: This day Christ was born by William Byrd
Performer:
Felicity Lott (Soprano)
Conductor:
Peter Broadbent
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Joyful Company of Singers
Period: Renaissance
Written: by 1611; England
4.
Lully, lulla, thou little tiny child, Op. 25b by Kenneth Leighton
Performer:
Felicity Lott (Soprano)
Conductor:
Peter Broadbent
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Joyful Company of Singers
Written: 1948
5.
Jolly Was the Shepherd by Rhian Samuel
Performer:
Felicity Lott (Soprano)
Conductor:
Peter Broadbent
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Joyful Company of Singers
6.
Schlichte Weisen (60), Op. 76: no 52, Maria Wiegenlied by Max Reger
Performer:
Felicity Lott (Soprano)
Conductor:
Peter Broadbent
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Joyful Company of Singers
Period: Romantic
Written: 1903-1912; Germany
7.
Weihnachtslieder (6), Op. 8: no 3, Die Könige by Peter Cornelius
Performer:
Felicity Lott (Soprano)
Conductor:
Peter Broadbent
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Joyful Company of Singers
Period: Romantic
Written: 1856/1870; Weimar, Germany
8.
Twelfth Night, Op. 42 no 1 by Samuel Barber
Performer:
Felicity Lott (Soprano)
Conductor:
Peter Broadbent
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Joyful Company of Singers
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1968; USA
9.
Virgen sancta by Francisco Guerrero
Performer:
Felicity Lott (Soprano)
Conductor:
Peter Broadbent
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Joyful Company of Singers
Period: Renaissance
10.
Esta noche by Traditional
Performer:
Felicity Lott (Soprano)
Conductor:
Peter Broadbent
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Joyful Company of Singers
11.
The holly and the ivy by Henry Walford Davies
Performer:
Felicity Lott (Soprano)
Conductor:
Peter Broadbent
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Joyful Company of Singers
Period: 20th Century
Written: England
12.
Deck the Halls by Traditional
Performer:
Felicity Lott (Soprano)
Conductor:
Peter Broadbent
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Joyful Company of Singers
13.
The Twelve Days of Christmas by Traditional
Performer:
Felicity Lott (Soprano)
Conductor:
Peter Broadbent
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Joyful Company of Singers
14.
Silent Night by Franz Xaver Gruber
Performer:
Felicity Lott (Soprano)
Conductor:
Peter Broadbent
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Joyful Company of Singers
Period: Classical
Written: 1818; Austria
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