Britten- A Ceremony of Carols

Hodie / Fantasia on Christmas Carols	Choir of King's College Cambridge - Britten Choral Works [Great Artists of the Century]	The Holly and the Ivy: Carols from Clare College Initially released in 1979, this album built on the success of the legendary Carols for Choirs volumes in establishing John Rutter's name with the wider public, and it gave a strong hint that he was more than just a talented composer-arranger. As the many subsequent releases on t...	Britten Choral Works II: A Ceremony of Carols This recording celebrates some of Britten's finest choral music for Christmas, together with his Missa Brevis. It is headed by the much-loved A Ceremony of Carols, a masterpeice composed on board ship as Britten returned to England from the U.S.A. in 1942. The telling use of the ...	Carols from Trinity - The Choir of Trinity College (2 CDs) (Conifer) This absolutely essential Christmas collection is actually a combination of two Trinity College Choir recordings originally released separately under the titles "Carols from Trinity" and "A Child Is Born," the latter of which is still offered as a single CD. This two-disc set is ...
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Revised and Expanded Edition Amazon Best of the Month, December 2007: Legendary R&B icon Ray Charles claimed that he was "born with music inside me," and neurologist Oliver Sacks believes Ray may have been right. Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain examines the extreme effects of music on the human br...	Cambridge Singers Christmas Album Christmas Never Sounded So Good! For more than a decade, John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers have shared the Joy of Christmas with the world. The ethereal sound of perfectly blended voices, singing the most beautiful seasonal music ever composed never fails to touch the heart ...	The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century Anyone who has ever gamely tried and failed to absorb, enjoy, and--especially--understand the complex works of Schoenberg, Mahler, Strauss, or even Philip Glass will allow themselves a wry smile reading New Yorker music critic Alex Ross's outstanding The Rest Is Noise. Not only d...	O Come All Ye Faithful: Christmas Carols at King's College, Cambridge	A Robert Shaw Christmas - Angels on High In this beautifully chosen program of mostly a cappella arrangements, Robert Shaw and the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers deliver the Christmas story in tones of gentle and moving splendor. The carols and sacred settings recorded here are all of an intimate sort, and the rapturous...

Holiday choral music
This collection of holiday choral music by Benjamin Britten and the fantastic choir of the Westminster Cathedral is a real treat. It is a nice change from the more popular holiday choral music. Chorus members will love listening to it and will appreciate the work that goes into creating such beautiful sounds.

Buy This One
I just purchased this CD, and the performance of Ceremony of Carols is absolutely ravishing.

Better than Vienna Boys' Choir; essential for any Christmas or classical collection
I have to agree with other reviewers that this is the best version of "A Ceremony of Carols" available. The piercing purity of the treble solo voice on "Balulalow" brings tears to my eyes nearly every time I listen to it, and the quality of the rest of the album matches that performance. These are exceedingly well-trained children; I often get a little concerned when a choir approaches "This Little Babe," but this choir tosses off the difficult challenge with an ease that lets me forget the notes and instead be shaken by the poetry of young boys singing a fierce war-cry about the hero Christ-child who, in his naked, infinitely vulnerable infancy, is humanity's shield against all hell. This is not "pretty" music - yes, it's just boys and a harp - but it's powerful, lulling, agressive, disarming. I can't stop talking about this recording to my friends and family.

The best version of this piece!
This is the best version of the Ceremony of Carols available. It is sung completely by trebles and is accompanied only by harp, which is how it was written. Trebles = boys. I thought it was out of print and I am very happy to see that it is not. The only problem with this version is that it is very quiet, and needs to be turned up to double the usual volume, but it isn't a major problem. In case you're not familiar with this piece, it is a very beautiful set of carols written in old English (even though it was written in the 20th century). The songs are very complex, especially my favorite "This Little Babe" which has 3 sections of the choir singing the same lyrics a beat apart... very difficult, and very exciting. There is also the beautifully dissident "That Yonge Child", and practically everyone's favorite "Balulalow". The harp interlude is also very popular. I highly recommend this CD.