BaL 21.12.24 - Britten: A ceremony of carols

[Pulcinella]

1500
Building a Library
Jeremy Summerly chooses his favourite version of Britten's Ceremony of Carols

Britten composed A Ceremony of Carols in 1942, while crossing the Atlantic on the Axel Johnson, a Swedish cargo ship. The Second World War was raging and the composer and his partner Peter Pears were returning to Britain after a period in the US. So this perennial Christmas favourite was composed under imminent threat of attack by German U-Boats. It was originally scored for three-part treble chorus, solo voices, and harp. Its text is taken from a mixture of anonymous medieval songs and later poems rather than familiar carols. Not all of the texts are about the birth of Jesus or even about winter – in fact one of them is called the Spring Carol. The series of joyful but sometimes dark songs is unified by the framing device of a processional and recessional chant. It contains favourites such as "Wolcum Yole", "There is no rose of such vertu" and "This Little Babe". Much of it is written as simple, melodic rounds. It is one of the many works Britten skilfully crafted and tailored to the vocal abilities of young children.

Presto listing here (but it will also include SATB versions, I imagine).

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/works/43756--britten-a-ceremony-of-carols-op-28/browse

There is a BBC MM release: Volume 28, Number 3.
The Choir of The Queen's College, Oxford, director Owens Rees, with Lucy Wakeford (harp), recorded out of season in July 2019.
Still in its shrink-wrap here, so I can't say if it's just upper voices or the SATB version; maybe someone knows (or I could open it and find out for myself!).

[CallMePaul]

Iy is some time since I've heard this work and I don't have a recording. Britten wrote well for children's voices and it is to a recording based on these that I would turn. Glancing at Presto's list of recordings on CD, I am drawn to Kings/ cleobury (Presto CD or download) and to Westminster Cathedral/ Hill, but am open to other interpretations and may try to hear Presto's samplings from the Regensburger Domspatzen, which should make for an interesting contrat with British choirs. As the Vienna Boys' Choir has performed Britten, perhaps they could make a recording of this?

[Lordgeous]

Westminster Cathedral boys are excellent. Shame they didn't record it in George Malcolm's era. Britten after hearing them perform it then went on to write his Missa Brevis for them.

[oliver sudden]

As the Vienna Boys' Choir has performed Britten, perhaps they could make a recording of this?

Seems they did!

https://www.discogs.com/master/1057871-Vienna-Boys-Choir-Benjamin-Britten-Anton-Bruckner-Ceremony-Of-Carols-Motetten?srsltid=AfmBOort7OloRnJqMIL0KXBtR5gka_HAO74KHo0RChC6q7WWPnuzjfuW

[Pulcinella]

The BBC MM release has since become a commercial release on Signum:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8804564--a-ceremony-of-carols

It's actually an appealing programme, and I'm not sure why I didn't bother to give it a spin when it arrived: to be remedied over the weekend.

[Darloboy]

Glancing at Presto's list of recordings on CD, I am drawn to Kings/ cleobury (Presto CD or download) and to Westminster Cathedral/ Hill...

Westminster/Hill was "Also Recommended" when this was last covered by BaL (by Catherine Bott!) in December 04. She made King's/Willcocks her First Choice.

[MickyD]

I'm extremely fond of Ronald Corp's recording with the New London Children's Choir for Naxos, not least because you also get the lovely 'Friday Afternoons', enthusiastically sung by the children.

[Maclintick]

Westminster/Hill was "Also Recommended" when this was last covered by BaL (by Catherine Bott!) in December 04. She made King's/Willcocks her First Choice.

I have King's/Willcocks, and also the St John's/Guest classic with Marisa Robles, coupled with Rejoice in the Lamb. This latter wins out all round, esp. in the street-urchin timbres of the boys, requested by the composer.

[Pulcinella]

I have King's/Willcocks, and also the St John's/Guest classic with Marisa Robles, coupled with Rejoice in the Lamb. This latter wins out all round, esp. in the street-urchin timbres of the boys, requested by the composer.

Same here, but also Westminster Cathedral/Hill and the 1953 Copenhagen Boys/Britten (a CD that also has Friday Afternoons, with boys from Downside Abbey).
John Bridcut, in Essential Britten, singles out the Copenhagen and Westminster versions, and says of the earlier one:
....he [Britten] said they were 'like angels': 'They sang my Ceremony of Carols as I never thought it could be sung'.

I found the soloists in the BBC MM/Signum version to have too adult-sounding voices for the work. Not surprising, as presumably they are female undergraduates not young boys/girls.

[Pulcinella]

Tune those harps, but don't clash any cymbals!
Bumping this thread in anticipation of tomorrow's programme.

[CallMePaul]

Seems they did!

https://www.discogs.com/master/1057871-Vienna-Boys-Choir-Benjamin-Britten-Anton-Bruckner-Ceremony-Of-Carols-Motetten?srsltid=AfmBOort7OloRnJqMIL0KXBtR5gka_HAO74KHo0RChC6q7WWPnuzjfuW

This appears to be unavailable in the UK (at least via Presto) and most of the recordings in which the choir is the principal group seem to be download or Presto CD only. Do they no longer make recordings? This also seems to be true of Westminster Cathedral Choir since the departure of Martin Baker.

[Quarky]

....................freely availablle on YouTube..................

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BLof00YD1Y&list=OLAK5uy_lWjkr0bpDTvIuGVHXb1Ivw2TPDwohwS-Q&index=2

[Keraulophone]

The (mixed) choristers of Wells Cathedral, recorded in June of this year before acting DoM Alexander Hamilton's departure:

https://youtu.be/Tou4UD5iTGE?si=dHG1G0agbcKc-Px6

The new regime under Tim Parsons and (the fantastic) Carolyn Craig are building on Alex's good work after some difficult times in that stunning cathedral close.

My go-to recording of A Ceremony has, for as long as I can remember, been George Guest's Britten LP, including Rejoice in the Lamb and Missa Brevis with the choir of St John's Cambridge at its fabulous peak.

[gradus]

I like the piece very much but was struck in a performance broadcast last Sunday by the similarity to Orff's style in This Little Babe.

[Pulcinella]

I like the piece very much but was struck in a performance broadcast last Sunday by the similarity to Orff's style in This Little Babe.

I'm struggling to think what a 3-part canon would sound like in bits of Carmina Burana.

But I agree if you're thinking in terms of a motoric (?) rhythm/tune in a short verse that's repeated.

It has to be a young (and pretty rough sounding) choir for me; so yes: John's rather than King's, much as I like the King's version too.