Festival of Nine lessons and Carols 24th / 25th Dec 2010

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I like her later book too: "Talk to the Hand" about everyday rudeness.

[Simon]

Grammar and punctuation are, of course, important.

It would be unwise, for example, to omit the capital letter in the following:

"Johnny, just go down to the stable, please, and help your Uncle Jack off his horse."

[Lizzie]

SIMON!!

[Parddu]

I'm just hoping that the wonder of the Christmas story which was markedly absent last year will have returned.

[Finzi4ever]

In which case I'm sure he will insist that the apostrophe in Queens' is placed after the s - and preferably without exclamation marks after Cambridge.

Besides which the Oxford college is "The Queen's College" ...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Listening to this service on Radio 4 today, brought a few surprises. Stephen Cleobury has been working on new descants. What did others think of them?

[Parddu]

Not a lot I'm afraid. What was the mess at the end of Once in Royal David's City? Apart from the descants I enjoyed the service. Much more commitment from both choir and readers than there was last year.

[Nick Armstrong]

Agreed, Parddu - the new "Once in Royal" descant ends with a really trite, naff little flourish

By and large we thought the trebles carried the day by quite a margin - a much sweeter, more blended sound than in recent years. The men by contrast often - too often - sounded unpleasant, a harsh unvarying, braying tone from the tenors (the same was apparent in the BBC2 TV programme which we also had on). Hence the trebles-only Reger setting was a highlight. In others, there seemed too little shaping and phrasing - too much unvaried dynamic, with the unpleasant edge from the tenors spoiling things ("stop shouting" was heard a couple of times here at home).

But the great exception, and the show stealing 'number', was for me yet again the Sandström "Es ist ein Ros" setting - a magical piece, magically-performed...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I put the question about the new descants, because my reactions to each of them was very different. The Once in Royal one sounded a complete mess and appeared to reach a top B near the end. A descant should enhance the melody. This one was in direct competition.

The new one for "O Come, all ye Faithful" on the other hand, was (on first impression) extremely good, and worthy of becoming a classic. It didn't try to be too clever. But the he final verse seemed rather ordinary, despite a supercharged organ part.

[Daveinnorfolk]

I think, Eine Alpensinfonie, the purpose of the last verse was the organ part as much as anything, a not massivly changed version of the one published in Cleoburys set of descants published for Encore. Have to agree about Once in Royal though, a nasty mess that sounded like an attempt to create something new for the sake of it (personally I find this my favourite of the Wilcocks' descants)

The service overall was very good, and the sound created by the trebles was among the best that has been achieved in recent years. Such a shame that we didn't get to hear the Gt. reeds to their full at the end of the Sussex Carol as has been heard in previous years (and at my own church!) But overall, well done to all concerned.

Good quality on the TV broadcast as well - I wondered if it was old boys politiking that caused the inclusion of Bethlehem down in it's 'original' version, when many choirs are now using the (Ex St. Johns Choirmaster) David Hill edited version mixing solo parts with the four part textures.

Have to agree the Reger was one of the highlights as well - a piece new to me

[Magnificat]

I thought both the radio and TV broadcasts were excellent. King's at their most polished, the boys' sound refined and pleasant to listen to, unlike that of some choirs that are in favour these days, and the soloists were very good indeed. Personally, I didn't hear much wrong with the choral scholars unlike the St John's men at Advent - they really were raucous.

They've done the Reger several times before if I'm not mistaken. I liked the new arrangement of the Holly and the Ivy. The Sandstrom as usual went absolutely nowhere - such a frustrating piece to listen to in my opinion. We probably heard it better on the radio, I doubt whether any one sitting well away from the choir could hear any of that infernal humming. As I have said elsewhere just sing that glorious tune don't mess about with it it can't be improved.

[Ravensbourne]

Queen's College, Cambridge!!

I'm with Mr Underdown on this one.

[Y Mab Afradlon]

I can sum this one up in a word - naff. Bring back the old fifth rate Cleobury descants.

[MickyD]

I'm not sure if it was the acoustic, the new descants or my satellite box, but at times I thought it sounded as if there were strange delay problems between the choir and the congregation.

[Mary Chambers]

Trebles terrific, men passable, descants mostly awful. I thought The Holly and the Ivy was rather a feeble version, too 'pretty'. All the same I enjoyed both radio and television broadcasts very much.