The centerpiece of the Sixteen's collection of Christmas music by late Romantic and modern English composers is Britten's Ceremony of Carols. Harry Christophers, founder and conductor of the Sixteen, writes that performances of the piece have become so routine that practices alien to the composer's intent have become enshrined and unthinkingly repeated from performance to performance. Christophers' intent is to look freshly at the score and follow it faithfully and without preconceptions. His performance does, in fact, ...
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The centerpiece of the Sixteen's collection of Christmas music by late Romantic and modern English composers is Britten's Ceremony of Carols. Harry Christophers, founder and conductor of the Sixteen, writes that performances of the piece have become so routine that practices alien to the composer's intent have become enshrined and unthinkingly repeated from performance to performance. Christophers' intent is to look freshly at the score and follow it faithfully and without preconceptions. His performance does, in fact, sound newly imagined, with some surprises in tempos, dynamics, and articulation that make good musical sense. Most noticeable is maintaining the same tempo throughout "This Little Babe," Britten's frighteningly close three-part canon, which when taken at the correct speed can inspire fear in both performers and audience, as well it should. At the end of the piece, in most performances, conductors allow the tempo to go slack, as if in relief at making it through the hard part....
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Add this copy of Hodie an English Christmas Collection to cart. $25.81, new condition, Sold by Importcds rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Sunrise, FL, UNITED STATES, published 2003 by Coro.