The recordings of pioneer countertenor Alfred Deller, really the first "star" of early music, have held up well even as fashions in countertenor singing have changed. This two-disc set of Christmas music is not exactly forthright about the fact that the recordings were made in 1956 and 1960 (the information is way in the back of booklet, not on the cover). There is some tape hiss, but it generally does not distract from the classic performances contained therein. Solo performances by the graceful if underpowered Deller, ...
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The recordings of pioneer countertenor Alfred Deller, really the first "star" of early music, have held up well even as fashions in countertenor singing have changed. This two-disc set of Christmas music is not exactly forthright about the fact that the recordings were made in 1956 and 1960 (the information is way in the back of booklet, not on the cover). There is some tape hiss, but it generally does not distract from the classic performances contained therein. Solo performances by the graceful if underpowered Deller, accompanied by guitar or recorder and guitar, alternate with unaccompanied performances by the vocal quartet from the Deller Consort; in these Deller generally does not take the lead part. The overall aim of these performances, in the words of booklet writer Rossell Hope Robbins, "is not merely to invest the songs with beauty, but to recreate a sense of history. The two discs actually contain three separate programs, perhaps originally issued individually. The first part of the first...
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