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Shopperworld - The Christmas Album
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List Price: £9.99
Our Price: £4.98
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Manufacturer: Universal Classics
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028942550025
Label: Universal Classics
Manufacturer: Universal Classics
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Universal Classics
Release Date: 2000-11-20
Running Time: 57
Studio: Universal Classics
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Editorial Reviews:
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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 gave a strong hint that he was more than just a talented composer/arranger. As the many subsequent releases on the Collegium label have also shown, Rutter is a deeply sensitive and musical conductor, alive to the colour of words, always allowing phrases to breathe naturally. The accomplished Clare College Choir features both male and female voices, the latter providing a more rounded alternative to those world-famous neighbours in Cambridge. Included are many of Rutter's own easy-listening carol arrangements ("King Jesus hath a Garden" and "Wexford Carol", for example) plus others by the likes of Vaughan Williams and David Willcocks, while "Donkey Carol" and "Mary's Lullaby" are quintessential Rutter originals. Only a few numbers can be classed (statistically) as all-time Christmas faves--the likes of "The Holly and the Ivy" and "Ding Dong Merrily on High", for example--but this needn't deter anyone from snapping up what is the perfect album to accompany Christmas pud mixing (preferably by candlelight, imagining the twilight scene in Ely Cathedral's Lady Chapel, whose glorious acoustic graces the sound). --Andrew Green
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Spendid Christmas Music!
Comment: This CD is an oasis of calm for those who have a hectic time at Christmas. An hour listening to Rutters compositions and arrangements, which have glorious, yet subtle harmonies, which are sung simply and unfussily, allows quiet reflection on the true meaning of christmas for the individual, be that sacred or secular.
Customer Rating:
Summary: very disappointing
Comment: Probably due to a very poor recording so much of the CD is such low volume it is hard to hear without turning the volume up very high: this then distorts the louder pieces and some rise rapidly.
Not the most memorable compositions or versions of famous carols and a real disappointment compared his most beautiful carols.
I recommend buying another of his albums and giving this one a miss.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Christmas froth.
Comment: If you are looking for a deep and meaningful Christmas album, this is not for you. On the other hand, if you want an enjoyable light choral soundtrack for the festive season, this is ideal. Many of the carols included are familiar favourites, but with harps and flutes and bells lifting them far above usual choir-and-organ fare that gets served up by the record companies this time of year. I dare you not to smile at "I saw three ships", or to fail to feel wistful towards the end of "The holly and the ivy". Quieter moments offer a touch of variety - the unusual inclusion of Poston's "Jesus Christ the apple tree" is a particular pleasure. The overwhelming brightness of it all may be too much for some listeners, but this for me is great music to dress the tree to. A pleasure from start to finish.
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