Search - Michael George, Heinrich Schutz, Giovanni Gabrieli :: Schütz: The Christmas Story; Gabrieli: Christmas Motets

Probably not a bad choice, but there are better

04/01/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Even though this recording got a very favorable review from Gramophone, I was somewhat disappointed by it. It almost seems like Gramophone plays favorites: it welcomed this recording despite its (gently acknowledged) flaws, while literally clobbering another recording of the Christmas Story (by Musicalische Compagney) for some of the same flaws. Well, I think Musicalische Compagney did a better job anyway. Plus, there are other more successful recordings of the Christmas Story than King's. See e.g. Oxford Camerata. Yet, I'm not implying that this version of the Christmas Story is poor. The reason I have a problem with it may have nothing to do with the singing as such, but rather with the acoustics. The sound seems to reverberate too much, preventing the lines from sounding crisp. In addition, as King explains in a sleeve note, a bizarre microphone arrangement was used that required singers to move around in order to achieve a "stereophonic" [sic] effect. To me, it only resulted in a disbalance, because some voices always sounded louder than others. It made it hard, at least for me, to collect the pieces into a complete picture. I am well familiar with this composition, so I was really disappointed when some of my favorite lines lost emphasis. Of course, if I heard this work for the first time on this disc, I may not have known that something was missing. Ainsley, however, is an excellent evangelist. So there certainly are things to be enjoyed about this recording. The Gabrieli pieces sounded better, although some of the same acoustical problems seemed to be present too. I'd say for a traditional rendition of the Christmas Story go for Parrott or Oxford Camerata. Or if you want an all-male, more medieval (and I'd say the most authentic) sounding version, then go for Musicalische Compagney."

How about a little more sound here

David Fletcher Noble | Highlands Ranch, CO United States | 12/01/2004

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I like the King's Consort and their recordings are such special, but why they wanted to record this as a live performance when they weren't even in front of an audience, I wish I knew. The sound quality on this performance is so low and the singers and musicians seem so far away from the microphones. I would pass on this one."