Oh, thank you for asking.
- I’ve been listening to a lot of choral music as I bought a nice boxed set before Christmas and have been working through it. Its the Harmonia Mundi Sacred Music set which has some lovely recordings in it. (The Rene Jacobs recording of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio is a Christmas Cracker and not to be missed).
- My spotify playlist shows me that I’ve been listening to the Very Best of the Temperance Seven rather a lot. (Especially Hard Hearted Hannah whom we know to have been a vamp from Savannah).
- I discovered Paulo Nutini recently, on someone’s recommendation and have been enjoying Sunny Side Up. (He’s from Paisley, you know).
- Also on spotify, I’ve been listening to A Little Night Music having seen a gorgeous production of it in London this year. (How is it that I’ve never seen a Sondheim production before?)
- And I’ve tried twice to listen to a recording of the Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings on Christmas Eve and have not made it to the end yet. I’m looking for redeeming features, but I just don’t find them. Indeed, I put a snarky comment on facebook saying so and was very surprised that others joined in. It obviously isn’t just me who thinks its long past time for something from Kings that feels less pickled in the past and less mired in manufactured expectations.
So that’s me, what about you?
I agree about the King’s service. I watched the TV version – not very attentively for sure – and wondered if the BBC were cost-cutting and re-using an old one. A very old one. There’s an idea, perhaps only geeks like me would notice!
And yet … there’s always going to be someone for whom it is new and entrancing. Look here for an example. It wasn’t an old recording – Stephen Cleobury didn’t look any younger!
Yes but….perhaps it’s someone else’s turn to entrance the unchurched with something more entrancing? Something less bored?
As long as it’s perfectly in tune, with decent harmonies! 😉
Hmm, I’ve been listening to lots of Christmas carols this week now that we can. So my old favourite Noels Celtiques has been on repeat along with Schutz Christmas Vespers. I also had a bash at Tom Waits’ new live album but found myself struggling a bit. He’s not quite what he was, is he? Oh and some Craig Armstrong and Christian Forshaw because I was putting a service together and needed some background atmospheric stuff. Spotify says I love the Handsome Family.
I’ve been listening to (don’t laugh) Take That Present the Circus Live (very good), Hillsongs Christmas (not so good – a bit cheesy, even for me!) and my put-together-on-itunes highlights from the Messiah. Think that’s about it.
>>I’ve been listening to (don’t laugh) Take That Present the Circus Live (very good)
(!)
Ryan. He said, “don’t laugh”.
Stop being naughty with your punctuation.
I neglected a covers-all-sins smilie! Mea culpa. Am more of a Robbie fan myself. 🙂
In Australia we haven’t had Kings for a few years now. Instead we had a really wonderful Nine Lessons from St George’s Cathedral, Perth. Much less fusty than Kings.
Over the all-too-short Christmas break I was wallowing in the Bach Collegium Japan’s anniversary edition boxed sets of cantatas – 40 CDs of pure delight.