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Fantasy On Christmas Carols/Ho
 
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Fantasy On Christmas Carols/Ho

~ Ralph Vaughan Williams (Composer), Richard Hickox (Conductor), London Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Elizabeth Gale (Performer), Robert Tear (Performer)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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2 new from CDN$ 24.95 3 used from CDN$ 49.37

Product Details
1. Fantasia on Christmas Carols - Richard Hickox, London Symphony Orchestra, Stephen C. Roberts
2. Hodie: A Christmas Cantata, I. Prologue: Nowell! Nowell!
3. Hodie: A Christmas Cantata, II. Narration: Now the Birth of Jesus ...
4. Hodie: A Christmas Cantata, III. Song: It Was the Winter Wild
5. Hodie: A Christmas Cantata, IV. Narration: And It Came to Pass in ...
6. Hodie: A Christmas Cantata, V. Choral: The Blessed Son of God
7. Hodie: A Christmas Cantata, VI. Narration: And There Were in the ...
8. Hodie: A Christmas Cantata, VII. Song: The Oxen (Christmas Eve, ...)
9. Hodie: A Christmas Cantata, VIII. Narration: And the Shepherds ...
10. Hodie: A Christmas Cantata, IX. Pastoral: The Shepherds Sing
11. Hodie: A Christmas Cantata, X. Narration: But Mary Kept All These ...
12. Hodie: A Christmas Cantata, XI. Lullaby: Sweet Was the Song the Virgin
13. Hodie: A Christmas Cantata, XII. Hymn: Bright Portals of the Sky
14. Hodie: A Christmas Cantata, XIII. Narration: Now When Jesus Was Born
15. Hodie: A Christmas Cantata, XIV. The March of the Three Kings: ...
16. Hodie: A Christmas Cantata, XV. Choral: No Sad Thought His Soul ...
17. Hodie: A Christmas Cantata, XVI. Epilogue: In the Beginning Was ...
On this CD:
  1. Fantasia on Christmas Carols for baritone, chorus, & orchestra
    Composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams
    Performed by London Symphony Orchestra
    Conducted by Richard Hickox

  2. Hodie (This Day), Christmas cantata for soprano, tenor, baritone, boys' chorus, chorus, & orchestra
    Composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams
    Performed by London Symphony Orchestra
    with Elizabeth Gale, Robert Tear
    Conducted by Richard Hickox

Product Description

From Amazon.com

I wish more people knew about this fabulous piece. Christmas is often a painful time for classical music lovers, when Handel's Messiah, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, and the usual carols get hauled out and overplayed to the point of insanity. There is, in fact, lots of great Christmas music that almost never gets performed or recorded, including this tuneful and brilliant cantata. This is only its second recording ever, and anyone who hears it is sure to put it on a list of holiday favorites. In fact, like all great music, it's worthy listening to for its own sake any time of the year at all. --David Hurwitz

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5.0 out of 5 stars I Searched for Years to Find This CD!!!, Dec 17 2001
By Paul W. Patterson, Jr. (Evanston, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
The final movement of Hodie captures perfectly Vaughan Williams' gripping blend of mysticism, regal glory, and human hope. The treatment of Fantasia on Christmas Carols comes right to the true bittersweet feeling of Christmas--family vs misunderstanding; hope vs trouble. My wife and I were decorating our Christmas tree during a major snow storm in our beautiful, old Chicago suburb of Evanston when I heard Fantasia on Christmas Carols for the first time, and the classical music station was playing this version. I had lost my father in October, and by the end of this piece which seems so ordinary at the start, I was completely taken over with tears. When I tried to get this CD, I was told that it was no longer available. After several years, I found this wonderful CD and it is better than any other recorded treatment of these two pieces that I have ever heard. Attention Amazon.Com Shoppers! If it is available, even during a summer heat wave, GET IT NOW! It may disappear again, and this time forever. (...)
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5.0 out of 5 stars Memorable modal mosaic, Nov 7 2001
By Lee Hartsfeld (Heath, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Composed in the early 1950s, Vaughan Williams' Christmas cantata "Hodie" sounds in many spots like background music for "Star Wars" or some widescreen "Son of Cleopatra" epic. This is because Hollywood has made a cliche of practically every melodic and harmonic device known to humankind, though the altered pentatonic scale of "Bright portals of the sky" must have sounded pretty new at the time, to say nothing of Vaughan Williams' other adventures in creative chromaticism. But suffice it to say that this is no background music for a Steven Spielberg epic. It is a deeply moving and deeply serious work of enormous merit, filled with life-affirming melodies that never lose their welcome with each reuse and retransformation throughout the piece. In keeping with the title, "Hodie," the music assumes the character of an event with no beginning or end. The overall effect is overwhelming, and I'm happy to say that after numerous listenings, I am no longer reminded of science-fiction movie cues; Vaughan Williams' music is infinitely more than that. The perfect Christmas CD!
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4.0 out of 5 stars Christmas Music with Backbone, Dec 13 1999
After the nth recording of "Messiah," it's great to have these underappreciated works available on CD. Vaughan Williams' music is wonderfully melodic, but it always has a hard edge to it. A reviewer I read many years ago described the quality of "fierce caring" that marks all RVW's music. "Hodie" has lovely carols like "It Was the Winter Wild" and "The Blessed Son of God Only" that will please the most casual listener. But the Jesus of this cantata isn't just "Gentle Jesus, Meek & Mild," he is also "King of Kings and Lord of Lords," and there is a tragic as well as a triumphant quality to some of the music--see the "March of the Three Kings," for instance. I still get very emotional every time I listen to this music, even after all these years.

The quality of the performance is excellent, but I prefer the old recording from the 60s on Angel, especially the balance between organ and orchestra in the final movement, and I wish it were available on CD.

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 		 Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Performance
This is an excellent piece of music and the performance is marvelous. Too bad it is not performed more widely. Read more
Published on Dec 1 1999 by Bill Wepfer

5.0 out of 5 stars What a wonderful, underrated work!
I agree with everything said by the reviewer below. The "Hodie" is such awesome, exciting (almost theatrical) Christmas music...and nobody knows about it! Read more
Published on Nov 24 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars A Yuletide Gift to everyone
This is one of those few works that are as much fun to perform as to listen to. Ralph Vaughn Williams Hodie is one of the few "Modern" works that have lived up to the... Read more
Published on Feb 3 1999

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