This GIFT challenge is really spurring me on and I am pulling down books from the shelves, listening to music and generally beginning to feel quite Christmassy with all this activity, which is marvellous as I have to admit that at this time of the year, I do feel an affinity with Dear Old Ebenezer...
Tonight I am posting about Hyperion Records. The Founder of Hyperion Records, Ted Perry, used to drive a cab to support the fledgling label which he apparently ran from his living room. Important projects under Perry's leadership included a 37-volume edition of Schubert lieder and a 95-disc collection of Liszt's solo piano music performed by Leslie Howard. "I am not in the business to sell a lot of records and to make money," he once said. "I want to make nice records, records that need to be made, that no one else will make."
Here below is a review of a CD that I own called While Shepherd's Watched which was released by Hyperion in 1996:
"Much of what we now accept as traditional Christmas music comes from relatively recent times. Most of the rest is derived from Medieval and Renaissance sources. This recording fills in some important gaps in our Christmas musical heritage, offering many of the tunes and texts from the "enormous forgotten repertory" that served English parish churches in the 18th and early 19th centuries. In many cases, the texts are familiar--"While shepherds watched. . .", "Hark! the herald angels sing"--but the tunes are quite different; in other cases, familiar tunes are set to different words. The point is, this music was the soul of an enduring Christmas tradition that emerged following the Restoration in England and was an integral part of the annual celebrations in countless parish churches that were both physically distant and stylistically removed from the cities and their more formal cathedral music customs. Here, we're treated to lively, faithful, straightforward interpretations that capture the spontaneity of congregational singing while presenting the highly singable tunes and appealing arrangements with a welcome refinement that encourages repeated listening. Highlights also include some instrumental selections, such as the lovely Pastorale for strings, harpsichord, and organ by Pieter Hellendaal and the nifty little Rondo on "God rest you merry, gentlemen" for piano solo by Samuel Wesley. Every Christmas music collection should have this."
This record features a group called Psalmody accompanied by the Parley of Instruments and conducted by Peter Holman. Peter is one of the country's leading experts on early music and I have known him for years having worked with him when I was Chairman of the Suffolk Villages Festival, a festival of music played on original instruments in the glorious wool churches of Suffolk.
The reason I am posting about this CD is that my ex is singing on it (if anybody owns this CD or buys it he is singing on Track 14 - Hymning Seraphs, and singing quite beautifully too) but not only that - so am I!! I am in the choir and recording this was such fun. It was recorded in the wonderful church at Stoke by Nayland and is my one claim to recording fame.
This CD comes out every Christmas and is played over and over again as it really has the most delightful and wonderful collection of songs and carols. I love it and not just because I am on it. I own many Hyperion recordings. They are beautifully produced, have an incredible variety of music and they are an independent label well worth supporting. Do click onto the link in this post and have a look at the wonderful and varied selection in their catalogue.
I do not look at it too often for obvious reasons...
