A Festival of Lessons and Carols Christmas Eve 1958
Click here for complete track listing

David Willcocks Director
Simon Preston Organ
King's College Choir

"I have not been in many places outside the US, but I have been in Kings College Chapel, Cambridge, England and listened to the choir sing a program of vespers. I have also bought as many of the CDs of this group's annual Festival of Lessons and Carols as I could lay hands on. But not until I heard this new HDTT digital transfer of an analogue tape made of the service in 1958 have I been back. From the first notes of "Once in Royal David's City," sung by the choir as it enters the church proper and processes down the main aisle, we are aware of (how else to put it?) this extraordinary chapel. And we never cease to be aware of it. Every note sung, every note played by Simon Preston on the chapel organ, every word spoken by the readers manifests the place. Notes and words rebound off the high stone walls and hang in the air. This is not analogue but it was once and it damn near is now. This is not the most imaginative Festival ever celebrated at Kings, perhaps because several of the numbers have been cut to fit the rest on one CD. The annual service usually includes at least one contemporary work written especially for the occasion. But no matter. Regardless of how many of the CDs you have, regardless of whether or not England's Episcopal version of Christianity and Christmas (or any other) is yours, do not fail to hear this recording. Amen." by Bob Neill Positive Feedback Online - Issue 40

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Arthur Honegger Le Roi David (King David)

Maurice Abravenel conducts The Utah Symphony Orchestra with The University of Utah Chorus
Netania Davrath, soprano
Marvin Sorenson, tenor
Jean Preston, mezzo-soprano
Martial Singher, narrator
Madeleine Milhaud, witch of Endor

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Beethoven - Christ On The Mount Of Olives

Herman Scherchen Conducting The Vienna State Opera Orch. Jan Peerce - Maria Stader - Otto Wiener Vienna Academy Chorus

Recorded in bright colors, the performance offers many delights to the audiophile as well as to the connoisseur of classic Beethoven.
Gary Lemco/Audiophile Audition

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Beethoven Mass in C Major

Munich Bach Choir & Orchestra/Karl Richter Gundula Janowitz, Soprano · Julia Hamari, Alto Horst R. Laubenthal, Tenor · Ernst Gerold Schramm, Bass Organ: Elmar Schloter

"The Sanctus seems to descend out of some rare ether long distilled from earthly considerations, although the tympani part keeps us earthbound. The contrapuntal "Pleni sunt coeli et terra" takes us through the marriage of heaven and earth, the organ punctuating wonderfully colossal chords from the upper-register choristers. Janowtiz and Hamari shine in the Benedictus, with its several hints at Mozart's Cosi fan tutte. Lovely flute and string windings among the vocal elements. The vocal quartet at the Benedictus provides a devout intimacy of effect. Lovely vocal separation at the Hosanna in excelesis, punctuated by large horn, string, and organ chords. The C Minor rumblings that open the Agnus Dei convey a darkness of spirit and fretfulness over the state of our world. Fascinating color effects as the woodwinds and strings intertwine with the pleas for an end to human suffering. The vocal virtuosity at "dona nobis pacem" proves aerially operatic, and the subsequent move to C Major renews our faith in our collective will to survival."
Gary Lemco/Audiophile Audition

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Berlioz
Les Nuits D'été
L'enfance du Christ (excerpt): L'adieu des bergers

Fritz Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Leontyne Price (Soprano)

L'enfance du Christ (excerpt): L'adieu des bergers
Sir Colin Davis conducting the St.Anthony Singers, Goldsborough Orchestra

"The sound is superb, expertly remastered from RCA's original 4-track tape. There is barely a hint of hiss and a wholly satisfying depth and warmth suffuses the whole performance."
Ralph Moore/ MusicWeb International

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Bizet Carmen Highlights

Herbert von Karajan Vienna Philharmonic
Vienna State Opera Chorus
Vienna Boys Choir
Leontyne Price
Franco Corelli
Mirella Freni
Robert Merrill

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Florent Schmitt Psalm 47 and La Tragedie De Salome

Jean Martinon conducts the French National Radio Orchestra & Chorus Andrea Guiot (soprano) & Gaston Litaize (organ)

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Haydn The Seven Last Words of Christ

Hermen Scherchen • Vienna State Opera Orchestra
Virginia Babikian and Ina Dressel, sopranos
Eunice Alberts, contralto; John Van Kesteren, tenor; Otto Wiener, bass.
Günther Theuring, chorus master. Vienna Academy Chamber Choir

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Gustav Holst The Hymn of Jesus
The Perfect Fool-Ballet Music
Egdon Heath

BBC Chorus BBC Symphony Orchestra London Philharmonic Orchestra
Sir Adrian Boult

"HDTT (High Definition Tape Transfers) have made this album available in several different formats, the one I listened to being an HDCD. Although HDTT usually transfer their recordings from tape, in this case they used a Decca vinyl LP, recorded in Kingsway Hall, London, in 1961. The sound exhibits a very wide dynamic range, with HDTT using enough noise reduction to keep ticks, pops, and hiss to the barest minimum without affecting the tonal balance or high end"
Classical Candor

HDTT lists are always worth keeping an osprey eye on. You never know what they are going to come up with.
At one time HDTT used to source all their material from the commercial reel-to-reel tapes that in the 1950s-1970s were more popular in the USA than in the UK. Some of the sound they realised from these sources remains astonishingly vivid - a real buzz to hear. This CD derives from an iconic British Council-sponsored Decca LP. It was from the Beatles era when British classical music was pretty scarce in the catalogues.
Rob Barnett - MusicWeb International

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Mahler-Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Berg Wozzeck Excerpts

Mahler: Janet Baker and Germaine Evans Wyn Morris conducts The London Symphony Orchestra
Berg: Soprano Phyllis Curtin Eric Leinsdorf conducts the The Boston Symphony Orchestra

"The Mahler recording derives from 4-track World Tape Club sources, in excellent sound that allows both Baker and Evans full vocal sway while the color elements, like the E-flat clarinet, piccolo, tympani, snare and bass drums, crash cymbals, and three bassoons make their effect, among others, evident. The No. 8 "Trost im Ungluck" makes an immediate sensation, rife--as is No. 5 "Lab Des Hohen Verstandes"--with materials to supply a host of Kurt Weill songs. The No. 5 projects harmonies I find redolent with Grofe and Copland! Viennese and pastoral at once, the swagger of the rhythms is infectious, irreverent, and earthy at once."
Gary Lemco/Audiophile Audition

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Mahler: Songs Of A Wayfarer and Kindertotenlieder

Maureen Forrester, Contralto/Charles Munch conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra

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Mozart Die Zauberflote (Highlights)

Karl Böhm conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra & Vienna State Opera Chorus
Kurt Böhme (bass) Sarastro
Léopold Simoneau (tenor) Tamino
Paul Schöffler (bass-baritone) Speaker
Erich Majkut (tenor) First Priest
Harald Pröglhöf (bass) Second Priest
Wilma Lipp (soprano) Queen of the Night
Hilde Gueden (soprano) Pamina

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Prokofiev Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Rev
Shostakovich The Sun Shines over our Motherland

Kirill Kondrashin/Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
RSFSR Russian Chorus
Boys Choir of Moscow Choir School

HDTT are at their devastating zenith when working from reel-to-reel tapes.

Things could have gone to hell in a handcart with the first black-hearted piled high chord in the Prokofiev. However the CD renders the moment with total fidelity and security. The singing is large, passionate, raw and full blooded. The choir takes on the massed voice of The People in all its illimitable power. The brass roar and gallop at 2:38 (tr.1). The sounds are on a seismic scale and are superbly and naturally rendered in tr. 4 at 5:10. Those machine gun ratatats and huge rushing sounds emanating from the 500 strong orchestra and choirs are viscerally exciting. The orchestration is full of incident including an accordion (tr.4 7.16), siren effects and an over-the-top amplified narrator. In tr. 5 the quiet-pulsed sweetness of Romeo and Juliet is referenced in silvery white light.

Rob Barnett - MusicWeb International

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Purcell Dido and Aeneas

Mary Thomas soprano
Helen Watts alto
Honor Sheppard soprano
Maurice Bevan baritone

Transferred from a Vanguard 4-track tape the performances are as clear and well detailed as the recording, excellent in both respects.

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Great Arias from Russian Operas Sung by Soprano Netania Davrath

Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera
Vladimir Golschmann Conductor Sung by Soprano Netania Davrath

Tracks Include: 1)Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin Tatiana's letter Scene
2)Rimsky-Korsakov Sadko Lullaby
3)Rimsky-Korsakov The Snow Maiden
4)Tchaikovsky The Queen of Spades
5)Glinka A Life for the Tsar Romance of Antonida 6)Borodin Prince Igor Yaroslavna's Lament
Transfered from a Vanguard 4 track tape

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Teresa Stich-Randall Soprano sings
Handel / Mozart / Schubert

Saar Chamber Orchestra / Karl Ristenpart, Conductor

"The scales Stich-Randall runs for us, the repeated notes, the swift passing trills and turns, have only Fernando Valenti's harpsichord pyrotechnics as a rival for seamless proficiency. The words Agnus Dei might be porous, they fill with so much airy delight. Impeccable in every note."
Gary Lemco/Audiophile Audition

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The Play of Daniel A Twelfth Century Musical Drama
As Presented at the Cloisters, the Metroplitan Museum of Art, New York

New York Pro Musica • Noah Greenberg, Director
Cast:
Russell Oberlin (Belshazzar's Prince / An Angel / Herald Angel), Brayton Lewis (Belshazzar), Jerold Sien (First Wise Woman), Alan Baker (Second Wise Woman), Paul Ehrlich (First Envious Counsellor), Jean Hakes (Second Envious Counsellor), Arthur Squires (Third Envious Counsellor), Alan Baker (Habakkuk), Betty Wilson (Belshazzar's Queen), Charles Bressler (Daniel), Gordon Myers (Darius), Alva Tripp (First Advisor), Jerold Sien (Second Advisor).
Satraps and Soldiers:
William Bohm & Boy choristers of Church of the Transfiguration, New York:(The Little Church Around the Corner): Richard Zahnd, David Kouri, Edmund Cortez, George Ryan, Ronald Frers, Ronald McLaren, Richard Bell
Stuart Gardner, choirmaster
Musicians:
Robert Montesi (straight trumpet), Paul Ehrlich (rebec), Paul Maynard (portative organ, psaltery), Martha Blackman (bell carillon, minstrel's harp), George Gaber (percussion), Bernard Krainis (recorders), Inez Lynch (vielle), Jean Hakes (minstrel's harp), James Petrie (miniature highland bagpipes).
Noah Greenberg, dir.

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Verdi Falstaff Highlights

New Symphony Orchestra Edward Downes Conducting
Fernando Corena (bass) Falstaff
Renato Capecchi (baritone) Ford
Luigi Alva (tenor) Fenton
Robert Bowman (tenor) Bardolph
Michael Langdon (bass) Pistol
Ilva Ligabue (soprano) Alice Ford
Lydia Marimpietri (soprano) Nanetta
Regina Resnik (mezzo-soprano) Mistress Quickly

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