The title of this Choir of King's College, Cambridge album, In the Bleak Midwinter, refers to the poem by Christina Rossetti and its settings to music here by Harold Darke and Gustav Holst, two popular Christmastime choir tunes. However, it also refers to the choir's return to the Chapel of King's College for its Christmas Eve broadcast of the Festival of Nine Carols and Lessons in December of 2020, in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic (four of the tracks were recorded the following June). Led by Daniel Hyde, ...
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The title of this Choir of King's College, Cambridge album, In the Bleak Midwinter, refers to the poem by Christina Rossetti and its settings to music here by Harold Darke and Gustav Holst, two popular Christmastime choir tunes. However, it also refers to the choir's return to the Chapel of King's College for its Christmas Eve broadcast of the Festival of Nine Carols and Lessons in December of 2020, in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic (four of the tracks were recorded the following June). Led by Daniel Hyde, the director of music at King's College since 2019, with organist Matthew Martin, the King's College Choir is well-rehearsed and in fine form, as one has come to expect, even after online learning that didn't allow for rehearsals as a group. The sound from an emptier than usual chapel, with some furniture removed and no audience, is resonant and is captured well in this recording, and Hyde takes advantage by letting the sound ring an extra beat throughout at appropriate times....
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