Tomorrow Is My Dancing Day - Paul Winter, Traditional
Sun Singer - Paul Winter, Halley, Paul
Wound Over All Waters - Paul Winter, Halley, Paul
Kurski Funk - Paul Winter, Castro-Neves, Oscar
Dawnwalker - Paul Winter, Spillane, Davy
Before It's Too Late - Paul Winter, Tuncboyaciyan, Arto
Harvest Faire - Paul Winter, Winter, Paul [Sax]
Sara - Paul Winter, Berry, Chris [1]
Seoladh - Paul Winter, Traditional
Cathedral Forest - Paul Winter, Halley, Paul
Belly of the Whale - Paul Winter, Friesen, Eugene
Solstice Tree - Paul Winter, Cahn, Bill
Storm - Paul Winter,
Bells of Solstice - Paul Winter, Traditional
Return of the Sun - Paul Winter, Halley, Paul
Solstice Chant - Paul Winter, Halley, Paul
Track Listings (15) - Disc #2
Caravan at Dawn - Paul Winter, Hart, Mickey
The Lake - Paul Winter, Halley, Paul
Luiza - Paul Winter, Jobim, Antonio Carl
Canyon Chaconne - Paul Winter, Halley, Paul
First Ride - Paul Winter, Friesen, Eugene
Icarus - Paul Winter, Towner, Ralph
The Rain Is Over and Gone - Paul Winter, Halley, Paul
The Cello and the Pipes - Paul Winter, Friesen, Eugene
The Rising Moon - Paul Winter, Sullivan, Paul
Down in Belgorod - Paul Winter, Castro-Neves, Oscar
Oror Bubrik - Paul Winter, Tuncboyaciyan, Arto
Silent Night - Paul Winter, Traditional
Song for the World - Paul Winter, Halley, Paul
Wolf Eyes - Paul Winter, Darling, David
Minuit/Auld Lang Syne - Paul Winter, Fodeba, Keita
Since 1980, the Grammy (R) Award-winning Paul Winter Consort has celebrated the Winter Solstice, the seasonal rite of passage, with a musical feast from the cornucopia of cultures and creatures of the world, at the Cathedr... more »al of St. John the Divine in New York. To commemorate their 25th Annual Winter Solstice Celebration, Living Music has released a new box-set entitled Silver Solstice, featuring the Consort and a host of special guests. Silver Solstice presents the entire performance of the 25th celebration, plus 10 tracks from previous years' solstice events totaling 142 minutes of music. The package includes 2 stereo CDs, and also a Surround Sound option on one bonus DVD-Audio disc - the first time Paul Winter's music has been recorded in 5.1 Surround Sound. The goal was to put the listener onstage in the middle of the musicians in the center of the world's largest Gothic cathedral. Winter says the audiophile recordings may be "the best presentation of our music ever." Silver Solstice embraces the musical traditions of many cultures, and includes voices from what Winter calls "the greater symphony of the Earth" - whale, wolf and uirapurú (the musical wren of the Amazon rainforest.) During four decades of travel in 48 countries of the world, Winter has evolved an extended community of kindred players, and the Solstice Celebration in New York has become their annual reunion. This embrace of diversity is, for Winter, the hallmark of the solstice tradition. Silver Solstice reflects this eclecticism, with special guests including gospel singer Theresa Thomason, Brazilian diva Luciana Souza, sean nos (old style) Celtic singer Noirin Ni Riain, Armenian singer and percussionist Arto Tuncboyaciyan, Brazilian guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves, Irish Uillean piper Davy Spillane, Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart, mbira master Chris Berry, and the nine-voice Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble from Russia.« less
Since 1980, the Grammy (R) Award-winning Paul Winter Consort has celebrated the Winter Solstice, the seasonal rite of passage, with a musical feast from the cornucopia of cultures and creatures of the world, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. To commemorate their 25th Annual Winter Solstice Celebration, Living Music has released a new box-set entitled Silver Solstice, featuring the Consort and a host of special guests. Silver Solstice presents the entire performance of the 25th celebration, plus 10 tracks from previous years' solstice events totaling 142 minutes of music. The package includes 2 stereo CDs, and also a Surround Sound option on one bonus DVD-Audio disc - the first time Paul Winter's music has been recorded in 5.1 Surround Sound. The goal was to put the listener onstage in the middle of the musicians in the center of the world's largest Gothic cathedral. Winter says the audiophile recordings may be "the best presentation of our music ever." Silver Solstice embraces the musical traditions of many cultures, and includes voices from what Winter calls "the greater symphony of the Earth" - whale, wolf and uirapurú (the musical wren of the Amazon rainforest.) During four decades of travel in 48 countries of the world, Winter has evolved an extended community of kindred players, and the Solstice Celebration in New York has become their annual reunion. This embrace of diversity is, for Winter, the hallmark of the solstice tradition. Silver Solstice reflects this eclecticism, with special guests including gospel singer Theresa Thomason, Brazilian diva Luciana Souza, sean nos (old style) Celtic singer Noirin Ni Riain, Armenian singer and percussionist Arto Tuncboyaciyan, Brazilian guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves, Irish Uillean piper Davy Spillane, Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart, mbira master Chris Berry, and the nine-voice Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble from Russia.
CD Reviews
Paul Winter: Silver Solstice -- in surround sound
Robert Auld | New York, NY United States | 01/01/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I was surprised (though I suppose I should not be) by the reviewer who panned this album because he was expecting a video DVD of the concert and only got the music with still photos from the DVD disc. This is probably a symptom of the record industry's failure to market a single surround sound music format that everyone can understand. So, let's make this clear, the bonus DVD with this album is a DVD-AUDIO title that gives you high definition surround sound. And, if you have a surround sound system set up to play it properly, it sounds magnificent.
I have heard Paul Winter's Winter Solstice concerts in New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine several times over the years. The immense spaces of this cathedral (literally, the world's largest gothic-style church), combined with Paul Winter's inspired use of the acoustics for his music always makes for an impressive experience. While Winter has recorded in the cathedral before (several tracks of the album Canyon, for example), the recordings have always been in regular two channel stereo, which cannot really convey the experience of actually being in the space itself. When I heard that this latest album contained a surround mix, I was eager to see how Paul and his engineer Dixon Van Winkle had coped with the challenges inherent in recording in this huge space. For one thing, a recording is a different experience than a live concert; just trying to duplicate the church acoustics would not likely be satisfactory for someone listening at home, and there are all sorts of decisions to make about balances, tonal quality, how much of the church acoustics to include without smothering the direct sound of the instruments, etc.
I am happy to report that Dixon Van Winkle has done a brilliant job on this project; it is simply the best surround sound mix I have yet heard. You have the sense of really being there, but the balances are always close to ideal (something very hard to achieve in a live concert). Interestingly, it is the quiet, subtle moments that seem to benefit most from the surround mix (such as the beginning of "Belly of the Whale", where you sense the sea washing around you as the whales are heard singing from behind)--the listener is drawn in to the experience to a degree that ordinary stereo cannot achieve.
Ultimately, the success of any music album rises or falls on the music. If you like Paul Winter's music, you will like this CD plus DVD-Audio set very much. If you are not familiar with his music but like great surround sound, you could do worse than to check this title out. And if you can't stand Paul Winter's music--well, bah, humbug to you too!
Track Listings (17) - Disc #1