Search - Tolz Boys Choir :: Renaissance Christmas Music [Germany]

On My Top 10 List of Best Classical Christmas CDs

S. Dougherty | Greeley, Colorado United States | 10/30/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"NOT JUST FOR CHRISTMAS ANY MORE. This 2-disc set is a reissue of two recordings from the early 1960s. I am only familiar with 1/2 of the set, but that half is superb and worth the price of the whole. The "Altdeutsche Weihnacht" part of the set was originally a 1960 or 61 Musical Heritage Society issue featuring Elly Ameling with the Collegium Aureum performing works by Praetorius, Gesius, Gumpelzhaimer, Handl and other German composers of the early Renaissance. All the pieces are beautifully performed; the young Ameling sounds lovely and sings with great warmth and expressiveness. The whole ensemble is perfect for these rather simple works. I am so glad this is back in the catalog--it should never have been out. I've been looking for it to return for some years now. Long ago I acquired the MHS LP, which is all beat up now; I found a reissue on a Pro Arte cassette tape in the 1990s, which wore out. Buy this recording and you will play it all year round, not just during the Christmas season. Highlights: Best recording of "Es ist ein Ros' Entsprungen" ever. Eccard's "Ubers Gebirg Maria geht" is lovely. Gesius's arrangement of "Ein Kind Geborn" rocks.



I have read a review of the Tolzer Knabenchor disc, in which the reviewer praised the choir and the rustic quality they brought out in the Alpine carols, although he found their program a bit short in length."

Simple and Joyous Music Making -- But Amazon Needs to Make I

Terry Serres | Minneapolis, MN United States | 10/29/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"To get my belly-aching out of the way first ... Amazon needs to make this item easier to find. It is not found by searching under 'Elly Ameling' nor by searching under 'Tolzer' -- not even by searching under its English or German title. I actually bought my copy (at much higher cost) from Presto Classical in the U.K. because I couldn't find it here.



Although this is packaged as two CDs, reflecting their separate release on LP, the set contains only one disc's worth of music (78 minutes). No matter, this sublime collection is welcome in any guise. If you need cheap sentiment, lush orchestrations, reverberant sonic sheen, and production values from your Christmas music, look elsewhere. Here you will find simple, heartfelt, accomplished music making, offered in a spirit of humble joyfulness.



The chief interest is Elly Ameling's radiant voice prominently featured in the vocal quartet on disc 1. The well-matched vocalists also include bass Barry McDaniel, familiar from Schmidt-Gaden's supreme recording of the Christmas Oratorio. This disc includes many works familiar to English-speaking audiences: 'In dulci jubilo' ("Good Christian Men Rejoice"), 'Es ist ein Ros entsprungen' ("Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming"), and 'Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her' popular in many a Bach permutation. Every piece is serenely beautiful, not least Ameling's haunting solo, 'Maria zart.' The arrangements are what you would find in any worthy Lutheran or Episcopalian hymnal, with voices supported by a small ensemble of flute, violin, viol, and lute.



The second disc features the Tolz Boys Choir, who also appear on the aforementioned recording of the Christmas Oratorio. The virtues they bring to that set can be enjoyed here on a more intimate scale. The trebles are often reedy and quavering, intonation sometimes less than spot-on ... yet these seeming liabilities only enhance the sense of devotion and joy. I am not a fancier of boys' voices per se, but give me this sound over the slickness of the Vienna Boys Choir any day. The second disc, mostly _a capella_ settings, is divided into a group of refined motets and a group of merry, folk-inflected Alpine Christmas Carols.



The discs are unified in their balanced selection, unhurried pacing, and unmistakable warmth. This is a Christmas album to cherish, surely one that reaches across the centuries (since their composition) and the decades (since the recording) to instil an atmosphere of timeless blessing and joy."