Search - Piae Cantiones Anonymous, Christmas Traditional, Jeremy Summerly :: Let Voices Resound: Songs from Piae Cantiones (1582)

Another Naxos wonder

R. Rockwell | Brooklyn, NY USA | 12/02/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am new to the glory of Early Music and have found that critically acclaimed Early Music collections of Naxos are a great place to start. I have over 15 and have not been disapponted once. Naxos allows me to experiment without too much financial risk.
I did not know what to expect from the Piae Cantiones because I has never even heard of this collection of sacred songs that wascompiled and edited at a school in Finland. As usual the program notes from Naxos completely filled me in and explained that childen would have sung these songs--thus the Oxford Camerata includes only women's voices on this CD.
Many of the melodies will be familiar to anyone who has knowledge of traditional Christmas carols. Many of these songs brought me tears with their beauty, especially "today let the voices of children resound". As one with no musical training I am not qualified to judges the particulars of the performance. All I feel qualified to say is that these songs moved me. It has become one of my favorite Naxos Early Music CDs"