My family and I love all of the Winter Solstice cds but far and away III is the best of the bunch. Songs like "In the Bleak Midwinter" and "Snow is Lightly Falling" are so simple and haunting and stir a soul-recognition of this time of year that few other songs can match. We start playing it in late November and continue right thru to early spring. We will have to replace it soon as we are wearing it out. I cannot imagine December without it.
January 17, 2008 |  | Looking for a different Christmas album? |  |
This mixture of instrumentals and vocal selections is a great addition to any Christmas collection. Novel arrangements of old favorites, and the inclusion of some very unfamiliar works make this a welcome change from the old chestnuts. Some of the less favorable reviews here seem to stem from the inclusion of overtly Christmas songs, not from any failing of the performances themselves.
One quibble: the "Pavane" (track 12) is not composed by Liz Story, but is a Renaissance/early-Baroque piece (Sweelinck? Froberger?).
December 21, 2007| | | Five songs (three vocals and two instrumentals) make this the "best of the best" of the series. | |
"Christmas Bells" by John Gorka, Barbara Higbie's "Lullay, Lully" and "In The Bleak Midwinter" by Pierce Pettis are three of the most heartfelt Christmas songs/carols I have ever heard on record. Add to them Tim Story's rendition of "Of The Father's Love Begotten" and Paul McCandless' arrangement of "Coventry Carol" and, in my opinion, this is the best of the original six "A Winter's Solstice" recordings.
December 20, 2007 | | my least favorite in the series | |
I'm a big fan of this Winter Solstice series, have all of them & most i rate 5 stars. i see other reviewers here like this cd for some of the reasons i dont like it, but that's music. we all have different tastes.
amyway, find the 4 vocals jarring, even though they are pleasant. i play Windham Hill CDs when i want a break from vocals.
besides the vocal tracks, the instrumentals here are too divergent, steel drums, a little nutcracker, some solstice stuff & the first volume in the series where a few xmas carols creep in.
so ure left with a Windham Hill CD with no focus. it's not solstice, its not xmas, its not throughly meditative. it does sound like a random Windham Hill sampler which is fine for picking out the few good tunes, but given the high bar set by the other CDs in the series, this one is a letdown.
November 23, 2007I must say, of all the winter solstice albumns, this is perhaps the pinnacle of the series. John Gorka's Christmas Bells is positively marvelous. The rest of the disc is very well done with non cheesy vocal tracks and top notch performances from the other contributors.
November 20, 2007More reviews at Amazon.com ...
(15 reviews)