A Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols
Sheet Music

SKU: NX.ROP6125

By Jens Bauditz, Neuer Knabenchor Hamburg, and Rufus Beck. By Agatha Christie, Felix Bartholdy Mendelssohn, Frances Browne, Francis Church, Franz Xaver Gruber, Gloria Bruni, Henry John Gauntlett, Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Mateo Flecha the Elder, Rene Goscinny, Wilhelm Busch, William Byrd, and William James Kirkpatrick. Country of Origin: Germany. Classical. CD (1 disc). Published by Naxos (NX.ROP6125).

The British Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, in which nine Bible readings are interpolated with Christmas carols, has been the preparation of Christmas Eve for countless people for more than one hundred years - particularly since the celebration has been broadcast all over the world from the King's College Chapel since 1928. The Neuer Knabenchor Hamburg has now adapted this tradition in a very special way. By choosing the form of nine lessons, the boy's choir is pursuing a new direction in order to express the miraculous joy of Christmas. Rather than reciting biblical or religious stories, Rufus Beck - known in Germany as the narrator of the Harry Potter audio books - reads fantasy-filled retellings of the Christmas story and poems centering on the great festival. The readings invite children and adults alike to set out on their own inner journey, here merrily, there pensively, to Bethlehem. The musical section, on the other hand, is thoroughly in accordance with the old English tradition. The msot familiar carols can be heard here, just as they would be heard in Cambridge and all over England.