In the Bleak Mid Winter from Lichfield Cathedral in 1995. A beautiful carol. Unfortunately, the director chooses to go walkabouts with the cameras when the trebles sing.
I only choose to watch this version over the many versions on RU-vid because Lichfield is my home city. And I'm so pleased to be from there right now! The first verse solo is so brilliant and the images over the last verse are really warming and make a nice change from just having the choir all the way through. Beutiful carol as well, but I think that's already been said!
Thanks for posting this. I'm doing the tenor solo on Christmas Day so very valuable to hear the Darke version. I sang as a boy in this cathedral so bought back fond memories of 35 years ago!
This takes me right back, I did the solo to this at a concert in the albert hall 30 odd years ago, one person said I was flat so left the choir and never sang seriously again lol
Here in Australia, this carol has little meaning to most people. We sing carols about the fires on the hills, the red dust over the town, the dry grass in the paddocks and radiance of the Milky Way. However, at the little church of Mount Kembla, with its predominantly British congregation, this has remained a staunch favourite.
I agree with sarahrchds, some of the posters here are being too critical. Is it the best version of the song ever performed? No, surely not. Is it still remarkably beautiful and better than 99.9% of the world is capable of producing? Well, don't hold me to that figure, but I think it's fair to say these young men are better than most of us posting criticism. I'll leave it at that. This is a beautiful piece, beautiful version of the song, and I thoroughly enjoy listening to it constantly.
So meltingly beautiful. Is that a 32' or 16' I can hear. This is waht would bring an Australian to England to listen to this in the flesh. I might see you this Christide. Regards.
Goodness, some of you people are critical. First, can I say that in my book the Harold Darke setting is infinitely better than the Holst tune: it just makes so much more of Rosetti's words. Second, this is pretty good English church singing. It may not be technically 100% but it moves my heart and that is what matters. I can hear the words, too! So well done Lichfield, and my rating is 5 star but it went wrong when I clicked on rate!
We do the Darke setting ourselves as a choir piece and I usually sing the "breastful of milk" verse (3rd, I think) on my own. We also do Cranham as a regular congregational hymn. But there is a third setting, more choir/soloist oriented and I can't find it anywhere. I'll know the tune when I hear it, but I can't remember the name or composer. As a hint, the word "long" in the last line of verse 1 is held for a long time before dropping an octave (repeated in the other verses). Any ideas?
Once when I had the tenor solo in this (and have had it numerous times), during rehearsal I cupped my l/h breast on the high note (only an 'e') on the word "milk" and got the the rest of the choir howling in laughter. Ease off on the soloist. Yes, his vibrato is a bit distracting, but he does a good job emoting and has a sweet timbre. He probably just picked this up before the service and is sight-reading it, which is the norm for English Lay Clerks.
Very nice. But not a patch on the Cranham version. See the Worcester Cathedral choir singing it on RU-vid. Yup. The tenor's vibrato is very distracting on this.
True, the boy is getting a little long in the tooth and probably didn't sing another Christmas as a treble, but I think he did just fine. The tenor, however, sounded like a perfectly adequate Anglican choir tenor. To me his vibrato was not intrusive, although I wouldn't have wanted any more vibrato. I don't know what kind of pure sound you want, but you're not going to get a Tallis Scholars sound in an Anglican choir of boys and men.
I prefer this tune, but it only works when sung by a choir. The other tune works with both choir and congregation though is plainer. This tune sounds more 'christmassy' than the other one, whereas as the other one sounds 'bleaker' and more rugged....so all though the other tune may be more true to the title of the carol, this version really soars and lets the (or any) choir prove how good they are.
