The Carols of Christmas

Develop Your Piano Skills Through Playing Fun Festive Music - Piano Lessons

Develop Your Piano Skills Through Playing Fun Festive Music - Piano Lessons

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, groups that played period instruments started to appear. They were strongly associated with particular conductors, usually the musician who formed each ensemble, and generally were not full-time organizations. Typically, they gathered for a limited number of concerts and recordings a year, and their membership was variable. Half the people playing on one day's studio session as the London Classical Players might have been on stage the week before as part of the Academy of Ancient Music. In 1986, a group of the best of these freelance players sought increased security and the artistic benefits of performing regularly as a permanent orchestra, and formed the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. As most London orchestras, they organized themselves into a self-governing co-operative owned by the musicians. As a matter of policy, they decided against appointing anyone as its music director or permanent conductor. This meant they had to shine from the outset to attract the best interpreters to lead their performances.

Between 1961 and 1970, households across America delighted in an annual series of Christmas releases available exclusively through Goodyear locations. 900,000 copies of the first volume of The Great Songs of Christmas were pressed" and proved so successful that, by December 1, 1961, Goodyear ordered all advertising to stop as the album had already sold out! The following year's order was for 1.5 million albums, and 2 million the year after that. These high-quality albums not only featured the day's top artists but frequently presented songs and versions unavailable anywhere else. Now, Real Gone Music and Second Disc Records are proud to present the first new volume of The Great Songs of Christmas in nearly 50 years bringing many of those rare songs together.

In the Bleak Midwinter reflects a Christmas that was unlike any other in recent history. Much of the music on this album was heard around the world as part of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, a service that has been broadcast live from King’s on Christmas Eve every year since 1930.