Featured Album December 2024: "Christmas with The Bevan Family Consort"
The nights are drawing in and it's time for some festive music! For many people, Christmas is a time to bring the family together, and that's exactly what the performers on our final featured album of 2024 have done. With seasonal music from Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina to Imogen Holst, The Bevan Family Consort present their new release on Signum Records.
Christmas with the Bevan Family Consort
The Bevan Family Consort & Graham Ross
OUR FEATURED ALBUM FOR DECEMBER 2024
Click here to order now!
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From the artists' press release:
Following their first successful album on Signum Records, The Bevan Family Consort present a collection of Christmas Carols and compositions for Advent. The collection includes familiar works such as Darke’s setting of ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’, which is presented here in a new arrangement by Francis Bevan and was as works newly transcribed for this album such as Palestrina’s ‘Missa sine nominee a5’ and Weelkes ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo’. ‘Lute-book lullaby’ also features, composed by original Bevan Family Choir founder David Bevan.
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Why The Early Music Shop loves "Christmas with The Bevan Family Consort":
If Christmas with the Bevan family is as much fun as their beautifully sung and recorded album of Christmas music from across the centuries, then The Early Music Shop wants to be counted in! With music spanning from Advent (the four Sundays before Christmas) to the Feast of the Epiphany (6 January) which traditionally marks the arrival of the Magi at the Bethlehem stable, this brand new CD includes a smattering of classics (In the Bleak Midwinter, in an arrangement by Francis Bevan), as well as rarities, premiere recordings and pieces that are meaningful to the Bevans. It’s all ‘serious’ music – no cheesy arrangements of Jingle Bells etc here, though I daresay the consort would be their equal if the opportunity arose. Among the newly recorded carols is Imogen Holst’s The Virgin Unspotted, a virtually unknown setting for three upper voices, that is a jewel.
With professional and amateur singers side by side – the family boasts two of the most celebrated British sopranos of their generation, Sophie and Mary – one might have been concerned about just what sort of sound the consort would make. Cast such cares aside: with Graham Ross directing (not a family member, as far as we know), the 14 members of the consort make a gorgeous, enveloping sound that has an attractive personality.
If you’re searching for an unusual stocking-filler this Christmas, look no further. The Bevans have come up trumps!
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Christmas with The Bevan Family Consort is available from The Early Music Shop online or in our Snape Maltings showroom.
Click here to order now!
Click below to watch a behind-the-scenes look at The Bevan Family Consort recording this album: