Apparently, the Skylark Vocal Ensemble's 'story concerts' are a regularly recurring event in their yearly performance schedule, where choral music is tied to spoken stories and tales.
Here, director Michael Guard adapts Charles Dickens' ever-popular A Christmas Carol into a 70-minute choral concert.
Composer Benedict Sheehan arranges carols to highlight major points in the story, mostly tunes of the British variety. For example, his arrangement of the Coventry Carol sidles up next to the death of Tiny Tim when Scrooge is with the Ghost of Christmas Future. This example is rather on the nose for my tastes, but in general the arrangements, and their placement, are enjoyable.
Sheehan also composes music to underscore the story, using only an a cappella chorus. These portions are rather inventive and lead me to use the term incidental music, instead of story concert. At times, the voices sound instrumental when not caroling, and set the scenes effectively.
Let me admit my bias upfront. I am used to aging British actors, ones associated with the Old Vic, lending their voices to A Christmas Carol. I didn't know quite what to think regarding Sarah Walker, an Appalachian-based storyteller and tea party enthusiast with a solid US accent. She has a youthful voice, quite different from any expectations I might have had, again a bias a readily admit. As an aside, my wife liked her storytelling just fine, and my children were properly uneasy with the ghost tale.
Walker is very subtle with character 'voices', so nothing is arch, which is appreciated. I oddly feel she needs more warmth to her voice; at times, her speech feels wooden, but perhaps this is due to her wanting to be implicit with diction, or maybe she was gearing the story towards a ghost tale. However, whenever singing occurs in the background, there is an added, appreciable depth to the narration.
The Skylark Vocal Ensemble is an outstanding chorus, here a 20-voiced group. They have a full tone which is rather forthright, yet beautiful. They tackle Sheehan's a cappella settings with vibrancy, adding life to the storytelling, and some of this music sound quite difficult to these ears.
It should be noted that the physical media is a Blu-ray recording, not a CD nor DVD. If you look at customer reviews across the inter-webs, you will notice many folks confused as to why their recording won't work in their CD player. If you can play a Blu-ray however, this audio-only presentation is sumptuous sounding.
The narration is not separately tracked from the music, so if you are not interested in speaking entangled amidst music, this probably won't be for you. Otherwise, this is a wonderful recording.
Listen on YouTube
Works
A Christmas Carol
Performers
Sarah Walker, narrator
Skylark Vocal Ensemble
Michael Guard, conductor
Label: Sono Luminus
Year: 2022
Total Timing: 66.27
If you don't mind narration with your choral music, this should be a lovely, holiday treat.
The Skylark Vocal Ensemble is excellent, although I am personally undecided over Sarah Walker as the speaker of Charles Dickens' works.
Plus, you need a Blu-ray player!
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