A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols

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 selection, on the other hand, is thoroughly in accordance with the old English tradition. The most familiar carols can be heard here, just as they would be heard in Cambridge and all over England. Some of the melodies were arranged by the director of the King’s College Choir, others originate in Spain and the USA. Alongside these arrangements, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s mystically universal “Meeres Stille” has been set to music especially for this CD by the Hamburg composer Gloria Bruni.

Rufus Beck , Reader
Neuer Knabenchor Hamburg
Jens Bauditz