Customer Rating: 
Summary: Hymn Recording
Comment: Outstanding choral recording! I have it on all day! Bought an extra for a gift.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: How can you call these "Hymns"
Comment: Not to harp on anyone here, but it's obvious that none of you grew up in a church or environment that had a good choir. I know, a Hymn is a genre of music, but a recording of a hymn isn't one if it doesn't contain HARMONY. If they're a "choir," then why don't the tenors sing a different note than the sopranos, altos, and basses? The organist is quite good, I'll admit, but you're wasting your time if you're looking for a good recording of these beautiful songs that were COMPOSED with harmony, not unison. If they want to sing in unison like this, they need to be stripped of their "choir" status and simply be called a "group."
Customer Rating:
Summary: wonderful collection of magnificent music
Comment: Most everything on this CD is very well done. The recording environment might have been less than perfect, but that shouldn't dimish one's enjoyment very much. Most of the arrangements are very traditional, with the notable exception of Amazing Grace, which though it isn't terrible, it isn't very good either. Some songs had verses removed, which is understandable, though it was poorly done in Eternal Father, Strong to Save -- they did verse 1 ("Eternal Father"), then they skipped(!!!) verse 2 ("O Christ, the Lord") and went on to the final verses ("Holy Spirit" and "O Trinity") -- which is skipping Someone important! However, outside of that, it was excellent.
If you like sacred music, or hymns, then you'll thoroughly enjoy this CD. If you're a Christian, you should enjoy this as well, no matter your taste in music (and you might just learn to like hymns as well!). It is a well-chosen set of some of the most magnificent, God-honoring music of all time, done is a mostly very traditional manner, and it was done well.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Flawed but enjoyable
Comment: The huge size and reverberating acoustics of Washington National Cathedral make it difficult to hear any kind of live choral performance clearly, even if you're sitting in the front rows in the nave. The Cathedral Choral Society is handicapped by having to record in this acoustically mushy space, and it shows in this CD, often creating an uneven balance between the organ and the chorus as noted by other reviewers. The repertoire is well-chosen, but the quality of the arrangements is uneven. Too often, the chorus seems to be singing in unison right out of the Hymnal, like any parish church choir at an ordinary Sunday service. Certain pieces do suggest the heights which the Society is capable of attaining. But the group never achieves the splendor that the Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys displays every Sunday morning. Just when the Society seems to be getting there, the conductor pulls them back. And the shrill folk arrangement of "Amazing Grace" will have you covering your ears as the sopranos shriek clumsily, confusing volume with fervor.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hymns through the Centuries
Comment: This is not a review. I just have a question. Does "Hymns through the Centuries" contain the hymn "It is Well with my Soul?" Thanks.
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