A Christmas Carol - Ealing Abbey Choir narrated by Stephen Critchlow

VVRCD021

£8.50

A Christmas Carol (abridged) by Charles Dickens (1843),
with Ealing Abbey Choir, London, England - Director: Richard Nicholson

A programme of Christmas Music with readings by Stephen Critchlow

‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens was written in just two months and was published in December 1843. Six thousand copies, at five shillings each, were sold on the day of publication.  

The ghost of Scrooge’s former partner Jacob Marley warns Scrooge not to make the same mistakes as he made, and of the impending visit of three spirits. Accompanied by the Ghost of Christmas Past, Scrooge observes the Fezziwig Ball – a description by Dickens of the fun and surfeit of food which (for some) was characteristic of the Christmas period in London in the 1840’s. But with the ghost of Christmas Present, Scrooge foresees the death of his clerk Bob Cratchit’s crippled son Tiny Tim, and Scrooge feels shame (perhaps for the first time). He accompanies the ghost of Christmas yet to come and after seeing examples of how he has adversely affected the lives of others and the contempt in which he has been held, foresees the Cratchit family after the death of Tiny Tim. When he finally realises that he has seen these visions in the space of just one night and that he has not missed Christmas he is overjoyed and becomes instantly generous and cheerful. 

Stephen Critchlow brilliantly expresses the change of heart from the depths of despair to seasonal joy which Scrooge experiences. The narration is preceded, illustrated and followed by music sung by the Choir of Ealing Abbey, a Benedictine Abbey in West London, England.

Track Listing:
[1] This is the Truth  Traditional  arr R Vaughan Williams
[2] Coventry Carol from ‘Pageant of Shearmen and Tailors’ 15th c
[3] ‘charity, mercy, forbearance,… were all my business.’* (Marley’s ghost)
[4] God Rest you Merry Gentlemen v1 Traditional arr David Willcocks
[5] ‘…such a creature,… quite as full of promise might have called him father,…’*
[6] Sir Roger de Coverley English Traditional arranged Mary Jo Searle
[7] ‘I see a vacant seat,…and a crutch without an owner.’*
[8] Coventry Carol v3 ‘Pageant of Shearmen and Tailors’ 15th c
[9] ‘…it would be a bad fortune …to find so merciless a creditor in his successor.’*
[10] ‘…the time before him was his own to make amends in.’*    
[11] Deck the Hall Welsh traditional, arranged by David Willcocks
[12] God Rest you Merry Gentlemen v1 English Traditional arr David Willcocks
[13] Bethlehem Down Bruce Blunt, Peter Warlock 1928
[14] When Jesus, our Lord from Christus (Op. 97) Mendelssohn

Total running time: 53.32      *Charles Dickens 1843

Reviews:
‘a perfect stress buster’ Michael van Straten (radio and TV broadcaster and author)