I kinda hate Silent Night as our choir has sung this tune to death over the last 5 or 6 years. However, you don’t see shit as fine as this everyday. Domingo is the gold standard for Tenors and all of us wee fledgling Tenors wish we could be a quarter as good as he is. :) So, we get a unique arrangement of Silent Night, with the Master singing. All is well.



7 comments
December 18, 2015 at 6:29 am
makagutu
This is beautiful.
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December 18, 2015 at 7:12 am
roughseasinthemed
It’s one of those that always sounds too slow to me, especially if you have people not keeping up to a conductor. You just made me look up other tenor recordings!
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December 18, 2015 at 7:59 am
tildeb
What’s with the huge amount of scooping into the note? I hate this practice by so many soloists. This tactic is a standard practice of laziness by those who know better and can sing better but have achieved a level of success that permits it to go without any criticism that would leveled against those of less talent. It’s not ‘peaceful’ at all in this song but very irritating. Surely if the boy’s choir can hit their notes accurately as they are expected to do, Placido should try to emulate their higher level of musical discipline.
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December 18, 2015 at 10:38 am
The Arbourist
@RSitM
Stay tuned, we have another curated sonic experience coming up. The accompaniment keeps the pulse going and the choir in check. It’s a lovely arrangement by Anders Ohrwall.
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December 18, 2015 at 10:42 am
The Arbourist
@Tildeb
I believe it is called taking artistic liberty…*g*
However, the double standard is real. I would get the stink eye from my voice teacher if I scooped during one of my songs, unless of course it was indicated.
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December 18, 2015 at 11:02 am
roughseasinthemed
I probably won’t like it :D Although my mother liked the later tenors, her heart lay with Jussi Bjorling. I should probably have had that played at her funeral. Only just come to me. Eleven years too late …
Older opera singers remind me of Frank Sinatra. Anyway, I’m more into sopranos although top As are long gone.
One of my faves for Xmas though, is three kings (from Persian lands). I do love that.
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December 18, 2015 at 2:46 pm
tildeb
Exactly. It’s very difficult to hit any note dead center with various kinds of articulation and dynamics. And we wouldn’t want a rich and famous tenor to stoop to such trivialities. But the shield that is overused is about ‘artistry’ of course, yet it’s hardly ‘artistic’ when done over and over and over, so often, in fact, one can set one’s clock to it. It is just musical laziness to start a note well below it’s place and scoop one’s way up to it. Eventually, it will become centered but hey, it’s not like the listening audience cares about where the note is or how artistic is its eventual fingernail-on-the-chalk-board procession to its necessary placement; I suspect the vast majority of listeners care more about saying to someone else, “Oh yes, I heard Placido sing that one once and it was so beautiful….“. Well, I think Placido manages to make this beautiful arrangement similar to experiencing gastro-intestinal discomfort; relief comes only when it’s passed.
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