Pethe - Bryn Terfel - Carols and Christmas Songs

To begin with, the idea of a Christmas album didn't appeal.
But when Universal kept on asking every year...
... it was time to sit down and give the idea serious thought.
I made two suggestions; that a percentage of the album...
... was to be recorded in Welsh.
That then shed a new light on the idea...
... and then came the green light from the people at Hamburg
Then there is one cd that includes the world's most famous carols...
... from countries such as Austria, Spain, America, Wales, Britain...
... ten of these songs have been translated and performed, not only in Wales,...
... but with the Welsh National Opera orchestra.
We have artists such as 'Cor y Dydd', Catrin Finch, Gwawr Edwards and Only Men Aloud...
... so I'm pretty happy with what's happened and with the songs that we chose for this album.
It was very difficult to try and persuade Deutsche Grammophon in Hamburg...
... to agree to release a double album.
They had the idea of having a different cd for the international songs...
... but I saw that as undermining any suggestion that carols sang in Welsh were important to me.
Then... recording a carol such as "Still, Still, Still" for example...
... that is originally in German...
... I was given an excellent translation by John Ogwen, who is a friend of mine,...
... that suited the music perfectly.
And I'm quite satisfied that most of the translations have worked.
But we also have songs such as 'Gwyl y Baban' by Caryl Parry Jones...
... which was recorded in her little studio just outside Cardiff...
... which was set up by her and Myfyr.
It was very important to me that there were in fact two cds in the album...
... and that one was aimed more towards Wales and the other one international.
One of the ideas that Universal laid on the table was the possibility...
... of getting permission to sing 'White Christams'...
...a song immortalised by Bing Crosby...
... and when the green light came we had to agree to...
... firstly, to be true to the original...
... which meant using a specific orchestra and choir...
...but there is a piece in the middle of the song...
... that's played by our own orchestra and our own choir.
It was rather difficult on the day of recording, in the middle of July...
... it took us an hour to record the song.
... most songs take twenty minutes to record.
It was challenging trying to find the right balance between how Bing sang it, something which always played on the mind.
Sometimes, I sang a duet to the melody...
... other times, our orchestra were playing along with the other orchestra.
To tell you the truth, this was a second recording by Bing Crosby because the original recording...
... was played so much that it became inaudible.
After the Second World War, people needed to hear music that made them think of home...
... and, of course, that song describes Christmas at home. Every road leads to home.
It was an exhilarating performance and it has occured to me that perhaps Bing...
...will get his first Number 1 in Britain.
I hope that I'll be satisfied with how the recordings turn out.
It's important to think that, in five days, the voice has to sound healthy,..
... that the recording goes smoothly,...
...not only with the orchestra but with the choir and all the different artists that join me on the album.
But I'm quite satisfied with the fact that we now have ten songs that will maybe be played...
... on the radio and the television over the Cristams season.