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David Young is a recorder maestro, a man who truly knows his way around this delightful instrument. On A Renassiance Christmas, this one-time rock 'n roller teams up with pianist Jeff Victor to create a truly memorable new holiday album. This instrumental new age CD features only nine tracks over nearly 50 minutes, providing languid and intensely lovely moments at every turn in the bend. The song selection emphasizes the most popular leaders of the holiday "in crowd."

The recorder/piano duo is a superbly-matched set. The recorder's voice tends to be the sweeter clarion call, (relatively) high and clear; and the piano is the rich older brother, providing the winning foundation of warmth and stability. Together, the recorder and piano acquire a dimension not available to either instrument alone; they interweave and sail away on the softest flying carpet imaginable.

A Renaissance Christmas is excellent for creating the perfect mood for that quiet dinner for two, or as background music for that lively holiday gathering, or as a stage-setter for that introspective evening alone. The musicianship is impressive, and the recording quality is first-rate. My favorite tracks include the mystical "We Three Kings," the creative "Medley," and the absolutely breathtaking "Immanuel."

You certainly don't need to be a Renaissance man or woman to appreciate David Young's excellent holiday offering, A Renaissance Christmas. It offers good cheer to one and all!

--Carol Swanson
(Reviewed in 2005)

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From the liner notes:

Produced by David Young
Recorders: David Young
Piano and Keyboards: Jeff Victor
Arranged by David Young and Jeff Victor

"The Most Beautiful Music on Earth."

I needed a 3rd Christmas CD. I had no preconceived idea of how it should sound or even what the songs should be. Over the years, I have found that the less we know and the more we trust that something greater than ourselves will bring the best out of us, the more beautifully and naturally things actually turn out. We need to do everything we can, in our power, but trust the Great Spirit to work things out in the way It sees fit. I can't tell you how many different ideas or plans for a new Christmas CD went through my head during the six months previous to this recording,k or the different musicians that I thought of working with, but I can tell you that when Jeff sat down at the piano that day in September and we started playing together, this music just happened and I knew that I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

Fortunately, the midi computer software would not work that day, so when we started recording, we actually had to play together. Can you imagine that!! For hundreds of years, musicians played together, getting ideas from each other, inspiring each other and learning from each other, but now, music is something that is most commonly created between a musician and his computer monitor. This CD is the first fruit that came from the creativity tree whose seeds were planted long ago.

From the Web site:

New for 2002, A Renaissance Christmas features the musical comaraderie of two extraordinary instrumentalists: David Young and Jeff Victor on piano. Individually, these musicians and arrangers have sold more than two million copies of their relaxing music. Now, they've teamed their talents to create a recording that promises to be a classic from this point forward.

David Young's unique approach of creating music by playing two recorders in harmony, offers you an invitation to take a journey to the deepest, most precious place inside yourself. These melodies fill you with gentle peace and healing energy while drawing you inward and upward, like a soft heavenly breeze.

Perhaps it's because what David Young does with his instrument, the recorder, the flute-like instrument that all of us started with in the 3rd or 4th grade, playing two simultaneously in harmony - has never been done before. Perhaps it's because so many listeners have had their lives touched by the angelic quality of his modern instrumental music.

Perhaps it's because this former rock and roll guitarist and singer decided to change his career midstream to create soothing semi-classical, ethereal, or as he calls it, "beautiful music" that is now played on hundreds of radio stations and airlines around the world.

Whatever the many reasons for his success, David Young has parlayed his talents into one of the phenomenas of the music business - performing over 40 weeks a year worldwide, sellling 500,000 albums as of 2002, and his record company was started with his last 100 dollars.

"If you had told me 10 years ago that I'd be where I am now from playing the recorder, I would never have believed it". All of this music comes from my heart and was created to give people a positive alternative, a sense of peace that makes life more enjoyable. I call it beautiful music because styles and their names come and go, but beautiful music will always be beautiful music."

- David Young

David Young

A Renaissance Christmas

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Track List