Search - The Elizabethan Consort;Oxford Baroque;Martin Souter;The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra;The London Symphony Orchestra;and others :: Sunday Morning Favourites

Sunday Morning Favourites - Gentle classical music 'Easy on a Sunday morning' This collection of music is perfect for making a slow start to the day. So get the Sunday papers, put the kettle on, and relax with a beautiful mixture of piano and orchestral music with a slow, gentle style. What does Sunday mean to us? Many of us still recognize the fact that it is the Sabbath and will attend church. For centuries, its spirit permeated society and, whether one observed the day or not, it was a day of rest. Admittedly, there were very few distractions to tempt us so it was not too difficult to enjoy the day in a relaxed and simple way. For more than two-thirds of the last century, our Sundays were a very ordered affair. The shops were generally closed and, before TV became established in the mid-Fifties, our domestic entertainment was provided by the wireless. Of course there were the cinemas, but they did not open before four o'clock and the programme was not the one that had been shown the previous week but a pair of films drawn from the archives. Our Sundays would change radically. The last few years have seen most shops opening on a Sunday and the usually deserted high streets are now abuzz with shoppers. One can now see films in the morning and no distinction is made now for different, or indeed indifferent, programming. We are still people of leisure on Sunday but we use the day for more active pursuits. Thirty years ago, DIY was a relatively basic affair but today it has become a national pastime. The DIY super and mega-stores that are to be found everywhere are open for business on Sundays and can supply an enormous range of tools and materials to supply the needs of handymen and handywomen who are only too eager to spend their Sunday usefully occupied. We can now shop for food on Sundays. Instead of being at the mercy of the local corner-shop which would invariably be open only for the morning, we can now take advantage of the Sunday openings of the major superstores and shop to our heart's content. We have now become a nation of gardeners. Countless manuals, TV programmes, and now Videos and DVDs, instruct us as to how we can transform our gardens into lavish and exotic show-places. Gardening emporia abound and a Sunday morning visit will fulfil our needs for a, hopefully, non back-breaking day in the garden. One tradition remains but has adapted itself to reflect today's life-style. The pub was essentially a male domain and a typical Sunday of yore would mean a pint with your mates and then home for lunch. Today, going to the pub at Sunday lunchtime has become a family affair. Many pubs boast conservatories and their like and offer a wide range of fare. In fact, because these dining areas are treated as separate entities, one does not even have to enter the pub area itself to reach them. They have become, in effect, restaurants. We often have to drive some distance to our preferred pub-lunch and Sunday traffic can almost be on a par with that of a weekday. So, we suggest as an antidote to all this flurry of activity, make yourself comfortable in your favourite arm-chair and wile away your Sunday morning (or afternoon) in the company of our relaxing programme and reflect on more sedate times.