For nearly 20 years, Seraphic Fire’s Christmas concerts have heralded the change of seasons for our audiences in South Florida, and there is no piece more associated with these yearly musical celebrations than Jesus Christ the Apple Tree. Written by Elizabeth Poston, English composer and purported World War II spy for the Allies, Jesus Christ the Apple Tree takes a Federal-era American text and clothes it in music so simple, that it could easily be an 18th-century colonial hymn. With its elegant treble-voice verse and luxurious ending canon, Jesus Christ the Apple Tree has become an indispensable part of Christmastide for thousands of our friends in our hometown of Miami, FL, and beyond.
With Poston’s masterpiece as our polestar, this new holiday recording by Seraphic Fire celebrates the simple and the authentic. From Praetorious’s double choir setting of In dulci jubilo and Gottfried Wolter’s spine-tingling Maria durch ein Dornwald ging, to familiar American carols arranged by composer contemporaries of Seraphic Fire (including Susan LaBarr, Edwin Fissinger, Timothy Takach, and Seraphic Fire’s founder Patrick Dupre Quigley), this new recording hopes to introduce new settings of old melodies that will hopefully become instant classics in your Christmas soundscape. Each Seraphic Fire Christmas program is special, and we hope that The Apple Tree: Christmas with Seraphic Fire will continue our tradition of bringing peaceful, tuneful contemplation to our beloved audiences, near and far. – James K. Bass
