From the first few seconds of this new recording from Brian Jones and his Trinity Choir, you know it's Christmas. The flute and bell sounds, the dancing rhythm from the organ, the prodigiously joyful voices, and the catchy, unmistakably Rutter-esque melody combine to set off the sparks that promise a bright, happy, thoughtfully and lovingly compiled program. I say "lovingly" because this is the type of programming that, as usual with Jones, is not made with the "snooty" or "snobbish" in mind, but comes purely from the heart and from the experience of a director who knows and cares about the real listening tastes of his audience. (You've got to admire anyone who convincingly and with conviction programs "The Holy City" alongside works by Britten and Vaughan Williams, as he did on an earlier recording for Gothic Records.) And, as reflected here, those tastes, especially in Christmas music, cover a fairly wide range--from Rutter (three pieces) to Poulenc (O magnum mysterium) to Luboff (his well-loved arrangement of the Austrian carol Still, still, still).


The opening tune indeed is by John Rutter, a setting of the 15th-century text "Sing we to this merry company", and it's quickly followed by the Luboff arrangement, Gerald Near's setting of Ding! dong! merrily on high, and the well-known Pearsall version of In dulci jubilo. The combination of familiarity and audience-favorite continues throughout the rest of the 21 selections, with classics such as Rutter's all-time most-popular What sweeter music, Elizabeth Poston's Jesus Christ the apple tree, and Poulenc's motet O magnum mysterium. But mixed in among these revered gems are many less well-known pieces, including a snazzy, bluesy Noël nouvelet arranged by Stephen Jackson, Michael Head's charming and lovely The little road to Bethlehem, and of course a Charles Wood arrangement, Once as I remember (Wood is a Jones favorite).


The choir, one of North America's treasures, always is a treat to hear, displaying not only an enormous stylistic command but also uncommon technical range and interpretive sensitivity. I've said this before, but it's still true: The soprano section would be the envy of any choir. However, the entire ensemble manages a consistent cohesiveness and sonic refinement that's rare among amateur choirs in any part of the world. Even in small details, the choir shows extraordinary care and attention--for instance, in the perfectly rendered endings to the simple but so-often-troublesome "Gloria" line in Ding! dong! merrily on high. And for sheer strength and unity of sound, listen to the choir's rendition of Holst's On this day earth shall ring. Other highlights include Bob Chilcott's Mid-winter, a setting of the Christina Rossetti text "In the bleak mid-winter" that's become an instant favorite all over the world. Jones himself contributes a very effective arrangement of O little town of Bethlehem that joins the two "competing" tunes St. Louis and Forest Green. Although I would prefer a warmer, softer-edged sound in the Poulenc to really capture the "mysterium" in the work, and slightly better-tuned tenors in some places (What sweeter music, for example), this is a first rate recording that will satisfy all listeners looking for an ideal all-around Christmas choral collection. The sound, made in Boston's Trinity Church, captures the detail of choir, organ, and occasional percussion while faithfully capturing the fullness and resonance of the church's magnificent space.
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

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One of the finest Christmas recordings ever made, this 1994 production by the Baltimore Consort makes a welcome return (complete with a new cover) along with the revival of the Dorian label. Glowing with the high, clear soprano of Custer LaRue and brimming with versatile, virtuoso instrumental work by Mary Anne Ballard (viols, rebec), Mark Cudek (cittern, Baroque guitar, viols, bandora), Larry Lipkis (viol, recorder, gemshorn), Ronn McFarlane (lute), Chris Norman (wooden flutes, pennywhistle), and Webb Wiggins (organ), this program literally lives up to the promise of its title.

Many of these 20 tunes/carols/dances are among the most familiar Christmas standards--Ding dong merrily on high; Greensleeves; Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen; In dulci jubilo; The Cherry Tree Carol; Tomorrow shall be my dancing day--presented in both vocal/instrumental and strictly instrumental arrangements. But whatever the tune, and however it's presented, the result is invariably engaging, artful, classy, and infinitely repeatable, which means it's perfect for multiple repetitions, whether at Christmas or any other time of year. Chris Norman's flute improvisation on "Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen" is a classic, and Custer LaRue's rendition of the beautiful "Rorate coeli desuper" is not to be missed. In fact, that last instruction applies to this entire disc. If you're a Christmas music fan (and who isn't?) and you don't already own this CD, you know what you have to do.

-- David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

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Christmas Celebration

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Before television or radio, the piano was the focal point of the home. Holiday recordings such as Jacqueline Schwab's DOWN CAME AN ANGEL evoke the spirit of days gone by.
Best known for her solo piano soundtracks to Ken Burns's PBS documentaries, Schwab has a quaint, inviting touch on the keyboard and a wonderful appreciation of Appalachian musical tradition. The result is a warm, familiar Christmas sound filled with nostalgia. Schwab's piano shimmers with a delightful tone, like a parlor with a fireplace on a snowy day.
Though the album is entirely instrumental, the traditional hymns, carols, and spirituals were meant to be sung. To that end, the producers have included lyric sheets, giving families the opportunity to gather around the piano once again to experience a Christmas tradition.

CHRISTMAS and HANUKAH: I'll Be Home for the Holidays

Festive music for the holiday season performed by an outstanding mixed chorus with pipe organ, harp, flute and bellringers! Recorded in the glorious cathedral acoustics of Saint Ignatius Church, San Francisco. "...Magical...the sound is impressively transparent." --Fanfare

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Christmas Eve / Night on Mount Triglav

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: United States Army Air Force Symphony Orchestra.

Includes pavan(s) by William Byrd.

Dvorák: Symphony No. 1 - Legends Op. 59, Nos. 1-5

Includes christmas carol(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Helicon. Soloists: Chris Norman, Ken Kolodner, Robin Bullock.

The melting beauty of Arcangelo Corelli's justifiably famous "Pastorale" movement from his Concerto grosso in G minor, Op. 6, No. 8, seems to have suggested the idea for this very appealing recording of Italian Baroque music. The explicit pastoral Christmas theme of both the Corelli and Alessandro Scarlatti's 'Cantata pastorale' invites the listener to hear the trumpet featured in Alessandro Stradella's Sonata as a seraphic herald and the oboe featured in the concertos of Alessandro Marcello and Tomaso Albinoni as a shepherd's adoration. Under Helmut Mueller-Bruehl's sensitive direction, the Cologne Chamber Orchestra gives precise and joy-filled readings of this festive music.

Christmas

Berlioz's L'Enfance Du Christ is probably known primarily due to it's famous "Shepherd's Chorus" but it is a piece that once listeners discover it, they realize a true golden gem has been found. It is primarily a choral work which tells the story of what are called the Infancy Narratives in the New Testament. Scenes of the work are taken from both the scriptures and legends and include Herod visiting a soothsayer which predicts the birth of the Messiah, the Annunciation (Mary learning of the birth of Jesus), the birth itself, and the flight into Egypt. This recording by the Orchestre National du Lille under the direction of Jean-Claude Casadesus captures both the beauty and scope of the work.

BRITTEN: A Ceremony of Carols / Friday Afternoons

CALDARA: Christmas Cantata

Joy to the world, better known in the United States of America, is derived from Handel, and is based, initially and very simply, on the notes of the descending scale. The famous Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols established earlier in the present century at King's College, Cambridge, traditionally opens with the singing in procession of the Victorian Once in royal David's city, a setting by the nineteenth century English organist Henry John Gauntlett of words by Mrs. Cecil Frances Alexander. Gauntlett nearly became a pupil of Mozart's pupil and Mendelssohn's friend Attwood, but instead turned to the law, and practiced as a solicitor. He took lessons, however, from Samuel Wesley, and played the organ in the first Birmingham performance of Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah. O little town of Bethlehem is by Walford Davies with words by the nineteenth century American Bishop Philips Brooks, while The Cherry Tree Carol has a traditional English origin, the folk-tune here arranged by Donald Hunt. In the bleak mid-winter, a setting of a poem by Christina Rossetti, has music by Gustav Holst, who arranged the traditional Sing aloud. Away in a manger is equally well known in two different versions. The setting better known in England is that by the American gospel music composer William James Kirkpatrick. The tune for the anonymous words is here arranged by Donald Hunt. Joys Seven is another traditional carol, the setting arranged by Stephen Cleobury of King's College, Cambridge. I wonder as I wander, arranged by Donald Hunt, and Jesus, Jesus, rest your head, arranged by Arthur Warrell, are taken from Appalachia, a rich source of original folk-song material, inherited from early settlers. In dulci jubilo, a German fourteenth century Macaronic carol, alternating Latin and vernacular words, is sung in a familiar nineteenth century arrangement by the antiquarian English composer Robert Lucas Pearsall. O little one sweet is familiar in J. S. Bach's harmonization of a melody by his seventeenth century compatriot Samuel Scheidt. The Shepherds' Rocking Carol is of Czech origin, a Christmas lullaby, and Ding dong! Merrily on high, with English words by G. R. Woodward, uses a sixteenth century French dance tune. O come, all ye faithful, in it's English version, is of composite authorship, with music of probable eighteenth century provenance, arranged by David Willcocks. The Coventry Carol is taken from the fifteenth century Pageant of Shearmen and Tailors, lamenting at the same time the Massacre of the Holy Innocents and while advertising the Shearmen's own wares, scissors, knives and shears. As I outrode is an English traditional carol and Unto us is born a son, a Latin carol of the fifteenth century, appears in the well known German collection Piae Cantiones, published in 1582. The anthology ends with Mendelssohn's Hark, the herald angels sing, adapted by W. H. Cumming, from a festival choral composition, here arranged by David Willcocks and Donald Hunt's arrangement of Silent Night, it's original German words written by Joseph Mohr in 1818, with a melody of the same date by Franz Gruber. The music of Stille Nacht was written on Christmas eve, presumably for performance at Midnight Mass at the church of St. Nicholas at Oberndorf, where Gruber was organist and choirmaster. On this first occasion the organ broke down, and a guitar was used in accompaniment.

Traditionally carols were not necessarily confined to the Christmas season, but were dance-songs. The dancers of K�lbigk, indeed, found themselves in difficulties with the Church, condemned by an angry priest to dance for a whole year, as a punishment for their neglect of religious duties, carolling at an inappropriate time in the churchyard. Nevertheless, even in the Middle Ages, there were carols specifically for Christmas, the season with which nowadays these songs are most closely associated. It has become the fashion to use very considerable technical and musical skill in the arrangement of essentially simple and popular music for the kind of sophisticated performance to be found in the major English choral foundations, and on these arrangements composers annually use much ingenuity and artifice. The Tewkesbury Abbey carols open with The first Nowell, in an arrangement by Sir David Willcocks, a musician well known for his long association with King's College, Cambridge, and it's choir, and with the London Bach Choir. The series continues with another David Willcocks arrangement, this time of an old Basque carol, with well known words by S. Baring-Gould, Gabriel's Message. Other fine arrangements by David Willcocks include a version of the popular While shepherds watched their flocks, from Thomas East's 1592 publication, The Whole Booke of Psalmes with their Wonted Tunes, as they are sung in Churches. The Polish carol Infant holy, infant lowly is included, with the fifteenth century French Franciscan processional Come, o come Emmanuel. Two other French carols arranged by David Willcocks are Angels from the realms of glory and Quelle est cette odeur agr�able? (Whence is that goodly fragrance flowings?), the latter sung here in French. A final arrangement by David Willcocks in the present collection is of the traditional English watchman's song God rest ye merry, gentlemen.

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CHRISTMAS PIANO MUSIC

Includes work(s) by Jean Sibelius, various composers. Ensembles: Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Laulupuu Choir Lahti. Conductor: Osmo Vänskä.

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