KEISER Dialogus von der Geburt Christi. GRAUPNER Magnificat • Jürgen Ochs (ten, cond); Rastatter Hofkapelle (period instruments) • CARUS 83.417 (45:00 Text and Translation)


The appearance of a new recording of the works of Reinhard Keiser is for me a cause of rejoicing. The high quality of the operas that have been recorded gives testimony of a composer near the top rank of Baroque composers. This is my first encounter with one of Keiser’s religious works, and the Dialogus confirms the high opinion I hold of his ability.


Dialogus , written for performance in a Hamburg concert hall in 1707, survives only in a revised version, including the addition of chorales, and probably dates from Keiser’s period as Cathedral choirmaster. While the work is recognizably in the tradition of the north German cantata, it is leavened with the melodic and dramatic gifts of one of the Baroque era’s best opera composers. An additional feature typical of Keiser’s work is the varied instrumentation; none of the solo movements, whether aria, duet, or trio, have the same instrumentation.


The pairing of Keiser with Graupner on this disc is appropriate; they both wrote for the Hamburg opera in the first decade of the 18th century, and Graupner contributed several arias to one of Keiser’s greatest operatic successes, Der Carneval von Venedig . Graupner’s only Magnificat may have been written in support of an application for the position of Thomaskantor in Leipzig. The work is very appealing, vocally and instrumentally. Although Graupner’s work found favor in Leipzig, his Darmstadt employer refused to release him to accept the Leipzig appointment.


Rastatter Hofkapelle is, at least on this recording, a group of eight vocalists and 13 instrumentalists. Jürgen Ochs, the conductor, also serves as tenor soloist and chorister. The performances are generally accomplished, especially from the instrumentalists and the vocalists singing in concert. In their solo turns, however, they are somewhat disappointing. The solo music obviously taxes their abilities; they are able to get through their solo assignments, but we are aware that more-accomplished singers could have made more of this music. I do not want to put anyone off of purchasing this recording by suggesting that the solo singing is awful; it certainly isn’t that. It simply could have been better with more-accomplished vocalists.


Carus claims that both of these works are recording premieres, and I see no reason to dispute this claim. The short length of the program is a disappointment. There was plenty of room for another Keiser or Graupner work. Both of these works are well worth getting to know, and the recording has provided me with a great deal of pleasure.


FANFARE: Ron Salemi

Vintage Christmas Trio is David Ian’s long-awaited full-length follow up to his debut success Vintage Christmas. His purest release to date, this album features instrumental-only jazz trio interpretations of Christmas favorites using the most minimal elements--highlighting Ian’s craft as pianist and arranger. David Ian’s delightful performances transport you to an era that birthed the most sentimental songs of this season. The opener, “Deck the Halls” welcomes in the Christmas spirit with a swinging trio. David Ian’s signature sound shines throughout the album as he transforms the often stately “Joy to the World” into a jazz/blues injected festivity and then carries the listener into a dreamier state with the ever-loved classic “White Christmas.” The lyrical bass solos of Jon Estes tastefully splash their way on numerous tracks supported by the clever drumwork of Josh Hunt, who together comprise a perfectly ornamental rhythm section. “We Three Kings” takes on a new form with a reflective mood; an unexpected arrangement of a Christmas classic, more forgotten in recent years. In “Silver Bells,” Ian masterfully and fluidly switches back and forth from swing to straight time. The close of the album is a solemn “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” stripped down to just piano and percussion. If you listen closely, your ears might catch the chirps of a winter bird complementing this moving musical performance.

Each Christmas season at Brigham Young University over 500 vocalists and instrumentalists celebrate the season in song. Handpicked from the largest private student body in the country, these students comprise four nationally and internationally acclaimed choirs and the highly praised Philharmonic Orchestra. These musical organizations are known for their unity, due in part to the superb technical proficiency achieved under the hands of choral conductors Rosalind Hall, Dr. Andrew Crane, and Jean Applonie and Philharmonic conductor Kory Katseanes. But there is more. Students and conductors share a strong belief in the spiritual character of music. As one critic observed, "The spiritual element is present in each piece the choirs sing." This results in performances that are alive, fresh, and heartfelt-performances that overcome boundaries and draw people together. The music presented here was recorded during the live performances of the December 2016 and 2017 Celebration of Christmas concerts.

If you're very comfortable with your favorite Christmas carol choral arrangements, be prepared to adjust your ears and your sensibility as you listen to these newly commissioned--and sometimes very different--settings by Antony Pitts (who also happens to be a composer, radio producer, and the conductor of the vocal ensemble Tonus Peregrinus). Although Pitts strove to honor the original tunes and to preserve certain familiar aspects of carol singing forms and customs, he wasn't afraid to shake tradition with new harmonies and a few unusual melodies. Of course, how many ways can you harmonize "Lo, how a Rose e'er blooming" and still have it recognizable and singable? Pitts chooses not to tinker very much with this beloved hymn, instead substituting a completely different translation ("Lo, there a Rose is blooming") set to very familiar harmony, gradually introducing dissonances and changing the texture, carefully ornamenting the non-melodic lines. Other pieces are more daring--the melismatic inner parts and flatted sevenths in "While shepherds watched", for example, or the stark, open, fourth- and fifth-oriented harmonies in "O come, o come, Emmanuel".


While Pitts shows fertile imagination and often impressive resourcefulness in rethinking these 24 mostly well-known carols and hymns, some of his ideas are better than others, and occasionally we're left thinking that, well, maybe the traditional version really is the best after all. Among the offerings, which are presented in four thematically organized sections: a "Silent Night" that's just too schmaltzy for its own good; a plodding, tedious "O little town of Bethlehem" (to a tune many won't recognize, complete with theatre-organ tremolo!); a wonderfully dancing "Good King Wenceslas" that enlivens this usually routine song; a weirdly chaotic "Hark the herald angels sing"; a beautiful realization of the 15th-century "Alleluya--a new work"; and an unusual "Away in a manger" that features some delicious harmonies that cleverly illustrate the sound of the "lowing" cattle and the baby awaking. However, rather than describe these as I hear them, you should get this and judge for yourself. You may find some of these arrangements will become your new favorites--or at least welcome alternatives to the ubiquitous Willcocks/Rutter/Oxford Carol Book "standards". At the Naxos budget price, it's a great buy and, if you're interested, the arrangements are available online. [11/30/2004]
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

The two resident choirs of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and their director Edward Wickham, join together to record this stunning and evocative selection of contemporary Christmas carols. The college can boast having the first and only college-based Oxbridge girls' choir, and its own beautiful chapel in the very heart of Cambridge, provided the venue for this debut recording of the recently founded St Catharine's Girls' Choir. Joined by the student choir, the album features premieres from such composers as Richard Rodney Bennett, Roxanna Panufnik, Cecilia McDowall and John Tavener. It also includes works specially written for the Girls' Choir by Stevie Wishart and Christopher Fox.

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2010 ST OLAF CHRISTMAS FEST

Originally released 20 years ago, and now available again through ArkivMusic, this immensely popular recording reimagines some of the popular songs of Christmas as if they had been written by Mozart or Beethoven or Debussy.

4 Girls 4 Harps At Christmas

Vinyl LP pressing. Christmas is the first Christmas album by Alabama. The album was released on RCA Nashville in 1985. The album includes one of their more popular holiday songs, 1982's "Christmas in Dixie," which charted on two of Billboard magazine's music popularity charts in six different calendar years.

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Unlike the cantatas discussed in my review of Gottfried Stölzel's 1736/37 so-called "Christmas Oratorio" on CPO (type Q4082 in Search Reviews), these, composed in 1728 and intended for use during Christmas, are more musically substantive (but still concise) and offer some outstanding arias and duets. In addition, we hear recitatives that in harmonic and melodic effect are far more than just functional devices--and the choral sections, while relatively short, are also very well crafted, showing the work of a composer adept at devising solid thematic material and knowing how to keep it interesting. The stylistic similarities to Bach will be obvious to anyone familiar with the cantatas of the slightly older master (he was five years Stölzel's senior), and if you really try, your imagination may trick you into believing you're hearing a direct reference or two--a little thematic slice here, an orchestral flourish there--and certainly Stölzel's use of compound meter in the duet aria "Heller Aufgang aus der Höhe" with obbligato violin (from the opening cantata) is a page right out of any number of Bach's works in the genre.


But the high quality of the writing, especially in the attractively shaped arias, bespeaks a composer with some fine ideas of his own. Try the alto/bass duet in the above-mentioned cantata, or the soprano solo in the following work, a lovely melody that dances liltingly along accompanied by oboes and strings. Here and throughout, soprano Christine Rembeck shows easy confidence to go with her beautiful voice, and her ornaments are attractive and effective. In fact, all of the singers are first rate, taking to their "roles" with obvious appreciation for such singable and satisfying music. There are some unusual features of scoring, such as the alto aria in the Christmas cantata Kündlich groß ist das gottselige Geheimnis, with its eerie continuo doubling and violins weaving around above the voice in thirds.


The oboe concerto is a feisty work that wastes not a note, from the lively opening Allegro to the short Andante that begins in faux-passacaglia fashion with only upper strings accompanying the soloist. The third movement is a compact Allegro with enough challenging flourishes and fleeting runs to satisfy an oboist looking for a few moments to show off. Stölzel shows imagination in his chorale harmonizations--from the trumpet-tinged In diesem Licht kannst Du sehen to the simple and direct Gib mir, o Jesu, nur heilige gute Gedanken (which many listeners will recognize as "Lobet den Herren").


The recording is somewhat spacious and heavy on the resonance, which lends a hugeness to the sound that swallows some detail in the tutti sections. And--typically and irritatingly--MDG provides only German texts (with no accompanying track numbers). On first listen, I thought I was not going to have a whole lot to say about this music--but the more I listened, the more I enjoyed, and it's likely you'll do the same. These are really fine works that competent church choirs and accomplished college and community choral groups should seriously consider as alternatives to programs typically heavy on Bach and Handel.
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Nothing heralds the majesty of Christmastime quite like the brilliance and radiant beauty of music for brass instruments. On this remastered reissue of a classic holiday favorite, the Gabriel V Brass Ensemble presents a special collection of music for Christmas written by a variety of masters of the genre including Rolf Smedvig, Anthony DiLorenzo, Morten Lauridsen and William Berry. From the overflow of joy in J.S. Bach's Wie will ich mich freuen to the cinematic soundscape of DiLorenzo's Baltazar (A King's Journey) to the rosy-cheeked romp of Leroy Andersen's Sleigh Ride, each piece adds new luster to your celebration of this glorious season.

With "O Nata Lux", The Zurich Chamber Singers under the baton of Christian Erny release an album of Christmas choral music that stands out from purely liturgical Christmas albums while at the same time focusing on the core of the Christmas message. A musically diverse album with motets and songs from five centuries. According to the famous German Christmas carol “Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen”, Jesus was born “in the cold midwinter, in the middle of the night”. The light that disperses the cold and darkness is a central topic of Christmastide art and music, and an element of many winter-time traditions the world over. At Christmas, Christians celebrate the redemption of mankind at a time of darkness, expressed through the imagery of light. With their new album entitled “O nata lux”, the Zurich Chamber Singers highlight this symbolism as it has been represented for many centuries in the western art music tradition.

Following the chronology of the Advent and Christmas season, the album ranges from Renaissance works by Osiander, Tallis and Praetorius to song settings by Bach, Holst and Britten and contemporary works by Marcus Paus (with marimba) and Rhiannon Randle. Her work commissioned in 2018 by the Zurich Chamber Singers, has close musical ties with Tallis’s work from over four hundred years earlier. Written in memory of her grandmother, Randle’s choral work is at times meditatively introverted, then again self-assured with consolation and confidence. Through the different tonal languages, the young Swiss ensemble illuminates the various aspects of the Advent and Christmas season. The range extends from the clear and haunting simplicity of a hymn to Brucknerian sonority and the interesting combination of deep marimba tremolos with the choir's wavy, effervescent chord layers.

For his new album, Ludwig Güttler has put together what he considers the most beautiful and contemplative Christmas songs. The great trumpet player reminisces about Christmas in his homeland, the Ore Mountains in Saxony, Germany. "Christmas in the Ore Mountains is something very special. Due to the mining tradition, it is a celebration of light. If you imagine how a miner, centuries ago, got up early in the morning when it was still dark and attended the morning service, then went down the shaft and came home from work when it was already dark, then, like this worker, you develop a longing for the light. Today it is hard to understand, when we illuminate everything around us with electric light – and too often we overshoot the mark, if we think of the global problem of light pollution. I associate the Christmas of my childhood with a reality shining through with light and thoughts like: What do I give to whom? And even more: what do I get? When I was five, my grandmother gave me an accordion. A treasure, packed in a simple cardboard box. In terms of my being and continuing to practice on the instrument, its contents were the most lasting gift I ever received." Sächsische Weihnacht ("Saxon Christmas") contains 36 tracks and two encores, carefully collected from Güttler's concert program of recent years. It is all previously unreleased material by the great trumpeter, recorded together with his brass ensemble in various churches in Saxony, including the Frauenkirche in Dresden, the Marienkirche in Pirna and the church in Polditz.

For TRACKLIST/PERFORMERS SUMMARY, please expand note below:

One of the best parts of the Halle Christmas celebration is the inclusion of the entire Halle family- the Halle and Halle Choir, as well as Halle’s Youth Choir and Children’s Choir. This lovely collection of popular, rare, and newly discovered holiday gems will bring festivity to all of your holiday gatherings. Compositions include works from film composers such as John Williams and Nigel Hess, as well as choral superstars like John Rutter and John Gardner. Especially notable is the orchestral showpiece Noel!, which was written specifically for Halle and conductor Stephen Bell by Roderick Elms, and is receiving here its world premiere recording. “A lovely festive celebration and a reminder of what Christmas is all about” (Oldham Chronicle)

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TRACKLIST/PERFORMERS:

A Christmas Overture - Nigel Hess
O Holy Night Adam - arr. Battiwalla *
Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day - John Gardner ^
In Dulci Jubilo - arr. Pearsall *^
Noel - Roderick Elms
Somewhere in my Memory - John Williams ~
Fairytale Sleighride - Adam Saunders
Angels’ Carol - John Rutter *
Waltz, Winter Bonfire - Sergei Prokofiev
Personent Hodie - arr. Gustav Holst *
The Holy Boy - John Ireland
Jesus Christ the Apple Tree - Elizabeth Poston ^
A Christmas Carnival - Richard Bissill
In The Bleak Midwinter - Harold Darke/Christina Rossetti *^
Dance of the Tumblers - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Christmas on the Beach at Waikiki - Marta Keen arr. Alwyn Green ~
Sleighride - Leroy Anderson
We wish you a Merry Christmas *^

Conductor
Stephen Bell

Soloists/Artists
Hallé Choir *
Hallé Youth Choir ^
Hallé Children's Choir ~

Classical Music

Double vinyl LP pressing. The Christmas Season's favorite prog-rock band delivers a 25th anniversary album of the second installation of their classic Christmas Trilogy, The Christmas Attic. Features annual favorites including "Music Box Blues," "Boughs of Holly," "Ghosts of Christmas Eve," and "Christmas Canon." This chapter tells the story of an angel that The Lord has challenged to visit earth to leave behind the one thing that would most benefit mankind.

Peter Schreier is one of the legendary tenors of the twentieth century. Throughout his 60-year career and even after his passing, he has been celebrated by listeners, friends and colleagues, especially as Bach interpreter and Lied singer. To celebrate the Christmas holiday, he devoted himself to a selection of carols by the four great song masters of the late Romantic period: Peter Cornelius (1824- 1874), Joseph Haas (1879-1960), Max Reger (8173-1916), and Hugo Wolf (1860- 1903). From well-balanced, melodic and, above all, singable tunes to challenging piano parts, they offer a wide variety of emotional statements and subtle detail, not least through the interpretation of these two sensitive artists.

Stax Christmas - Various Artists - Stax Christmas brings together 12 holiday classics from the legendary Stax Records, with favorites by Otis Redding (Merry Christmas Baby), Isaac Hayes (The Mistletoe and Me), The Staple Singers (Who Took the Merry Out of Christmas), Albert King (Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin') and more. Also included is a newly unearthed version of the classic "Blue Christmas" sung by Stax recording artist Carla Thomas. Holiday Title

Includes night of silence. Ensemble: Cathedral Singers. Conductor: Richard Proulx.
Includes puer natus est in bethlehem. Ensemble: Cathedral Singers. Conductor: Richard Proulx.

CHRISTMAS WITH WINCHESTER COLLEGE CHAPEL CHOIR

Sara Macliver, soprano
Winchester College Chapel Choir
Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
William Lacey, conductor
Recorded live at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall, 22-23 December 2004

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo / AC3 5.1 / DTS
Region code: 0 (all)
Booklet notes: English, German (sung text included)
Running time: 102 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

* This selection of music for Christmas brings together East and West in the collaboration of Winchester College Chapel Choir and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Recorded live in Hong Kong in December 2004, this disc features a selection of perennial favourites from the Baroque period, including Bach cantatas and Handel’s Messiah, and three exquisite modern carols.

Chapter 1:
Arcangelo Corelli: Concerto Grosso, Op. 6 No. 8 ‘Christmas Concerto’

Chapter 2:
From Praetorius to Weir
Michael Praetorius: Come, thou Redeemer of the earth
Richard Rodney Bennett: Out of your sleep
John Tavener: The Lamb
Judith Weir: Illuminare, Jerusalem

Chapter 3:
O Come All Ye Faithful
Anonymous, arr. Willcocks: O come all ye faithful

Chapter 4:
Works by Johann Sebastian Bach
Sinfonia from Cantata, BWV 42
Kyrie from Mass in G, BWV 236
'Herr, der du stark and mächtig bist' from Cantata, BWV 10
'Jesus bleibet meine Freude' from Cantata, BWV 147

Chapter 5:
George Frideric Handel: Concerto Grosso in F, Op. 6 No. 2

Chapter 6:
G.F. Handel: Messiah (excerpts)

Chapter 7:
Joy to the World and The First Noel
Lowell Mason, arr. Rutter: Joy to the World
Anonymous: The First Noel

Classical Music

There's nothing like Christmas to bring out a composer's more unapologetically clever and enthusiastically indulgent, prodigiously inventive ideas, in apparent realization of childhood's most extravagant fantasies and enchanted imaginings, to say nothing of providing a wonderful excuse for an artist to simply go happily and uninhibitedly wild. The collection of Christmas-inspired orchestral "fantasies" on this CD is certain to become one of your favorite holiday listening traditions as you join these five composers in an upbeat--and sometimes unconventional--celebration of some of the season's most familiar Christmas carols and songs.

Of course, you can treat the material in a variety of ways, from the more straightforward yet impressively adroit fantasias on easily recognizable (if often rhythmically or melodically altered) tunes offered in Bryan Kelly's five-movement Improvisations on Christmas Carols to Victor Hely-Hutchinson's more deliberate attempt at symphonic style and structure in A Carol Symphony, where he actually incorporates carols such as Adeste fideles, God rest ye merry gentlemen, The Coventry Carol, The first nowell, and Here we come a-wassailing into a legitimate four-movement theme-and-development framework

At the program's mid-point we're treated to a string-orchestra arrangement (by composer and liner-note writer Philip Lane) of Peter Warlock's famed carol Bethlehem Down, followed by Lane's own three-movement Wassail Dances from 1973. This latter work shows a fine command of orchestral color and a healthy respect for the power of rhythm and momentum. Finally, we hear Patric Standford's A Christmas Carol Symphony, a big, robust, ruddy-cheeked tribute to this most happy and optimistic of holidays that proudly and relentlessly exerts its sparkling, brassy, brightly colored atmosphere through a mélange of at least a dozen carols, from Deck the hall and Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen to Ding dong merrily on high, The holly and the ivy, and We wish you a merry Christmas. The City of Prague Philharmonic proves a first-rate interpreter of these scores, conveying all the music's exuberance and spirit with flawless technical prowess and Technicolor-grade contributions from the winds and brass. Conductor Gavin Sutherland deserves credit for inspired leadership in these all-too-rarely performed works--any one of which would make a guaranteed audience-pleasing addition to a holiday concert. Having these together on one budget-priced CD is truly a gift worthy of the season it celebrates. And Naxos complements the whole production with top-grade sound. Adeste fidelis!

-- David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com