Christmas simply wouldn't be Christmas without the iconic voices of The Sixteen providing a soundtrack to the season. Celebrated for collections that provide an alternative to the customary festive offerings, this new album from the world-renown choir is no exception. No other festival in the Christian year has inspired so many composers and such a variety of musical styles as Christmas. The Wise Men and the Star features a veritable cornucopia of yuletide music from the premieres of three new works to traditional carols including Away in a manger and In the bleak midwinter, and modern classics such as Eric Whitacre's Lux aurumque and Mykola Leontovich's Carol of the bells. This new album promises something for everyone.

Yuletide is the mid-winter period from Hannuka, through Christmas, to the celebration of Twelfth Night. From the late 1950s through the 1970s it was seemingly obligatory for all artists from Jazz to Punk to make a Christmas album. With Yuletide Treats, Duo Pleyel joins that spirit and tradition, with some of the greatest classical hits for your festive delight. Comprising keyboardists Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya and Richard Egarr, Duo Pleyel begins with three beautiful, transcendental and intimate movements from Franz Liszt's 'Christmas Tree Suite'. Then follows 'For unto us a child is born' and 'Hallelujah' from Handel's Messiah. No New Year's celebration is complete without the Strauss family's 'Blue Danube' and 'Radetzky March'. Finally, they present Tchaikovsky's 'Nutcracker Suite'. All performed on a Chris Maene Straight Strung Concert Grand, this album is to be listened to at high volume with a large glass of something delicious.

Christmas chez Liszt, imagined by one of the UK's most exciting piano virtuosos. Composed and compiled by Liszt between 1873 and 1881, the 'Christmas Tree' suite has more to offer than carol transcriptions and twinkly sketches of festive joy. It begins with one of the composer's typically free transcriptions of a plainsong Christmas hymn harmonised in the 17th century by Michael Praetorius, and takes in the procession of the Magi towards Bethlehem and a lullaby at the cradle, but also cuts away to contemporary times with a sparkling scherzo to depict the lighting of candles on the tree. The last four of the suite's twelve movements bear only tenuous connections to the festive season, yet they bring some of the most memorable inspirations of all: evocations of evening bells, of 'Yesteryear' in the composer's searching late style, and then Hungarian- and Polish-themed themed pieces. As Mark Viner remarks in his detailed booklet introduction to the album, there is nothing quite like Weihnachtsbaum even in Liszt's own prodigiously varied catalogue. It is impossible to categorise, and yet every bar sounds uniquely Lisztian. Perhaps even less familiar to most listeners, on account not least of it's sheer scale, is the vast three-part oratorio which Liszt based on the life of Christ. Liszt made solo-piano transcriptions of two Christmas-themed orchestral movements from the oratorio's first part, picturing in turn the Shepherds at the Manger and, once more, the 'march' of the Magi. In complement, Mark Viner presents the composer's pianistic translation of the ancient carol Christus natus est. Mark Viner's recordings for Piano Classics have attracted international acclaim. 'The melodies in his hands are not simply played, they are sung on the piano!' (Fanfare, reviewing a previous Liszt album, PCL0116). 'If Alkan could play it as Viner does here, no wonder he was the only pianist in front of whom Liszt was hesitant of playing.' (Gramophone, reviewing Viner's latest volume in his Alkan cycle, PCL10275).

Christmas Songs from different Scandinavian Countries. Sung in Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish and Icelandic.

World Premiere Recordings of Christmas Cantatas from the Archive of Assisi Monastery.

Mystic Orthodox Christmas Chants from Russian and Bulgarian Monasteries.

Most popular and traditional Christmas Music and Songs from the Austrian Mountain Regions.

Franz Liszt's Weihnachtsbaum ('Christmas Tree') is an all-embracing impression of Christmas that includes traditional carols alongside childhood and adult views of the season. The dark chromaticism of Die Trauergondel II is a tribute to Wagner, contrasting with the brighter range and yearning lyrical lines of the Wiegenlied. Many of these works remained unpublished in Liszt's lifetime, and are genuine rarities even today.

Following their first successful album on Signum Records, the Bevan Family Consort present a collection of Christmas Carols and compositions for Advent. The collection includes familiar works such as Darke's setting of 'In the Bleak Midwinter', which is presented here in a new arrangement by Francis Bevan and was as works newly transcribed for this album such as Palestrina's 'Missa sine nominee a5' and Weelkes 'Gloria in excelsis Deo'. 'Lute-book lullaby' also features, composed by original Bevan Family Choir founder David Bevan. ? THE BEST ALBUMS OF 2023 "[A] lovingly curated selection of works for voices. All received performances of exquisite subtlety and clarity" - The Times

The music presented on this album was recorded during the live performances of the December 2021 and 2022 Celebration of Christmas concerts in the de Jong Concert Hall at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA.

BYU Noteworthy welcomes the Christmas spirit with some holiday favorites.

In the pieces under this title, I sought to convey the complexity of our relation with the Divine. Inner Temple is that sacred place in our soul, heart and mind which contains the most precious spiritual treasures of each of us, a kind of a personal Holy of Holies. The Day of Atonement for all Jews is the most important, somber annual Holiday, a day of reflection, during which we ask Almighty’s forgiveness (and people’s forgiveness) for all our transgressions, mistakes and misdeeds during the past year. The two movements of this composition are filled with ritualistic fervor, with intensity of the searching spirit, and the mystery of connection to the Divine through repentance. At the very end of the 2nd movement, there is a moment of light – a token of forgiveness.

–Alla Elana Cohen

The internationally renowned pianist Caroline Fischer has put together an evocative holiday gift with her new GENUIN CD. For the recording, she sought out old and new Christmas melodies, well-known and unknown, and combined them to form a harmonious whole. Included are treasures such as Otto von Walden’s tender fantasy on “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” and Gustav Lange’s enchanting version of “Silent Night” – some of these windfalls have been recorded on CD for the first time. Thoughtfully curated and recorded to the highest standard, the only thing really missing is the wrapping paper!

The choral music of Richard Lambert, born in Bath in the English West Country in 1951, covers a wide range of expression, ranging on this album from straightforward SATB settings for church performance to a sardonic parody of the excesses of established religion. It also encompasses the timeless and the timely, with a number of contributions to the age-old tradition of Christmas music to a cantata inspired by the Covid pandemic.

Music plays an integral role in Jewish worship. The songs on this album are selected from the traditional liturgy of the important Jewish holidays, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Baritone Stephen Kalm gives nuanced renditions, with collaborative artist Douglas Cleveland playing piano. Flute, violin, cello, vocal soloists, and the University of Montana Chamber Chorale join throughout this exceptional release.