A Classic Christmas featuring Michael Barry and Friends, remixed and remastered, to be released on November 6, 2020. 12 tracks of Christmas favorites in classical arrangements for guitar, recorder, cello, violin and flute. Also a bonus track, Nat King Coles Christmas Song, performed by the Nat King Cole Generation Hope Summer Strings. 10% of proceeds to be donated to Nat King Cole Generation Hope to support its mission to provide music education to children with the greatest need and fewest resources. Michael Barry is a Grammy award-winning guitarist, composer and producer living, working and making music in New York City. He has performed extensively in the United States, as well as Canada, South America and Europe. A former music instructor and Executive Director of the American Institute of Guitar, he continues to explore music as a universal language and a means of bridging the gap between people of different cultures and backgrounds.

Composer Harvey Schmidt and his writing partner, Tom Jones, created some of our most iconic musicals. Their first, "The Fantasticks", is a perfect musical and one of the most performed pieces in the United States and throughout the world. The team of Jones & Schmidt also wrote the smash hit "I Do! I Do!" as well as "Celebration" and a host of others. But what many people don't know is that in addition to being a wonderful composer and a professional visual artist as well, Schmidt was a brilliant pianist with his own inimitable style. Which brings us to "Merry Xmas 1975". The title tells it all: it's an audio Christmas card! Schmidt played solo piano on a variety of songs from the Golden Age of Hollywood and Broadway. Originally released on LP as a gift to lucky friends of his, the record has been a collectors' item for decades, and now, with the late composer's approval and encouragement, it can be enjoyed and savored by everyone. Don't be fooled by the title, though. There is just one bona fide Christmas standard, Hugh Martin's perennial hit, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," introduced by the radiant Judy Garland in M-G-M's Meet Me in St. Louis. But there are many, many more terrific songs by the masters of the Great American Songbook: Everyone from Cole Porter to Rodgers & Hammerstein, from George and Ira Gershwin to Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown. DeSylva, Brown and Henderson share grooves with Harry Warren. It's a delightful grouping of unforgettable music.

Also available on Blu-ray

Toy maker Dr. Coppelius (Gary Avis) seems to have a beautiful young woman in his house: Coppelia (Ashley Dean), who sits and reads on his balcony. Franz (Vadim Muntagirov) and his vellow young villagers are curious about her and how she ignores them all. Franz’s fiancée Swanilda (Marianela Nunez) is not pleased by Franz’s interest in another woman, but equally curious. When Dr. Coppelius goes to the local tavern, the young villagers slip into his house to introduce themselves to the strangely silent young woman but are met with a house full of mechanical dolls and, seemingly, magic… A classic returns to The Royal Ballet repertory with Ninette de Valois’ charming and funny Coppelia- a story of love, mischief and mechanical dolls. The intricate choreography is set to Delibes’ delightful score and shows off the technical precision and comedic timing of the whole Company. Osbert Lancaster’s designs bring a colorful storybook world to life in this Christmas treat for the whole family.

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

Toy maker Dr. Coppelius (Gary Avis) seems to have a beautiful young woman in his house: Coppelia (Ashley Dean), who sits and reads on his balcony. Franz (Vadim Muntagirov) and his vellow young villagers are curious about her and how she ignores them all. Franz’s fiancée Swanilda (Marianela Nunez) is not pleased by Franz’s interest in another woman, but equally curious. When Dr. Coppelius goes to the local tavern, the young villagers slip into his house to introduce themselves to the strangely silent young woman but are met with a house full of mechanical dolls and, seemingly, magic… A classic returns to The Royal Ballet repertory with Ninette de Valois’ charming and funny Coppelia- a story of love, mischief and mechanical dolls. The intricate choreography is set to Delibes’ delightful score and shows off the technical precision and comedic timing of the whole Company. Osbert Lancaster’s designs bring a colorful storybook world to life in this Christmas treat for the whole family.

Staszek Plewniak writes: "When I think of Christmas time, I think of the two very special days spent with my family before Christmas Eve each year: sneaking around the kitchen full of dishes prepared for the Christmas Eve table; cleaning the house, and enjoying it; building the fire in the fireplace; and the most exciting of all, decorating the Christmas tree. We like to do all these things while listening to Christmas songs. In the company of these songs Christmas is a truly blissful atmosphere of real joy, overwhelming us, and glowing with magic. This is the time when we only venture out into the winter landscape to go sledding or to make a snowman with the children, and then hurry back home to drink hot chocolate and watch Christmas movies. I associate these days with the songs that I love to listen to on the radio, and which have long been my Christmas musical dream. For ten years the dream has been of recording this album with Stan and Natalia, and each year under the Christmas tree we also wished each other to accomplish a musical project together. For me releasing this album is the fulfillment of a cherished dream, and today the realization of this ambition leaves me floating a few meters above the earth."

There is hardly a more perfect musical formula for the beginning of the Christmas season than the festively recited opening motif of Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio. But in his six cantatas, assigned to the individual holidays, the great Thomaskantor goes far beyond pure jubilation. Rainer Johannes Homburg and his Stuttgart Hymnus-Chorknaben have now given a new version of the "musical message" about the birth of Christ, supported by competent soloists and Handel's Company, whose baroque opulence is particularly well expressed in the three-dimensional sound of this album. Timpani and trumpets mark the royal prelude. The multi-award-winning trumpet ensemble Wolfgang Bauer provides a magnificent sound before the extremely agile evangelist Andreas Post takes us into the events of the Holy Night. The fact that the birth of the Savior is not only important for crowned heads, but also for ordinary people is expressed in a particularly touching way by Bach's enchanting Pastoral Symphony in the second cantata. And then there's the matter of death and resurrection. That this is already laid out in the manger is shown by Bach with a trick that gives every sensitive listener goose bumps: Paul Gerhard's Advent chorale "Wie soll ich dich empfangen", actually to sing to a melody by Johann Crüger, sounds in Hans Leo Hassler's manner of "O Haupt, voll Blut und Wunden", which is also used in the St. Matthew Passion. In the Christmas Oratorio, Bach explored the Protestant equivalence of sermon and church music to a rarely reached depth, each cantata reaches its own proclamation and has its own individual instrumentation. In the Stuttgart Hymnus Choir Boys' Choir, this confession of deeply penetrated piety is in the best throats. Historically informed and accompanied by instruments from the time of its origin, the masterly boys' choir develops a Christmas-intimate mood that one cannot escape.

The German-born Christian Friedrich Ruppe (1753-1826) made his career in the Dutch city of Leiden, where he had originally arrived in 1773 as a student of mathematics and literature. In 1784 he married Christina Chalon (1748-1808), the daughter of the lead violinist the of the Nederlands Theater in Amsterdam. In 1890 he was appointed as music director of the city’s renowned and ancient university, and from 1802 he taught theory of music there, having in 1788 become organist of the city’s principal Lutheran Church. In 1796 an orphanage choir was founded in Leiden on Ruppe’s initiative, consisting of girls and boys from the Holy Spirit or Poor Orphanage and Children's Home near the church. During the following church year he then composed a pair of cantatas on anonymous Dutch texts, designed for the orphanage choir. Despite their musical richness and evident beauties, the scores remained in the archives of the orphanage, only to be rediscovered in 1987. Two centuries after their first performance, they received the recordings reissued here by an accomplished team of experienced Dutch early-music performers. While comparing the cantatas to the music written by Handel for the Foundling Hospital would not flatter Ruppe, his music nonetheless exhibits many charms of its own: unfailingly graceful phrasing, for one, fresh melodic charm and sympathetic writing for voices. There appears to be a clear Haydnesque imprint to both works, but operatic models are more evident in the sinfonia that opens the Christmas Cantata as well as the style of the dramatic recitatives which move along each development of the familiar story. The work concludes with a trumpet-and-drum chorus in the style of oratorios such as Messiah and The Creation, rising to the grand harmonization of an Easter chorale designed for singing by the choir and entire congregation.

The Dutch reed quintet Calefax celebrates 35 years of adventurous and versatile musicianship with a collection of Musical Offerings from Johann Sebastian Bach, arranged by the ensemble’s saxophonist Raaf Hekkema. Arthur Klaassens joins the ensemble on a lupophone and English horn for Musikalisches Opfer, the main course of this programme, as well as for the 14 Canons, BWV 1087, creating a unique blend of wind instruments. The album concludes with Bach’s Canonic Variations on Vom Himmel hoch, BWV 769, a piece full of allusions to Christmas-related Bach pieces, including references to his Christmas Oratorio. Bach’s Musical Offerings is Calefax’ third PENTATONE release, after the well-received Dido & Aeneazz (2019), a virtuosic and eclectic recomposition of Purcell’s famous opera performed with trumpetist Eric Vloeimans, as well as Hidden Gems (2018), showcasing the quintet’s versatility with pieces ranging from Corelli and Satie to Nina Simone.

REVIEW:

For those who are intrigued by different readings of Bach’s masterpiece, this is one of the most piquant and unusual, with the composer’s matchless counterpoint given the closest possible attention The Dutch reed quintet’s take on Bach, arranged by the ensemble’s saxophonist Raaf Hekkema. Arthur Klaassens further expands the ensemble’s sonic palette by joining them on lupophone and cor anglaise for Musikalisches Opfer, the main course of this programme, as well as for 14 Canons, BWV 1087. The album concludes with Bach’s Canonic variations on Von Himmel hoch. All nine known versions of the melody have found a place in Raaf’s arrangement, resulting in a many-coloured Christmas collage.

-- Classical CD Choice (Barry Forshaw)

Composed in the summer and autumn of 1781, Haydn’s Op. 33 Quartets were dedicated to the Grand Duke Paul of Russia and premiered on Christmas Day that year in the apartment of the Duke’s wife, the Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna. Nicknamed ‘the Russian quartets’, Op. 33 were some of Mozart’s favourites among Haydn’s works, and inspired Mozart to write his own set of six quartets, of 1785, dedicated to Haydn. Generally light in nature, the Op. 33 are extremely tuneful works, all set in major keys (apart from No. 1, in B minor), and all written in four movements. Founded in 1998, and exclusive Chandos recording artists since 2010, the Doric String Quartet has established itself as one of the leading quartets of its generation, receiving enthusiastic responses from audiences and critics alike. Previous releases in this series of Quartets by Haydn have been acclaimed by critics around the world.

For his fifth volume of Schubert’s piano works, Barry Douglas turns to a contrasting pair of sonatas composed in the 1820s. The A minor, from 1823, was composed whilst he suffered an episode of depression following the onset (and harsh treatment for) syphilis. The D major sonata, however, was written in 1825 on a holiday to Gastein in the Austrian Alps, and is musically more confident and extravert, reminiscent of the ‘Great’ C major Symphony, begun during the same trip. Douglas completes his programme with a pair of Liszt transcriptions from Schwanengesang: ‘Liebesbotschaft’ and ‘Ständchen’. As with the other volumes in this series, Barry Douglas plays a Steinway Model D, and the recording was made in the Curtis Auditorium of the CIT Cork School of Music.

The two choirs of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge return to Resonus Classics to collaborate once more on a new recording of contemporary works for Advent and Christmas. Featuring many world premiere recordings, the programme includes works written specially for the two college choirs including Diana Burrell’s exuberant carol, Green groweth the holly; Christopher Fox’s major new setting of the O Anitphons, interspersed with the original plainchant, and Jeremy Thurlow’s Magnificat for upper voices, organ and tape, that blazes with the intensity of a new vision of the world.

Navona Records presents PAINTED MUSIC from Quatra Duo. This album of works for flute and guitar by four heralded contemporary composers unlocks the imaginative, expressive power of these beloved instruments. The first piece, commissioned as a Christmas gift by Quatra Duo’s Jeff LaQuatra for his then soon-to-be wife and duo partner Michelle Stanley, is James McGuire’s Suite for Flute and Guitar. The six-movement piece reveals the composer's affinity for jazz, popular music, and even impressionism; all the while it demonstrates the performers’ virtuosic range on their instruments. Painted Music from composer Bryan Johanson is a sonata, once again broken into six movements. Each of these is inspired by a different painting from early 20th-century, Swiss born artist Paul Klee. Fish Tale is a surreal and eclectic piece that imagines the journey of a fish from the ocean, to the fish bowl, and far beyond; the music recounts these piscine adventures through a dazzling array of musical styles and colors, from African thumb piano, samba, folk music, and more. From the Dreaming is the work of Australian visual artist, classical guitarist, and composer, Phillip Houghton. The music, inspired by Houghton’s visit to the Australian outback, reflects the grandeur and raw power of the country’s climate and ecosystems. Searing heat, ancient riverbeds, scurrying geckos and violent storms are all reflected in the dynamic twists and turns of the flute and guitar. PAINTED MUSIC, as its name suggests, utilizes these two instruments to imprint a gallery of images onto the canvas of the mind. Far from being limited by the duo format, here Quatra Duo seems to relish the challenge. The listener is left with a new sense of what can be accomplished with merely two instruments—in the hands of the right musicians, that is.

In Great Britain Christmas carols are an integral part of Christmas just like plum pudding and turkey, paper crowns and mistletoe. They are sung in all big cathedrals and churches at Christmas, first and foremost in the time-honored chapel of King’s College. The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols- a Christmas mass featuring King’s College Choir, nine short readings and, of course, carols- has been broadcast live on the radio every year since 1928 on Christmas Eve. The a cappella choir SWR Vokalensemble belongs worldwide to the best choirs, renowned mostly for its exquisite performances of modern music. This album however contains traditional, centuries old Christmas Carols, arranged by British composers like Benjamin Britten, Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams and William Byrd, to name just a few.



REVIEW:

An entire program of English music recorded by a German choir doesn’t happen all that often, and a disc of “very English” Christmas repertoire may be rarest of all. However, the top-tier Stuttgart-based SWR Vokalensemble is one group for whom this sort of thing is not so unusual. In fact they’ve not only recorded several discs that feature works by British composers such as Britten, MacMillan, and Vaughan Williams (including his rarely recorded Mass in G minor); they’ve gone where even American choirs fear to tread, recording the complete choral works of Elliott Carter(!), ten of Ives’ Psalm settings, and a disc of American works that includes pieces by Cage, Reich, and Feldman.

 

The program itself, chosen with obvious care by one who knows his way around the repertoire, is marked by first-rate performances that stand solidly alongside similar offerings by this ensemble’s “native” British counterparts. As good as the program and performances are, potential listeners may find the disc’s curious, cursory title misleading: “Christmas Carols” does not accurately describe the program at hand. While the music is almost exclusively Christmas-themed, only perhaps three of the 19 selections (to be generous) could be labeled as “carols” in the traditional sense. Although the liner notes do include a very brief but informed history of the true carol, our attention is quickly directed to the “carol” as it’s come to be identified via inclusion in the popular annual carol service at King’s College, Cambridge: that is, virtually any choral piece—original or arrangement—with a sacred, Christmas-centered text. The programming here all makes sense when you know that conductor Marcus Creed is not only British, but was a student and former singer at King’s College.

 

Just looking at the list of composers, most of whom are as English as they come—Boris Ord, Benjamin Britten, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, Herbert Howells, David Willcocks—and the works at hand, each one ingrained in the very soul of every English-speaking, Christmas-music-loving listener—sets you up for what you hope will be an hour of pure pleasure, born of the special traditions of a season that is uniquely associated with its music. And, be it from Germany or Lower Slobovia, it doesn’t matter: this program does not disappoint.

 

Whether you choose this for the iconic repertoire—Ord’s Adam Lay Ybounden; Britten’s A Hymn to the Virgin; Howells’ A Spotless Rose; Thomas Ravenscroft’s Remember O Thou Man; David Willcocks’ Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day; Elisabeth Poston’s Jesus Christ the Apple Tree; Holst’s In the Bleak Midwinter—or just for the world-class singing (hopefully both!), you can be assured of a listening experience that will endure many hearings throughout the entire season—and the next. This choir knows the music well and obviously enjoys singing it, demonstrating a mastery of both language and style.

The program’s one non-English-language work is Robert Parsons’ Latin-texted Ave Maria—a most welcome inclusion of one of the 16th century’s greatest masterpieces, and a highlight of the disc. Another plus: the all-too-rare inclusion of a list of publishers of each work (choral directors, take note). Highly recommended.

– ClassicsToday.com (David Vernier)

Seventy years of Italian repertoire (1888-1958) for violin and organ are summarized in this release which lines up a rather singular, but extremely interesting, series of composers of various geographic and stylistic origins who were active between the end of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth. Roberto Noferini on violin and Andrea Toschi on organ and harmonium offering to us pages by fifteen Italian authors from various geographic origins (from Milan to Reggio Calabria) and culture. The suggestive titles refer to recognizable images and situations ranging from Christmas, to the liturgy, to the work, to pure forms. The use of historical instruments for the accompaniment of the violin gives the correct aesthetic rendering to these very rare and interesting works.

In this unique sequence of music for the Christmas season, the choir of Keble College presents a captivating selection of twenty- and twenty-first century choral music, arrangements and well-known carols. The programme, which features several world premiere recordings, reflects the present tradition of grand liturgy at Keble with inflections of plainchant and kaleidoscopic organ accompaniment. The disc was recorded in the great Benedictine monastery of Buckfast Abbey, showcasing it's stunning acoustic and magnificent Ruffatti organ. The Choir of Keble College, Oxford is one of the city's most distinctive mixed-voice ensembles and comprises around eighteen choral scholars, some volunteers, plus up to three lay clerks. The choir regularly broadcasts on BBC Radio 3. Matthew Martin is Precentor and Director of Music at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge and was Director of Music at Keble College, Oxford from 2015-2020 where he was also Artistic Director of the annual Keble Early Music Festival. He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford and at the Royal Academy of Music, and was an organ student of Marie-Claire Alain in Paris.