The United States Air Force Band and Singing Sergeants, conducted by Major Albert A. Bader, present to you this arrangement of Christmas carols created by USAF Chief Arr. Floyd E. Werle. This composition is truly a masterpiece, and regarded by some as "one of the finest creations in his career." It was composed as a carol celebration for soloists, mixed chorus, symphonic band, and audience featuring traditional Christmas carols from around the world. This album has been re-mastered from the 1974 LP - the world premiere recording, and only recording of this piece available.

The Copts are the indigenous Christians of Egypt and direct descendants of the ancient Egyptians. The word "Copt" itself is derived from the Greek "Aigyptos", and these "Egyptians" are frequently referred to as the modern sons of the Pharaos. St Mark apostle and evangelist was the founder of the Coptic Church and the first of an unbroken succession of 117 popes and patriarchs. When, in the year 68 AD, Mark was martyred in Alexandria, Anianos had already become bishop and the young church then 26 years old was already well organized. Today serving solely liturgical purposes, the Coptic language evolved out of the ancient Egyptian tongue, which dates back to the time of the Pharaohs. Musicological research shows that not only does the Coptic Church practice the oldest Christian form of music, it also possesses the oldest school of music in the world. By virtue of the conservative character of the Coptic Church, its tradition has been handed down orally from generation to generation by priests and cantors in wholly or only slightly changed form, so that its music has remained intact. Not until well into the 20th century was Coptic music notated. In 1927 a devout and wealthy Copt invited the noted English musicologist Ernest Newland Smith (Oxford University; Royal Academy, London) to come to Egypt, to listen to the singers of the Coptic Church and to set their melodies down in notation for the first time in history.

Classical Music

On five previous discs the astonishing tuba player Øystein Baadsvik has demonstrated his incredible versatility as a musician, while at the same time establishing that ‘anything a violin can do, a tuba can do too’, to quote a review in the Daily Telegraph of his first disc on BIS, Tuba Carnival. As Baadsvik writes in his own liner notes to the present disc: 'Every tuba player soon learns to live with people’s “oompah-oompah” prejudices, but rarely have these been challenged more boldly than here. Never before has there been a Christmas record with symphony orchestra, women’s choir and tuba!' The programme consists of lavish arrangements of Baadsvik’s own international and Nordic Christmas favourites. As befits the season, the offering contains a few surprises as well – such as Eatnemen Vuelie, inspired by joik, the traditional singing of the Sami people, and a snowy version of Baadsvik’s own piece Fnugg (‘flakes’), with elements of beat-boxing as well as the sound of the Australian didgeridoo. With the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra lending the music all the variety and uplift that only a large orchestra can provide, and the glittering voices of the Cantus choir adding a festive glow, Baadsvik's tuba carries the day - atmospheric and joyous, tuneful and meditative by turns.

This excellent and most enjoyable disc will be a high quality Christmas present for a musical friend - or to give to yourself!

It’s four years now since Andrew Nethsingha moved from Gloucester Cathedral, where he had been a distinguished Director of Music, to St. John’s College, where as part of his training he had once been the Organ Scholar, under George Guest. Having established himself securely with the college’s choir he’s begun recording with them for Chandos and the partnership has already produced some impressive results. These include a very fine Howells collection, an equally good mixed recital of church music and a disc of music by Lassus, which I haven’t heard but which impressed my colleague, Gavin Dixon. Their latest offering is of music for Advent and Christmas; in every respect it maintains the high standards set by their previous releases.

Before commenting on the music, can I commend Chandos for the quality of the booklet? This label is always strong on documentation but there must be a temptation for record companies to economise a little on such releases - “it’s only carols”. In fact, Chandos provide all the texts and, best of all, a really useful and thorough essay by Martin Ennis, which includes a separate and interesting paragraph on every one of the twenty-four items on the programme. The essay, in fact, is a model of its kind and the best I can recall seeing for a release of seasonal music.

The programme has been very carefully chosen and includes a welcome mix of the familiar, the unfamiliar and the familiar in slightly less-than-familiar guise. Into this latter category would come items such as the exuberant and effective arrangement by Philip Marshall, the former organist of Lincoln Cathedral, of I saw three ships. The version of Ding! dong! merrily on high would also fall into the exuberant, indeed flamboyant, category. It was made by the Music Director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and requires two organists. The organ features strongly - and most effectively - in Stephen Jackson’s arrangement of Noël nouvelet. Indeed, the organ writing is a key element in giving the setting its pronounced French flavour. It’s good to see Andrew Nethsingha give a bow to one of his predecessors at St. John’s, Christopher Robinson. Instead of the usual - and excellent - Willcocks descant to Hark! the herald angels sing we hear Robinson’s descant and a jolly good one it is!

Moving to the unfamiliar elements in the programme we find Christopher Robinson there too. I’d not heard before his setting of Make we joy - a text more famously set by Walton. I like this Robinson setting very much indeed; it’s buoyant and strongly rhythmic. Also new to me was Michael Finnissy’s Telling. Written in 2008, this is a setting for unaccompanied choir of an anonymous sixteenth century text. Martin Ennis draws attention, rightly, to the “refined harmonic sensibility” of the piece. I think it’s a beautiful composition and, in an intelligent piece of programme ordering, we find that Kenneth Leighton’s fine Coventry Carol, which comes next in the running order, complements the Finnissy nicely. Mention should also be made of Matthew Martin’s Adam lay ybounden. This is very different from some other settings - one thinks of Boris Ord’s celebrated setting, for starters. Martin’s piece is slow and reflective and it’s good to have another slant on this well-known text. I also liked the item by James Burton, perhaps best known as Director of the Oxford Schola Cantorum. His Balulalow eschews trebles - the altos take the top line - giving an interesting, darker texture. Some of the harmonies are quite close and I think it’s a lovely piece.

And so to the familiar seasonal items. It’s right to include them to give the programme balance. Nethsingha and his singers pay these pieces - and their listeners - the important compliment of taking as much care over them as they have done over the less conventional fare. Harold Darke’s classic piece is given a lovely performance and lovely too is the choir’s account of Philip Ledger’s sympathetic arrangement of Silent Night - good planning, too, to place this immediately after his equally good arrangement of the Sussex Carol. Ledger’s predecessor at King’s College, Sir David Willcocks, is represented by his justly popular Tomorrow shall be my dancing day. O little town of Bethlehem, mainstay of innumerable carol services, makes an equally welcome appearance. It wouldn’t be a Christmas programme without John Rutter. When you hear his lovely What sweeter music, which, as Martin Ennis justly observes, contains “one of his most winning melodies”, you realise just why for so many people Rutter has become synonymous with Christmas music. The present performance is first class, with every little detail of Rutter’s music nicely observed.

The singing on this disc is very fine indeed. Solos are well taken and the choir as a group blends extremely well and sings with excellent tone and great clarity. Several of the pieces are accompanied by organ and the college’s Senior Organ Scholar, John Challenger, does a marvellous job. I relished especially his splendid contributions - very different from each other in character - to the Jackson and Mathias pieces.

It only remains to say that the Chandos sound is up to the label’s usual exalted standard - I listened to this hybrid SACD as a conventional CD. This most enjoyable disc will be a high quality Christmas present for a musical friend - or to give to yourself!

-- John Quinn, MusicWeb International

This is the third Christmas album from the Grammy Award-winning Washington Chorus, a large mixed choir founded in 1961, but the first with conductor Julian Wachner. This is an ideal holiday album for listeners looking for traditional carols sung enthusiastically by a large group. The chorus is joined by the Whitman Choir, a high school group, and an ensemble of brass, percussion, organ, and harp. The instruments provide a full, almost orchestral sound, and provide a colorful and lively accompaniment. The chorus sings with a rich, full tone and infectious energy. The carols, with just a few exceptions, are Christmas standards that will be familiar to most listeners. A variety of illustrious choral conductors, including David Willcocks, Norman Luboff, and Wachner himself have created inventive and lively arrangements that never stray too far from the originals. The recording was made at a live performance in 2009, and that is evident in the sound quality. The brass is very present, but the chorus, in spite of its fullness and volume, seems somewhat distant. In the program notes, Wachner comments that the decision to retain the ambience of the actual performance, which includes audience participation in several of the carols, was intentional. The CD should appeal to fans of traditional Christmas music looking for a big choral sound, but who aren't picky about having immaculate, perfectly balanced sound.

-- Stephen Eddin, All Music Guide

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"this recording presents a rich tapestry of music for the holiday season. Dorian Recordingshas done a remarkable job not only recording the live performance, but also in capturing the joyous spirit that embodied the singers and the audience."

-- Examiner.com

The Wells Jubilate is typical Rutter – brightly melodic, immediately communicative, and well calculated to bring executive satisfaction to the performers without over-stretching them technically.

Brass fanfares cap the organ accompaniment resplendently: it’s an effective opener, though perhaps the concluding Winchester Te Deum is even more stirringly celebratory. ‘Look to the Day’ (written for Cancer Research UK) is similarly tuneful and optimistic...

I personally prefer Rutter in less glib and comfortable mode: ‘Lord, thou hast been our refuge’, for instance, combines a resonant part for solo trumpet with a sustained seriousness in addressing the biblical text, plumbing deeper emotions than he finds in the more cosy, extrovert settings. ‘O Lord, thou hast searched me out’ (commemorating George Guest) is similarly reflective, cor anglais this time providing the obbligato commentary.

With Rutter himself conducting his own, outstanding Cambridge singers, these excellently recorded performances have a grip and authority hard to equal.

-- Terry Blain, BBC Music Magazine

Classical Music

Rescued from the vaults, ArkivMusic reissues a long lost Christmas Treasure! The Musical Christmas Tree from Morton Gould is an orchestral holiday classic. Featuring Holiday standards, this unique release includes many of Morton Gould's own arrangements as well as original compositions written for the holidays, including "Winter" from the Burchfield Gallery and "Skiers Waltz" from the Cinerama Holiday Suite.

This new Christmas DVD was recorded in the stylishly distinctive setting of Jerwood Hall in LSO St Luke’s, London.

The King’s Singers are world-renowned for their live performances, and this concert captures the charm and skill that you’d expect from a group of this calibre. It is a musical treat as well as a visual one, recorded in both CD quality stereo and in 5.1 surround sound.

The DVD also features a 10-minute bonus documentary feature, titled “Life as a King’s Singer”.

Classical Music

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

Charpentier, M.-A.: Messe de Minuit pour Noel / Te Deum

REVIEW:

So, the debate over how many singers and players to a part in Bach's cantatas lives on. This time, it's another vote for the Joshua Rifkin theory, a one-voice-per-part configuration primarily based on circumstantial evidence and informed deduction from surviving part books. It's an intriguing if porous theory that nevertheless satisfies curiosities and fancies of legitimate and well-intentioned musicologists and performers. Whenever this subject comes up, I only have to wonder what an investigator, with little other direct evidence, would determine to be my own performing forces if, 300 years from now he or she were to discover the contents of one of my church choir libraries! I prefer to look at the single voice to a part idea as just another way to perform music that by its nature stands up to almost any configuration of voices and/or instruments you want to throw at it. Of course you can perform Bach badly, but whether you use four voices or 40, if you sing it well, it still works.

There's no getting around the fact that many of the cantatas--as is true for the three on this disc--are dominated by solos, with only perhaps an opening chorus and closing chorale. So for these works, we're not so aware of the size of the vocal forces, and the key to performance becomes finding sensitive and competent instrumentalists and some very good solo singers. Luckily for us, we get rather formidable doses of both on this recording from the Toronto-based Aradia ensemble, a relatively new group with some personnel ties to Tafelmusik and who specialize in period instrument performance of Baroque works. In fact, the main reason to hear this recording is for the exceptional solo singing--and I do mean exceptional, especially from tenor John Tessier, countertenor Matthew White (listen to the recitative in BWV 132), and, after a slightly shaky start, soprano Teri Dunn. Dunn's aria in BWV 36, with one of those sublime violin obbligatos that only Bach could have conceived, and a melody with one of the best "hooks" ever to work its irresistible, unforgettable way into a listener's heart, is a shining example of what happens when performer and music perfectly match. It would be easy to go on about all the felicities of the singing and how much really wonderful music is packed into these three relatively short works. But you should also know that where the ensemble joins in the choruses, the balances are not exactly clean and detailed--we hear too much soprano and lots of reverberation from the spacious church of St. Mary Magdalene--one of Toronto's most famous choral venues.

The instrumental playing is first rate and is well recorded, but balances tend to work against the soloists in the full-group sections. There's also some confusion concerning the version of BWV 36 that's performed here. The liner notes say it's the Advent cantata written for performance in 1731, but that one was an expanded version of the five-movement work that appears here--and was performed a year earlier. For the performance of BWV 61, the familiar Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, conductor/violinist Kevin Mallon augments his solo forces with eight additional singers, essentially forming a ripieno chorus that is joined by the soloists in the tutti passages.

--David Vernier , ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music