Christmas music

Jazz themed mabye? "Kenny G" Miracles-the Holiday Album.

Huwge,

Some of those look interesting but even after zooming the images the text is blurred. Could you clarify please? Certainly the Messiah is one thought I'd had but it's finding a decent traditional version so all help appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Hughes:
Huwge,

Some of those look interesting but even after zooming the images the text is blurred. Could you clarify please? Certainly the Messiah is one thought I'd had but it's finding a decent traditional version so all help appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike

I have Colin Davis's recording with the LSO which is very good (he has recently redone it on the orchestra's own live label, but I haven't heard that).

I also have two versions conducted by Charles Mackerras which are interesting for their use of Mozart's arrangement of the score (one of which is in German, the other in English). Both are wonderful, but I don't think I'd recommend then as a first version. The Mackerras recording of the original is, lamentably, out of the catalogue at the moment.


regards, Tam

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Hughes:
Huwge,

Some of those look interesting but even after zooming the images the text is blurred. Could you clarify please? Certainly the Messiah is one thought I'd had but it's finding a decent traditional version so all help appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike

Hely-Hutchinson is a symphony based on Christmas carols, you can get this version or a cheaper effort on Naxos. I love this, you can't hear it and not burst into song at the bits you recognise.

Cantate Domino falls in the audiophile trap, but I am a sucker for Scandinavian choral work. The disc captures Christmas tunes from around the Western world.

This is Thomas Beecham's Messiah, not everyone's cup of tea but my favourite.

The Decca disc is a double CD of most popular carols from King's College

The Waterson Carthy is a collection of seasonal English folk tunes

Best,

Huw

Well it is not classical, but it is outstanding.

As is:-

Agreed

And not forgetting



Christmas just gets better every year and we haven't even mentioned



01. Silent Night
02. One Night In Royal David City
03. The Wassail Song
04. Coventry Carol
05. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
06. Good King Wencelas
07. The Shepherds Watch Their Flocks
08. The Rockin' Carol
09. Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem
10. Long, Long Ago
11. Good Christian Men Rejoice
12. Away In A Manger
13. In The Bleak Mid-Winter
14. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
15. Yes Jesus Loves You
16. See Amid The Winter Snow
17. Unto Us A Boy Is Born
18. Oh Come All Ye Faithful
19. (I Don't Know Why I love You) But I Do
20. When The Leaves Come Tumbling Down
21. Someday
22. Near You
23. Why Did You Tell Me?
24. Walking My Baby Back Home
25. Black Hills Of Dakota
26. You Got Love
27. Just A Little Lovin Early In The Mornin'
28. The Clouds Will Soon Roll By
29. You're The One Rose
30. Whispering
31. Every Little While
32. I Used To Sigh For The Silvery Moon
33. I Wanna Go Back To The Farm
34. Down Where The Swanee River Flows
35. I'll String Along With You
36. My Melancholy Baby
37. Halfway To Heaven
38. I'm Afraid To Open Your Letter
39. Bye Bye Blues

ATB Rotf

"and winter came" by Enya is supposed to be excellent, though also not strictly classical, but pretty close,
another vote for Loreena Mckennitts album!

James

The late John Fahey did a very fine album of Christmas carols played on his acoustic guitar in a blues/folk stylee. All instrumentals. Even some slide at some points.

Worth checking out and quite unusual. Not sure if anyone else has attempted such a thing.

Ghettoyout.

quote:

Christmas just gets better every year and we haven't even mentioned

I wish you hadn't.

Handel Messiah:
This version is excellent: Arleen Auger, Anne Sofie von Otter, Michael Chance, Howard Crook, John Tomlinson and The English Concert & Choir under Trevor Pinnock (Archiv)

Berlioz : L'enfance du Christ [The childhood of Christ] is about what it says it is. I'm not up on recent recordings. I like the Colin Davids Philips version, but that appears to be out of the catalogue. I'm sure his remake with the London SO is good (on the LSO label).

Messiaen : La nativite du Seigneur [The nativity of our Lord] is an earlyish work and very approachable. It is a collection of nine meditations for organ on the birth of Christ. The versions by Gillian Weir, Jennifer Bate (what is it with women and organs?), Louis Thiry are all good (though I have an affection for Simon Preston's Decca version if only because it was one of the first LPs I owned).

Messiaen : Vingt regards sur l'enfant Jesus [20 regards (or looks, contemplations) on the infant Jesus]. These twenty meditations for piano run for two hours and can be more clangorous than La nativite. A masterwork, none the less, and well worth approaching (in stages possibly to start with). Hakan Austbo (Naxos), Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Teldec), a young Michel Beroff (EMI), and Yvonne Loriod (Warner Apex) all good, the first two (at least) excellent.

Out of print but not hard to find. I have it on vinyl.

You can't get much more Christmassy than this! The plainchant for Midnight Mass from the pre-Reformation Sarum Rite (one of several Rites in use, regionally, in England, before the Roman Rite was adopted universally). You'll probably have to get it s/h these days.



From further afield, into Eastern Europe, I have always thought this is pretty good:



And from the 'masters' of chant today (and responsible for rescuing/reviving chant in the C19th from being lost almost completely), the Abbey of Solesmes:



There is also a simply magificent recording of the 3rd Mass of Christmas (ie Christmas Day) by St Martin, Beuron, directed by Fr Maurus Pfaff (or more correctly for a Benedictine, Dom Maurus Pfaff). I have the LP, but I think it is available on CD. From the mid-1950s, superb crisp recording. Really interesting to hear the German 'hard' pronunciation of the Latin, rather than the 'soft' pronunciation by those from Romance language countries. eg 'qui' - 'kvi' rather than 'kwi'.

Joni Mitchell, The River, on Blue.


Brings a tear to my eye every time.

probably my two favourites..




and this one's not bad either...



Steeve

I got this the other day

I have not got a CDP, probably just as well...

quote:

Originally posted by Julian H:
I got this the other day

I have not got a CDP, probably just as well...

It is available of vinyl from all good record stores.

quote:

Originally posted by ROTF:

quote:

Originally posted by Julian H:
I got this the other day

I have not got a CDP, probably just as well...

It is available of vinyl from all good record stores.

and on 8 track



SJB

Thanks chaps (well apart from ROTF).

I remain unsure where to start with the Messiah but I wonder what other festive choral stuff you might recommend. Carols would be good too (I have a diverse listenership over the Christmas period)!!!

Mike

Bugge Wesseltoft
IT’S SNOWING ON MY PIANO

Lovely solo piano.


1. It's snowing on my piano - 05:02 (Bugge Wesseltoft)
2. Es kommt ein Schiff gefahren - 06:05 (Traditional)
3. Mitt hjerte alltid vanker - 06:05 (Traditional)
4. Deilig er jorden - 04:18 (Traditional)
5. O little town of Bethlehem - 04:51 (Traditional)
6. Du gronne, glitrende tre - 03:28 (Traditional)
7. Det kimer na til julefest - 04:16 (Traditional)
8. Greensleeves, What Child is this - 03:41 (traditional)
9. Kimmer, I klokker - 03:51 (Traditional)
10. Es ist ein Ros entsprungen - 03:09 (Traditional)
11. Stille Nacht - 05:43 (Traditional)
12. Into eternal silence - 03:22 (Bugge Wesseltoft

Huwge,

Just been on Amazon UK and found most of those. Even got to listen to some. Two instant purchases as a consequence. Narrowed Messiah to a choice of three. The Amazon reviews are interesting however, without hearing them it's hard to know the difference really.

Votes for Beecham, Davies or the other one (!)?

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Hughes:
Thanks chaps (well apart from ROTF).

Mike

I take it that you don't like Mary Chapin Carpenter then, Mike? Oh well. I know she is not classical, but it is a quite superb Christmas album. Both the Blackmore's Night and Loreena McKennitt are outstanding records - they both present Christmas Carols differently and they both sound so much better than a dreary choir (IMHO - is there any vocal sound more grating than an all male choir?).

Give one of my Christmas recommendations a try and you may be very pleasantly surprised - it's not all mistletoe and wine - it's clichéd to be cynical at Christmas

ATB Rotf