BBC Singers - A Christmas Carol (Milton Court, London, 14th Dec 2022)

Have a wonderful Christmas weekend, everyone.  Here's a concert recording that gives a fresh setting to a classic seasonal tale that I've been enjoying since its broadcast a week ago.  The BBC Singers first give a spirited half-hour of Christmas arrangements and carols old and new, and are then joined by Mel Giedroyc to narrate the rest of the concert.  It's a musical arrangement of Dickens' A Christmas Carol by composer Benedict Sheehan, weaving well-known carols into Sheehan's own music to set the story in a delightful new context, here receiving its UK premiere. 

Merry Christmas!

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pw: sgtg

Merry Christmas!

Have a great one tomorrow.  Here's a radio broadcast from Christmas night last year, featuring the BBC Singers and BBC Concert Orchestra.  First, the collaboration Hymn, originally a spoken-word release by writer Alan Bennett with string quartet backing composed by George Fenton, is re-arranged for choir, with Bennett reading about half of the original-length narrative on his formative musical experiences.  It's not a Christmas-focused story as such, but it is a moving insight into mid-20th century Britain.  The other work is an old Christmas classic, adapating Dickens for orchestra with narration read here by Stephen Fry.  The music was composed by Richard Allain.

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Michael Jones / David Lanz - Solstice (1985)

Merry Christmas, everyone!  Hope you're having a good one, and getting some time to relax and reflect.

Here's a nice mellow half-hour in the company of two pianists associated with the Narada new age label, in a side-each split LP from 1985.  First up is Michael Jones, turning in a lengthy improvisation around Good King Wenceslas, then turning Carol Of The Bells into an extended snowfall of gentle arpeggios.  David Lanz's side takes in the Greensleeves-variant What Child Is This, then closes the record with his Improvisation On A Theme of Pachelbel's Canon.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted featuring Michael Jones: Amber

The Hilliard Ensemble - Transeamus (2014)

Sticking with vocal music today, but slimming down from full choir to a distinguished quartet.  The Hilliards drew their forty-year career to a sublime close with this album, giving it a fitting title alluding to travelling on.  Conceived as a return to their roots, the album is a programme of English motets and carols from the 15th century, with only four composers known for sure, the rest anonymous.  As expected from this esteemed ensemble, all of these fourteen pieces are deftly performed, starkly beautiful and perfectly captured in the ambience of the St. Gerold monastery in the Alps.  Relax and enjoy an hour of pure timeless bliss.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Perotin

The Lamentations Of Jeremiah

Codex Speciálník

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all an enjoyable and occasionally restful day.

If you fancy listening to something a bit odd (even odder than that Klaus Wunderlich album?), try the link below.  It's a charity shop find from a few months back - a self-released EP of some guy who plays wine glasses.  Half classical, half Christmassy tunes.

Sergey Karamyshev - Air
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Klaus Wunderlich - Jingle Bells (1987)

Well, I did say on Friday that George Winston's December wasn't just some scholcky record for the holiday season... couldn't resist some nice festive schlock today though.  It's the best kind of festive schlock though, that comes in an almost fully segued suite of Wersi digital organs and synthesizers, in the capable hands of organ-botherer Klaus Wunderlich (1931-1997).

It's hard to explain the appeal that this album has to me; think it must just be the sound of the keyboards.  There's something beyond just mere cheese, something woozy and uncanny, almost a hallucinatory quality.  Like having the cold for Christmas and drinking too much cough syrup, and the Christmas tree dolls on the album cover start to come to life. Enjoy the ever-so-slightly-uneasy listening oddness.

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George Winston - December (1982)

Moving to something more appropriately festive for this post and the next couple, here's Montana-born pianist George Winston's third album, which was the followup to his breakthrough record Autumn.  The title of 'December' is a deft move that announces that this won't just be some schlocky record for the holiday season, with a dozen or so Christmas carols rendered on piano - Winston arranged a much more understated and satisfying suite of music than that.

When he does interpret carols, Winston goes for only two obvious ones - Carol Of The Bells, and The Holly And The Ivy.  Elsewhere his choices range from Jesus Rest Your Head, from 19th century Appalachia, to Alfred S. Burt's Some Children See Him, from 1951.  Winston's winterscape is then fleshed out by the rest of the programme, stretching from his own compositions Thanksgiving and Peace that bookend the album, to rearranged bits of classical music including Pachelbel's Canon.  Together it all works beautifully, adding up to the perfect 40-minute oasis of calm amongst the bustle of Christmas preparation.

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pw: sgtg

Merry Christmas!

Have a great one tomorrow.

If you fancy a nice bit of unaccompanied choral relaxation, here's the Christmas concert given by the Tallis Scholars a week and half ago, in London's Temple Church.

Programme:

Palestrina: Hodie Christus natus est
Palestrina: Missa Hodie Christus natus est (Kyrie and Gloria)
Muhly: Premiere
Nesbett: Magnificat
Palestrina: Missa Hodie Christus natus est (Credo, Sanctus and Agnus dei)
Byrd: Lullaby
H. Praetorius: Magnificat V (with In dulci jubilo)
link, no pw.

Merry Christmas!

Have a great one.  For a gorgeous and relaxing soundtrack to wind down to today, may I recommend this recording of a European Broadcasting Union Christmas concert from last year, recorded at Vigadó Concert Hall, Budapest.  The programme was as follows.

Arvo Pärt: Magnificat
Kodály: Miserere
Javier Busto: O Magnum mysterium
Levente Gyöngyösi: Magnificat
Reger: Vater unser
Arvo Pärt: The Deer's Cry
Hungarian Radio Chorus
Péter Erdei (conductor).

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Paul Constantinescu - The Nativity (Byzantine Christmas Oratorio) (composed 1947, rec. 1977)

Here goes, then - a proper Christmas post.  And in line with my recent obsessions, it's from a 20th-century Romanian composer, but no dense, ear-blasting spectralist writing here; instead, Paul Constantinescu (1909-1963) offered up the apex of his interests in Byzantine chant and Romanian folk melodies, in the 1977 premiere recording of his 1947 Nativity.

I've only had this disc for a few weeks, so won't go into too much detail, but suffice to say if you're looking for an interesting alternative to Handel's Messiah, this one from mid-20th century Romania is wonderful stuff indeed.
   
Merry Christmas!

Bonus SGTG stocking-filler: for anyone who'd like a freshly-recorded Messiah, this one (file 1/file 2) was recorded a couple of weeks ago and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Monday night.