Christmas CDs

[StephenO]

A lovely Carol album from Kings College and Stephen Cleobury from the mid 1980s

You can't beat King's for carols IMO. If it's the same album I'm thinking of it has the most spellbinding version of O Come, All Ye Faithful I've ever heard. A lovely collection, as MickyD says.

[mangerton]

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned:

Messiaen: La Nativité du Seigneur

It was in Roehre's list, Mahlerei, otherwise I'd have mentioned it directly in my list.

[Mahlerei]

Was it? Oh dear, must read posts more carefully.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

You can't beat King's for carols IMO. If it's the same album I'm thinking of it has the most spellbinding version of O Come, All Ye Faithful I've ever heard. A lovely collection, as MickyD says.

I always get embarrassed by Cleobury's "O Come, All Ye Faithful. However many times I hear it, I wonder how anyone so skilled with choir training can be so unimaginative in writing a descant. When Willcocks retired from King's, he was replaced by Philip Ledger, who replaced most of Willcock's decants with his own. After the initial surprise, it was clear that they were good, especially his "Once in Royal" descant, which I consider to be even finer than the Willcocks one (which seems to peter out at the end). The Cleobury ones, by contrast just seem to ramble, with no sense of line, and that's after hearing them for many years.

[Barbirollians]

I like them - one carol I miss is the old Holst version of In the Bleak Midwinter rather than the Harold Darke which now seems to be ubiquitous.

[verismissimo]

One I missed earlier in my list:

Reger: La ninna nanna della Vergine

Have we had Stille Nacht?

Not to be missed: Basil Rathbone reading "The Night before Christmas".

[makropulos]

Rheinberger: Star of Bethlehem
Ryba: Czech Christmas Mass
Rimsky-Korsakov: Christmas Eve
Cornelius: Weihnachtslieder

Not sure how many of those were on Roehre's list.

Messiaen (Nativite) and lots of Bach certainly were - and those are my Christmas staples.

[Chris Newman]

These must have all been mentioned now but amongst the big bits of Christmas works I love (in alphabetical order):

Bach: Christmas Oratorio
Berlioz: L'Enfance du Christ
Britten: Ceremony of Carols
Humperdinck: Hansel und Gretel
Messiaen: La Nativite
Praetorius (Michael Schultze): Mass for Christmas and Christmas Vespers

Amongst smaller works:
In the bleak midwinter (like Barbirollians I like the Holst)
It Came Upon The Midnight Clear (Sullivan)

I am not usually a fan of modern commercial sentimental Christmas songs (indeed I walked out of TkMaxx on Saturday unable to bear the aural c***) but I do like Nat King Cole's slow jazzy version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrOhfQ0CyFY

[rubbernecker]

I'm afraid I'm a real scrooge come Xmas time and all thoughts of yuletide frivolity freeze me out. So when Mrs R heard this on CD Review in December 2008, and insisted on buying it, I admit I was not all comfort and joy. However, due to a most infectious programme and performance the icicle on the end of my nose has melted and this now gets ritually played every Christmastide:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Christmas-Nativity-Majestys-Sagbutts-Cornetts/dp/B0012K55SY/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1291813072&sr=1-2

[MickyD]

I like the musicians and the programme, rubbernecker, but the CD must take the prize for one of the naffest covers in years!

[Barbirollians]

Can anyone recommend a recording of the Holst version of In the Bleak Midwinter - just about every album seems to have the Darke?

[rubbernecker]

I like the musicians and the programme, rubbernecker, but the CD must take the prize for one of the naffest covers in years!

Indeed. Truly, madly, deeply naff. Any self-respecting impulse purchaser seeing that in the racks would avoid it like the plague. Shame really.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Can anyone recommend a recording of the Holst version of In the Bleak Midwinter - just about every album seems to have the Darke?

It's on "The Complete New English Hymnal Volume 21", admirably sung by the Choir of Christ's College, Cambridge, directed by David Rowland. Priory PRCD721

[Panjandrum]

The last couple of years I listened to (among others) the following pieces of Christmas music (not in a specific order), and I will listen to a selction of it this year again:

Corelli: Christmasconcerto

Much as I love this piece, one of the greatest of the Baroque, can anyone explain what makes this an especially seasonal composition, other than the fact of its dedication?

[MickyD]

Well, Panjandrum, I think the pastorale section of the concerto makes it very seasonal - the imitation of droning instruments to suggest all things rustic around the crib, a favourite baroque device. Handel does it with his Pifa in "Messiah" and other compositions in the same style much to my liking are the pastorales by Heinichen and Hellendaal. There must be many more!