Oppressed by all that is Christmas

[Richard Barrett]

it's much easier on the blood pressure and stress levels if you employ a bit of selectiveness and simply partake of those aspects of Christmas you do enjoy and ignore the rest. Once you strike the right balance for yourself it's surprising how much more pleasure you get out of Christmas.

Exactly. It isn't Christmas here this week anyway but I'm very happy to have been able to switch on the automatic "out of office" reply and ignore the outside world for a while to get on with some real work. I'm not at all happy to have been unable to visit my daughter in Germany, not having seen her for a year now, but what can one do? - get on the plane as soon as practicable.

[Nick Armstrong]

Oh I'd miss Xmas without my bit of Vaughan Williams. In fact I'd miss every time of year.

Yes! This has been getting a play this year:



But this is the annual listen:



The Finzi is essential... as well as the RVW “Winter” Folksongs (the best performance on record, I’ve tried ‘em all). A Christmas journey isn’t complete without the first of them (“We’ve been awhile a-wandering...”)

[eighthobstruction]

You are under no compulsion to take any part in it if you don't want to. As I pointed out earlier, it's much easier on the blood pressure and stress levels if you employ a bit of selectiveness and simply partake of those aspects of Christmas you do enjoy and ignore the rest. Once you strike the right balance for yourself it's surprising how much more pleasure you get out of Christmas.

I'm not having a go at you Pet, just another chance to let off steam. My house will after all be cleaner and fresher than last week due to the cleaning....yes, but perhaps you don't have folk with serval different eating habits/obsessions coming to dinner....(beyond the vegan/vegi' types)....+grand-children needing paraphrenalia, room decluttered, stuff hoisted out of reach....blaa blaa long list for those of us who are a bit fragile and frail low in strength and stamina (yet not yet ready to give up ) yet still want to put on a good spread/time....and being out of practise with proper cooking for one, let alone six....with a small non-family oven and stove....a fridge which usually has 20 things in it is now stuffed full....+ getting the shopping to coinside with eatby date ....+ a dog hobbling with arthritus....lifting /cleaning etc etc....and all this from a cynical, pessimistic existentialist with a neo-post-modern dilletante outlook, who has somehow become a cranky old cumugeon with a taste for the bizarre...////////.I feel better for that <THANKS>.... just a banal microcosom of this merry land ha ha ho ho...:irony3:

....better put on some Led Zepplin....

[Nick Armstrong]

....better put on some Led Zepplin....

[jayne lee wilson]

You are under no compulsion to take any part in it if you don't want to. As I pointed out earlier, it's much easier on the blood pressure and stress levels if you employ a bit of selectiveness and simply partake of those aspects of Christmas you do enjoy and ignore the rest. Once you strike the right balance for yourself it's surprising how much more pleasure you get out of Christmas.

Yes..... calling it Saturnalia, despite some chronological inaccuracy, works for me.....I'm sure I'm not the only one here doing it solo....(OK, with Cats and other assorted wild creatures...)

[Dave2002]

You are under no compulsion to take any part in it if you don't want to.

Try telling that to some members of my family.

Mostly I agree with you, and compared with the OP {good luck 8th - and hope the dog enjoys it too ...} here I think my "issues" are minimal. We will have food and drink, and hopefully keep warm and virus free, so all I have to put up with is wall to wall Classic FM (not my choice) and Christmas carols, interspersed with adverts for things I don't want to buy. Email is full of pop ups for yet more stuff. Commercialism doesn't stop - ever!

I do enjoy some of it - I'll leave it there for the moment.

As I pointed out earlier, it's much easier on the blood pressure and stress levels if you employ a bit of selectiveness and simply partake of those aspects of Christmas you do enjoy and ignore the rest. Once you strike the right balance for yourself it's surprising how much more pleasure you get out of Christmas.

I will enjoy it, but many people will be less fortunate.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Yes! This has been getting a play this year:.........
The Finzi is essential... as well as the RVW “Winter” Folksongs (the best performance on record, I’ve tried ‘em all). A Christmas journey isn’t complete without the first of them (“We’ve been awhile a-wandering...”)

Yes, same here - In Terra Pax. Much as I admire Roderick Williams, I was overjoyed to get a copy of Shirley Quirk and Norma Burrowes with Hickox.

[french frank]

Yes, same here - In Terra Pax. Much as I admire Roderick Williams, I was overjoyed to get a copy of Shirley Quirk and Norma Burrowes with Hickox.

My 'must play' for Christmas morning is Torelli's Concerto grosso, op. 8 No 6: "Con una Pastorale per il Santissimo Natale". Coincidentally, Corelli also wrote a G minor concerto grosso, op. 6 No 8: "Fatto per la Notte di Natale". But a) I don't know if that means Christmas Eve or the evening of Christmas Day and b) I don't have a CD of that. So I shall play the Torelli.

[Frances_iom]

...Email is full of pop ups for yet more stuff. ...

why? surely buying your own domain + avoiding the stupidity that is web based email agents is worth it ? - surely you don't allow HTML based emails do you?

[Serial_Apologist]

Yes..... calling it Saturnalia, despite some chronological inaccuracy, works for me.....I'm sure I'm not the only one here doing it solo....(OK, with Cats and other assorted wild creatures...)

That's a good idea - I always have rings around on the day...

[Richard Barrett]

I've spent two Christmases alone. On one of these I had a bad cold as well. (At that time I was living on a houseboat in Amsterdam.) I spent my days under blankets on the sofa listening non stop to Beethoven piano sonatas. For some reason the Waldstein (but none of the others) still reminds me of that experience whenever I hear it.

[jayne lee wilson]

I've spent two Christmases alone. On one of these I had a bad cold as well. (At that time I was living on a houseboat in Amsterdam.) I spent my days under blankets on the sofa listening non stop to Beethoven piano sonatas. For some reason the Waldstein (but none of the others) still reminds me of that experience whenever I hear it.

I can think of worse ways to do it.....did you get high on Hot Toddies? (Amsterdam Café version, naturally )

[Pulcinella]

My 'must play' for Christmas morning is Torelli's Concerto grosso, op. 8 No 6: "Con una Pastorale per il Santissimo Natale". Coincidentally, Corelli also wrote a G minor concerto grosso, op. 6 No 8: "Fatto per la Notte di Natale". But a) I don't know if that means Christmas Eve or the evening of Christmas Day and b) I don't have a CD of that. So I shall play the Torelli.

I have both the Corelli and the Torelli as 'Christmas Concerto' fillers to the Polish Chamber Orchestra Brandenburg Concertos (conducted by Jerzy Maksymiuk) on an EMI forte 2CD set:

https://www.discogs.com/JS-Bach-Corelli-Manfredini-Torelli-Locatelli-Polish-Chamber-Orchestra-Jerzy-Maksymiuk-Brandenburg-Co/release/8640882

I've dug it out to play later.

Tonight we're planning to watch an opera (possibly Midsummer Night's Dream, as it's suitably festive ) while eating our smoked salmon sandwiches, accompanied by a nice white Burgundy!

[Nick Armstrong]

My 'must play' for Christmas morning is Torelli's Concerto grosso, op. 8 No 6: "Con una Pastorale per il Santissimo Natale". Coincidentally, Corelli also wrote a G minor concerto grosso, op. 6 No 8: "Fatto per la Notte di Natale". But a) I don't know if that means Christmas Eve or the evening of Christmas Day and b) I don't have a CD of that. So I shall play the Torelli.

As I type, playing this new release (featured by AMcG on Saturday morning):



Extremely good it is too. This is the contents list:



Recommended if you want both pieces you mention, ff, and more

[french frank]

As I type, playing this new release (featured by AMcG on Saturday morning):

Coincidence - I've had the Torelli concerti grossi (6 of them), I Musici, for years and play it every year.