#4. New Christmas Recordings 2014, Part I.

New Christmas Recordings 2014, Part I

Reformatted, Dec. 4, 2022

Welcome to our 2014 showcase of new Christmas Recordings. Since there is so much to tell you about, we will it in several parts.

Please be aware this blog focuses on the carol tradition and other Christmas sacred and classical music, so we won't have a lot of Frosty the Snowman, but occasionally some jazz and a Capella ensembles. 

If no description is given, it's because we did not find one when doing our web search. Also, the descriptions given are not this blog's reviews.

Venetian Christmas

Arte Dei Suonatori
Don't have a description for this album, but check out the group's website: http://www.artedeisuonatori.pl/

Best of Christmas

Andre Rieu

 Disc: 1

1	Stille Nacht (CD)
2	Deck the Hall with Boughs of Holly (CD)
3	Walking in the Air - from "The Snowman" (CD)
4	O Come All Ye Faithful (CD)
5	Sleigh Ride (CD)
6	White Christmas (CD)
7	Jingle Bells (CD)
8	The Holy City (CD)
9	God Rest You Merry Gentlemen (CD)
10	O Holy Night (CD)
11	Petit Papa Noel (CD)
12	Go Tell It on the Mountain (CD)
13	Ave Maria (CD)
14	O Little Town of Bethlehem (CD)
15	December Lights (CD)
16	Hallelujah (CD)

Disc: 2

1	Stille Nacht (DVD)
2	Deck the Hall with Boughs of Holly (DVD)
3	O Daughter of Zion (DVD)
4	White Christmas (DVD)
5	Sleigh Ride (DVD)
6	Old Toy Trains (DVD)
7	O Christmas Tree (DVD)
8	Walking in the Air (Theme from 'The Snowman') (DVD)
9	Dezemberlichter (DVD)
10	Go Tell It on the Mountain (DVD)
11	Jingle Bells - Edit (DVD)
12	Winter Wonderland (DVD)
13	Christmas Rose (Es Ist Ein Ros' Entsprungen) (DVD)
14	The Holy City (DVD)
15	Ave Maria (DVD)
16	Sleep Little Jesus (Slaap Nu Mijn Jezuke) (DVD)
17	Silent Night (DVD)

  

Christmas From Tewkesbury

Abbey Tewkesbury

This collection of festive music is a selection from the repertoire that the choristers and lay clerks of Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum can be heard singing during the run up to Christmas each year. Some of the pieces are new recordings of well-known favourites, whilst others will be less familiar. The Schola Cantorums raison detre is to sing Evensong during the week throughout school term time. 

This tradition at Tewkesbury was revived forty years ago in 1974 when the Choir of the Abbey School sang its first service of Choral Evensong. Since the Abbey School closed in 2006, the choristers have been educated at Dean Close Preparatory School in Cheltenham. Ever since the sixteen boy choristers and the lay clerks have continued their daily offering of worship in the peaceful surroundings of the Abbey. 

In recent years the Scholas Cantorum has appeared on a number of highly-regarded recordings. Each year, Dean Close School commissions a Christmas Carol for Schola Cantorum and the Chapel Choir at the senior school. On this recording, three of these works are presented. Bob Chilcotts atmospheric setting of The night he was born, was commissioned back in 2006, and is a setting of words by Helen Dunmore. Philip Moores reserved Into a quiet world was written in 2012, and Thomas Hewitt Jones jaunty setting of original words by Paul Williamson, Verbum caro factum est, was completed for 2013s Christmas services. 

These last two pieces are recorded here for the first time. Simon Bell was appointed as Director of the Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum in 2012. He was previously at Winchester Cathedral where he held the position of Assistant Director of Music.

1. Adam Lay Ybounden
2 Nova! Nova!
3 A Babe Is Born
4 The Night He Was Born
5 O Little Town of Bethlehem
6 Into a Quiet World
7 Ding Dong! Merrily on High
8 Away in a Manger
9 Noël Huron - Carleton Etherington
10 Benedicamus Domino
11 Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day
12 Bethlehem Down
13 No Small Wonder
14 O Come, All Ye Faithful
15 I Saw Three Ships
16 In Excelsis Gloria
17 This Is the Truth Sent from Above
18 Candlelight Carol
19 Verbum Caro Factum E
    

Christmas Presence, Colorado Children’s Chorale

Colorado Children's Chorale Music

http://www.childrenschorale.org

 

A Colorado Kind of Christmas

Colorado Children's Chorale

http://www.childrenschorale.org

Tellin' it on the Mountain...an Old American Christmas

Colorado Christmas Chorale

That's Christmas To Me by Pentatonix

Christmas tunes have never sounded so good. A capella vocal sensation, Pentatonix, brings new life to classic holiday tracks, modern favorites, and throws in a one-of-a-kind holiday mash up on this festive CD. It--along with a bonus CD--is sure to fill you with the holiday spirit.

1. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

2. White Winter Hymnal

3. Sleigh Ride

4. Winter Wonderland / Don't Worry Be Happy; Winter Wonderland\ Don't Worry, Be Happy

5. That's Christmas to Me

6. Mary, Did You Know?

7. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

8. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

9. Santa Claus is Coming to Town

10. Silent Night

11. Let It Go

 

The Great British Carol Collection, 

The Choir Of Trinity College, Cambridge

"The Great British Carol Collection" is a 2CD set of best-loved carols that captures the essential essence of a traditional Christmas. This special collection features twenty-eight of the most popular classics, from evergreen standards "Silent Night" and "Away in a Manger" to "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" and "O Come All Ye Faithful." The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge is one of the leading exponents of British choral tradition and acknowledged by "Gramophone Magazine" as one of the world s greatest choirs. On this beautiful collection, the choir performs under the baton of the critically acclaimed and internationally renowned maestro, Richard Marlow. "The Great British Carol Collection" is an essential for lovers of classic carols and is destined to become a Christmas tradition.

The Wexford Carols

Catriona O'Leary and featuring Tom Jones, Rosanne Cash, Rhiannon Giddens

Starring the celebrated Irish singer Caitriona O'Leary and featuring Grammy winners Sir Tom Jones, Rosanne Cash and Rhiannon Giddens, The Wexford Carols presents Ireland's greatest Christmas music (much of it for the first time) in a recording that magically blends a diversity of folk styles including traditional Irish, Americana, Blues and Gospel.

With lyrics by Luke Waddinge and William Devereux and set to popular tunes of the day, these musically sublime, spiritually rich, and emotionally powerful carols from the 17th and 18th centuries will give listeners a entirely new and compelling way to experience the story of Christmas.

1. "Tell Shepherds" – Caitríona O’Leary
2. "An Angel This Night" – Caitríona O’Leary
3. "Jerusalem Our Happy Home" – Tom Jones (backing vocals Caitríona O’Leary & Rhiannon Giddens)
4. "This Is Our Christmass Day" – Caitríona O’Leary
5. "Now To Conclude Our Christmas Mirth" – Rhiannon Giddens (backing vocals Tom Jones & Caitríona O’Leary)
6. "The Darkest Midnight In December" – Caitríona O’Leary
7. "An Angel This Bright Midnight" – Rosanne Cash, Caitríona O’Leary, John Smith, Graham Hopkins
8. "Behould Three Kings" – Rosanne Cash (backing vocals O’Leary, John Smith, Graham Hopkins)
9. "The Angell Said To Joseph Mild" – Tom Jones (backing vocals O’Leary, Cash, Giddens)
10. "A Virgin Queen In Bethlehem" – Caitríona O’Leary, Singer
11. "Christmas Day Is Come" – Rhiannon Giddens & Caitríona O’Leary, Vocals
12. "The Enniscorthy Christmas Carol" – Rosanne Cash, Rhiannon Giddens, Caitríona O’Leary, Tom Jones

Label: Hersey Records

Christmas in Ireland

Noel Mcloughlin and Ger ODonnell

Devereux and set to popular tunes of the day, these musically sublime, spiritually rich, and emotionally powerful carols from the 17th and 18th centuries will give listeners a entirely new and compelling way to experience the story of Christmas.

1. The Holly and the Ive

2. Christmas in the Trenches

3. I saw three ships

4. O Little Town of Bethlehem

5. Oh Christmas Tree

6. In the Bleak Midwintere

7. The Maid Who Sold Her Barley

8. The Snows They melt the Soonest

9. The Coventry Carol

10. God rest you merry gentleman

11. The Soulcake

12. The Wexford Carol

13. Auld Lang Synee

Label: ARC Music

Organ Music for Christmas, Christian Lambou

The French word noël is closely associated with the organ, and this new recording from the Breton organist Christian Lambour introduces the listener to works from the 17th to the 20th century. 

Noëls provided organists with the opportunity to introduce variations on popular tunes, often making use of Christmas carols and shepherd songs. The evocative sound of these traditional melodies sung around the fire during advent are assured to get you in lesprit de Noël! 

The album takes in some of the country's most assured writers for the instrument, from the well-known figures of César Franck and Théodore Dubois to lesser-known names like Michel Corrette and Alexis Chauvet notorious among his contemporaries as le petit Bach because of his contrapuntal style whom the listener may be not so familiar with. 

Many of the contributors held distinguished organist positions in Parisian churches, such as Claude Balbastre at Notre-Dame de Paris and two members of the Dandrieu family both at one time organist at Saint-Barthélemy en Cité, Paris. The melody incorporated into Puer nobis nascitur by Pierre Dandrieu will be recognized by many as a popular Christmas carol still commonly sung today. 

The music of Père Franck, as his students affectionately knew him, and Alexandre Guilmant provide a contrast with their noëls which were revived in line with the emerging symphonic tradition of the 19th century. 

Christian Lambours masterful recital is rounded off with movements from Boëlys Messe du jour de Noël, published in 1842 for performance on Christmas Day. The historic organ used on this recording in the former Benedictine Abbey of Neu St Johann in Switzerland, built in 1779, is instrumental in bringing the music alive. Other information: Booklet includes liner notes, artist biography Recorded in 2014 on an historic instrument.

Label: Brilliant Classics

German Baroque Sacred Music - 

Christmas Box Set

Various

Label: Ricercar

Here already is the second set of LES PLEIADES, the intelligent collection of RICERCAR re-releases. Again devoted to the German Baroque religious repertoire, this appropriate release focuses on the Nativity repertoire, extending from the early 17th century to the generation of Johann Sebastian Bach who is represented here by a few very beautiful Christmas cantatas. 

Alongside Schutz' Christmas Oratorio and lovely Yuletide cantatas by Bach's contemporary Christoph Graupner, we will find in this set the evocation of Nativity scenes, from the Annunciation up to the Presentation in the Temple, as well as the reconstruction of a Lutheran Christmas service. The compositions by Praetorius, Selle, Tunder, Lubeck, Buxtehude, Scheidt, Hammerschmidt, Schutz and Bruhns will tell you the Christmas story with tenderness and joy. 

Stille Nacht... - Christmas Choir Music

RIAS Kammerchor, Uwe Gronostay (Conductor)

The Christmas carols on this CD form a dramaturgical cycle, beginning with the mysterious night into which falls the light of God; there follow narrative and devotional songs as well as hymns of praise leading to the birth of Christ, then back into the night that also symbolically bears within itself the breaking of the new day. 

They form an arc extending from the music of the Renaissance and Baroque to romantic choral works, settings of lieder and compositions of the 20th century. For over forty years, Uwe Gronostay strongly influenced German and European choral culture as a conductor, pedagogue and organizer in equal measure in the professional choral scene, with the high-achievement ensembles amongst amateur choirs, in education at academies of music and in international networking. He would have turned 75 on 25 October 2014.

To mark this occasion, audite is releasing the present CD with Christmas carols recorded by Gronostay for the RIAS Berlin during the 14 years of his period as artistic director of the RIAS Chamber Choir between 1972 and 1986. Alongside several well-known pieces, there are also lesser-known ones that will offer interested listeners a welcome expansion of the Christmas repertoire. 

At the same time, the CD documents Gronostay's view that all ambitious choral work should begin with the stylistic richness and sonic challenges of the a-cappella literature, progressively working from short forms to major works.

Label: Audite

 
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