The girls
rehearse four mornings a week before school, and sing Evensong twice
per week during school term. Weekend duties and other cathedral
commitments occur once or twice a month, and they are regularly involved
in the major liturgical feasts, often singing with the boys and men.
Since
their foundation the Girls have made several critically acclaimed
commercial CDs on the Regent label (both on their own, and jointly with
the Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge).
The girls have sung
recently with Lesley Garrett and John Rutter, and were featured on BBC
television in Gareth Malone's The Choir: Sing while you work . The girls
have broadcast Choral Evensong on Radio 3 on a number of occasions.
1. Deck the hall – Welsh trad, arr
Mark Armstrong
2. No small wonder – Paul Edwards
3. O holy night – Adolphe Adam, arr
Sarah MacDonald
4.There is no rose – John Joubert
5. Come to Bethlehem – Peter
Warlock, arr Maurice Jacobson
6. Away in a manger – Normandy
trad, arr Alexander Berry
7. Glorificamus Deum – Annabel
Rooney
8. Corpus Christi Carol – Richard
Peat
9. The cherry tree carol – English
trad, arr Sarah MacDonald
10. A Hymn to the Virgin – Edmund
Rubbra
11. Sir Christèmas – Bernard
Trafford
12. A Spotless Rose – Paul Mealor
13. Love came down at Christmas –
Simon Lole
14. Follow that star – Peter Gritton
15. Adam lay ybounden – Matthew
Larkin
16. What sweeter music – John Rutter
17. St Godric’s Hymn – Gary
Higginson
18. Mater ora filium – Charles Wood,
arr Harrison Oxley
19. A Christmas Blessing – Philip
Stopford
20. The holly and the ivy – English
trad, arr Sarah MacDonald
21. Away in a manger – William J
Kirkpatrick, arr Gary Cole
22. My Lord has come – Will Todd
23. Three angels – Ben Parry
This superb selection of Advent and Christmas favorites contains many
favorite carols and songs that will help cheer your heart and home
during the Christmas season. In addition to the brilliant reverberations
of handbells, some tracks also contain handchimes, woodwinds, strings,
organ, and piano.
GIA handbell music editor Philip L. Roberts writes: "This album contains best-loved and well-known Christmas music recorded
by Embellish Handbell Ensemble and Chicago Bronze, using five or more
octaves of handbells... Each title is part of our growing GIA handbell
music repertoire... I thank Embellish Handbell Ensemble of Grand Rapids,
Michigan and their outstanding director, Stephanie Wiltse, along with
recording engineer Roy Wallace for their work on the music performed and
recorded by Embellish. Thanks to Roy for mastering this album as well."
Label: Gia Publications
Vaughan Williams was (with Cecil Sharp) one of the foremost collectors
of folk songs during the early 1900s. He collected many traditional
Christmas carols as well.
This collection is of carols as he arranged
them, thus presenting his view of Christmas in the first half of the
20th century. He also wrote four completely new carols for the Oxford
Book of Carols, which are also all included here.
This release includes
world première recordings of two sets of carols: 'Two Carols' from 1945
and Nine Carols for Male Voices, commissioned by the British Council in
1941 for performance by and for British troops serving in Iceland.
They
are performed by the outstanding Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital
Chelsea (of which all members are professional musicians) under the
directorship of William Vann.
Label: Albion Records
Tracks:
1. Silent Night
2. Softly Falls the Snow
3. Ding dong! Merrily On High
4. Quiet My Little Prince
5. Come, Here the Wonderful Tidings
6. Holy Night
7. Lullaby No. 4 Opus 49
8. The First Noel
9. Song of Nativity
10. Jingle Bells
11. Joy to the World
12. Ave Maria
13. Divine Child
14. Ring Little Bells
15. Sweeter the Bells Sound
16. Joyful, O Blessed
17. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
18. Here is Christmas
19. Hallelujah
Following the release of the award-winning Sugarloaf Mountain: An
Appalachian Gathering, which was a Top 5 Billboard Classical Crossover
hit, Jeannette Sorrell and Apollos Fire present Christmas on Sugarloaf
Mountain. In this celebration of the American immigrant experience,
fiddlers, medieval harp, hammered dulcimer, bagpipes and singers join
with childrens voices to evoke the Celtic roots of an Appalachian
Christmas. From Christmas Eve in medieval Scotland to folk carols and
shape-note hymns at a toe-tapping Christmas gathering in Virginia,
Apollos Fire follows the journeys of the Irish and Scottish settlers who
bravely crossed the Atlantic, settled in the mountains and welcomed
Christmas with love, singing, dancing and prayer. Acclaim for the
premiere performances of this program was widespread: The lightning
strike of genius can happen, sometimes even repeatedly to those willing
to earn it. Jeannette Sorrell is one such person. This show was intense,
interesting, spectacularly performed, and deeply moving. If that's not
genius, I don't know what is. (Seen & Heard International)
Label: Avie
Early American holiday favorites featuring Fiddle, Hammered Dulcimer,
Whistles, Guitar, Mandolin, and Accordion. Craig Duncan's talents on
violin, fiddle, hammered dulcimer, mandolin, guitar, bass, and viola can
be heard on numerous Nashville recordings.
A graduate of Appalachian
State University and Tennessee State University, Craig is a member of
the North American Fiddler's Hall of Fame and Who's Who in Music and
Musicians. He's written 30+ music instruction publications for Mel Bay
Public.
Label: Green Hill Productions
This live recording was produced in honor of the 20th anniversary of
Gospel Christmas with the Northwest Community Gospel Chorus and the
Oregon Symphony. Once considered an unlikely marriage of musical genres,
gospel music with symphony orchestra has now established itself as a
tradition. While blues, hymns, and spirituals are typical sources of
inspiration for gospel music, the song selections are inspired by many
centuries of sacred music.
These selections reflect the transformative
nature of gospel music itself - from classical music to Latin flavors,
R&B, canticles and carols from the first century, the art of the
film score, and a bounty of musical traditions that do not compromise
the reverence and soulful export at the core of the musical substance.
The visceral communication is not dissimilar to that of opera, where
voice and orchestra align, but today's gospel music with symphony
orchestra has uniquely established itself as an art form all its own.
Label: Pentatone
Well into the previous century Sweden was largely a
peasant society with folk music an integral part of daily life. There
were work songs, narrative ballads and, obviously, music for dancing.
Over the centuries a not always easy coexistence between religion and
folk culture developed, with hymns being adapted to a folk-music
aesthetic while popular traditions were given a Christian veneer.
An
example of the latter is the rich store of Staffan ballads, springing
from a pre-Christian horse cult but given a new slant as its focus
shifted to St. Stephen the first Christian martyr. Gunnar Idenstam and
S:t Jacobs Chamber Choir have performed their Folkjul concerts more or
less every year since 2002.
The concept stem from a rich interplay
between folk culture and high culture and in Idenstams arrangements a
newly composed halling or polska entwines itself round the old Christmas
melodies. The first Folkjul album was released in 2007 this time the
choir and Idenstam are joined by violinist Sandra Marteleur and Ulrika
Bodén, one of Swedens most well-established folk singers.
Label: Bis
There is a tradition among the Greek peoples of the singing of carols (
'Kalanda') on Christmas Eve.
This album is a set of carols newly
composed by Greek-Cypriot composer Cilia Petridou. As musical works they
also qualify as art-song in fine performances by three excellent
sopranos.
For those who love Christmas music but want something new,
this album will fit the bill. The three sopranos each take a number of
solo carols and form a trio for the last two; Lesley-Jane and Alison
have both worked with the composer for some time and also made several
highly-praised recordings for Divine Art and Metier.
Cilia Petridou was
an accomplished pianist until her career was ended by major surgery
since when she has concentrated on composition. Moving with her family
to the UK after the Turlish invasion of north Cyprus which destroyed
their home town of Famagusta, her music is often informed by that
political tragedy, but her Kalanda are bright and full of joy.
Label: Divine Art
Almost forty years after his passing, the name of Andre Kostelanetz is
still synonymous with the sound of beautiful music.
The Russian-born
American conductor gained national attention bringing classical music to
the masses first on CBS Radio in the 1930s and then via a series of
albums on Columbia Records.
A guest conductor of The New York
Philharmonic and Washington, DC’s National Symphony, he reportedly sold
over 52 million records and set the world record for attendance at a
classical concert when 250,000 people showed up to a 1979 performance in
Central Park. In his discography of over 100 albums conducting
everything from Swan Lake to the hits of Chicago, Kostelanetz’s
Christmas albums are among the most treasured.
Real Gone Music and
Second Disc Records invite you to a true wonderland of Christmas with
the release of Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra’s The Complete
Christmas Albums.
This comprehensive 2-CD, 42-track set features all
three of the legendary conductor’s classic Columbia Christmas LPs – Joy
to the World: The Music of Christmas (1959), Wonderland of Christmas
(1963), and Wishing You a Merry Christmas (1965), on which he was joined
by vocalist Phyllis Curtin and The St. Killian Boychoir – plus a host
of holiday bonuses. These include Kostelanetz’s rare 1950 single of
“White Christmas,” a complete recording of “The Nutcracker Suite”
featuring Peter Ustinov, and additional seasonal favorites from the
Kostelanetz catalog. Wishing You a Merry Christmas makes its CD debut
here. Along with his fellow “easy listening” kings Percy Faith and Ray
Conniff, Kostelanetz defined the sound of the holiday with his Columbia
Christmas recordings, and you’ll find them all here (this is really his
complete Christmas recordings, except he made several recordings of The
Nutcracker, sparklingly remastered in crisp original mono and splendid
“360 Sound” stereo by Maria Triana at Sony’s Battery Studios.
The Second
Disc’s resident Christmas elf Joe Marchese has penned the new liner
notes. There’s no doubt the maestro’s yuletide recordings will become a
few of your favorite things!
Label: Real Gone Music
Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki have sung of the wonders of
Christmas a number of times, in Bachs cantatas and Christmas Oratorio as
well as in Handels Messiah.
Here, instead, we hear the choir a cappella
in a selection of classic Christmas carols. Masato Suzuki, son of the
ensembles founder and director, has selected some of the best-loved
songs of Christmas, such as "Adeste fideles" and "Silent Night," as well as
less familiar hymns, arranging them especially for these singers.
A
consummate organist, he also performs a number of Louis-Claude Daquins
noëls variés keyboard variations on Christmas songs which became a
highly popular genre in 18th-century France.
Label: Bis
No information.
The pieces on this album originate largely from the Christmette by
Michael Praetorius. In addition, nativity hymns by a range of different
composers from the same era have been compiled. In Lutheran style the
compositions on this album include solo pieces, choir arrangements,
double choral motets, instrumental pieces and of course the church organ
repertoire.
The listener can also hear pieces, which were not
necessarily meant for Christmas, but fit the program very well. The
function of some of the pieces is liturgical, like Gloria, Our Father,
or the mighty Entrance-Prelude. Two other pieces are meditative moments
about the name of Jesus.
Many of the songs are well-known. However, the
arrangements for soloists and/or choir from Praetorius and his
contemporaries are rarely performed.
The Early Music ensemble Margaretha
Consort was founded in 2009. The ensemble is based in the Netherlands,
but the singers and instrumentalists are from all over Europe. Over the
years a very skilled team has been created, where knowledge, musicality,
and congeniality go hand in hand.
Label: Naxos
Label: Musica Sacra
No description.
Label: Divucsa
Label: Eloquence Australia
Label: Paraclete Press
Reissues of 1989 release.
The story of Christ's birth has prompted generations of composers to
expressions of joy and mystical reflection. ORA's selection of carols
for this album unveils a whole treasure chest of offerings, some
familiar, some less so, all giving voice to various elements of the
nativity story.
Produced with the generous support of the Pureland
Foundation, The Mystery of Christmas focuses on the miraculous
Incarnation and the central role of the Virgin Mary. Highlights include
Richard Allain's arrangement of the "Coventry Carol," Morten Lauridsen's "O
Magnum Mysterium" and a carol by John Rutter written specifically for
ORA's director, Suzi Digby.
Label: HARMONIA MUNDI
Mediterranean and Nordic Christmas music with Arianna Savall and her
Baroque ensemble Hirundo Maris.
Since the founding of their ensemble in
2009, Hirundo Maris, the Catalan harpist and singer Arianna Savall, and
the Norwegian tenor and violist Petter Udland Johansen have committed
themselves to music from the Middle Ages up to the Baroque period.
And a
special emphasis has been Mediterranean and Nordic music. For their
current album, 'Silent Night Early Christmas Music and Carols' both
musicians and ensemble conductors have chosen traditional Christmas
songs from the north and south.
And in doing so, invite you along on a
journey of sound into the magical world of centuries-old winter, Advent,
and Christmas music. The German song 'Silent Night' is laid out on the
program alongside the Norwegian Christmas song 'Mitt hjerte alltid
vanker', the Provençal 'Ô nuit brillante' and the Catalonish, 'El cant
dels ocells', which the legendary early music pioneer Jordi Savall,
Arianna Savalls famous father, orchestrated for the recording.
''Every
country has its own Christmas traditions and its own treasure trove of
Christmas songs'' says the musician from the Hirundo Maris ensemble (the
ensemble name is the Latin term for 'sea swallow'). ''Some of them,
like 'Silent Night' are known throughout the world and are translated in
numerous languages, but many of these songs have remained hidden in
their home countries like a national treasure.
Hirundo Maris now
showcases many such musical treasures in imaginative compositions that
fuse the old with the present day. The expressive voices of Arianna
Savall and Petter Udland Johansen give rise to an atmospheric dialogue
with multifaceted instrumental parts.
Such sounds emanate from cheerful
bagpipes, an expertly played Cornetto, the poetic slide guitar 'Dobro'
and violins, flutes, harps and percussion. ''Our music is based on four
important elements: early music, folk music, our own composition, and
improvisation. We all play different instruments, but the voices of
Arianna and Petter are the main focus of our group.''
The musicians of
Hirundo Maris all come from many European countries: Norway, England,
Germany, Poland, Spain, and Catalonia. And accordingly, the recording of
beautiful melodies has become a kind of sound mirror reflecting the
diverse musical traditions of European Christmas celebrations. '
'The
singing of heavenly Christmas music brings everyone peace and hope''
says Arianna Savall. ''Singing is one of the best opportunities to bring
people together. It is very spiritual. We cannot touch it, but we all
feel it deep in our hearts.''
Label: Sony Classical Uk
Why Another Christmas album? Because the Christmas season ideally offers
free time and opportunities for leisure, meditation, and
self-reflection all of which need not necessarily occur exclusively in
the sphere of religious spirituality.
We can also put our holidays to
good use simply by doing nothing, not planning too much, and taking
advantage of the opportunity for everything beyond the limits of our to
do agendas. Time! For encounters, conversations, and ideas. Free space
and time enable us to suspend our everyday routines and perhaps to
entertain the eyes with pictures that we haven't seen in a long time or
haven't ever seen before and the ears with ditto sounds.
This release is
intended especially for this chronotopos! Here the Singphoniker in no
way wish to encroach on your time-space, providing it with an audio
background or supplying the musical accompaniment. But if you want to
close your eyes and open your ears, then the Singphoniker will be happy
to join you.
They would like to offer entertainment and to transmit joy
in the form of many wonderful melodies and moods: the joy that comes
with so many astonishing developments and combinations, with so many
different elements and contrasts, with Christmas swing, with the
classical tradition, with folk-song tones, and that ranges from the
Singphonic special arrangement to the timeless classics of the modern
era.
Label: Cpo Records
Label: POINT PRODUCTIONS
The all-female vocal ensemble Papagena makes its debut on SOMM
Recordings with The Darkest Midnight, a sublime collection of songs for
winter from the Middle Ages to the modern era embracing the secular and
the sacred.
Described as a stunning addition to the vocal music scene
and la crème de la crème in the crowded a cappella space, Papagenas
three sopranos (Elizabeth Drury, Abbi Temple, Suzie Vango) and two altos
(Suzzie Purkis, Sarah Tenant-Flowers) look certain to add to their
fast-growing reputation with this beautifully sung compendium.
Casting a
dark glamour all of its own, the bleakness of winter has prompted some
of the most bewitching, brittle and bright songs.
Alongside traditional
Christmas anthems can be found legendary singer-songwriter Joni
Mitchells The River in an achingly melancholic arrangement and American
composer Don Macdonald, whose "When the Earth Stands Still" is movingly
poignant and still, twilit and shining.
Celebratory songs marking the
Christmas season the exuberant "In dulci Jubilo," burnished, glowing
harmonies of "Angelus ad virginem,' sublimely serene "Es ist ein Ros
entsprungen" and infectious "Shchedryk: Hark How the Bells" from Ukraine are
heard alongside lilting Irish songs from antiquity and the charming
Scottish lullaby "Balulalow."
Songs from England, Germany, Norway and "Toi
le coeur de la rose" from Ravels Lenfant et les sortilèges round off a
recording that includes first performances of eight arrangements and is
marked by sheer beauty of sound.
Label: Somm Recordings
"this is a studiously well-curated programme (by Jeffrey Skidmore) of
music for the Nativity, almost all from the baroque period. In our view
It provides a superior and enjoyable listening experience for
Christmas-time" (MusicalMerit) "Recommended very strongly indeed !"
(Organists Review magazine)
Label: Alto
The Choir of King's College, Cambridge presents Favourite Carols from
King's - a fantastic collection of timeless festive repertoire sung by
the world's leading choir. The recording features a selection of some of
the most popular and well-loved carols, including Once in Royal David's
City, Silent Night and The Holly and the Ivy, with several new
arrangements by the Choir's own Director of Music, Stephen Cleobury.
Label: KING'S COLLEGE
Our most recent Telemann album is a special highlight for the Christmas
season! It brings together three Christmas oratorios from Telemann's
Oratorischer Jahrgang for the church year 1730/31 and a cantata from the
annual cycle Musicalisches Lob Gottes printed in score form in
Nuremberg in 1744.
The oratorios are new discoveries and premiere
recordings. Even if the works concerned are of cantata length, the term
Oratorio is in this case perfectly justified.
Not only the soprano,
alto, and other vocal parts sing but also personified allegories such as
Faith, Hope, and Love. Telemann's musical realization of the poetic
sources of the writer and musician Albrecht Jacob Zell is distinguished
by great imagination and subtle artistry.
The affections and emotions
contained in the texts penned by Zell and the Biblical texts inserted by
him in the arias and choruses are developed logically and with great
feeling: here Telemann employs and combines the whole spectrum of
compositional techniques at his command. Telemann's opulent settings were
made to order for the rich resources of Hamburgs church music, for
which he had available eight vocalists as well as some twenty
instrumentalists.
Label: Cpo Records
No Information.
Label: Berlin Classics
It s not often you get to visit a Benedictine monastery founded in 1010
in western France, let alone experience night prayer there on Christmas
Eve, chanted in its entirety by the monastic choir in the rich acoustics
of their ancient church.
That is the rare and unforgettable opportunity
afforded by this unique recording. Opening with an organ prelude, this
recording contains every part of this traditional liturgical prayer,
including the invitatory, hymns, antiphons and psalms, readings and
responsory, all beautifully chanted in clear Latin.
The Old Testament
reading is from Isaiah, while the Gospel reading is the genealogy of
Christ from the beginning of Matthew. Join the monks of Solesmes as they
celebrate the birth of Jesus at the same time of night that he was born
in Bethlehem. Setting the standard for Gregorian performance. (American
Record Guide)
Label: Paraclete Press
Footprint Records is proud to present a very special Christmas gift: the
album A Christmas Wish, performed by the Gothenburg Youth Choir under
the choral direction of Anne Johansson. The Gothenburg Youth Choir, one
of Sweden s most acclaimed, consists of boys and girls between the ages
of 16 and 25. Anne Johansson, who has dedicated her professional life to
teaching secondary-school children to sing, is an authority on young
voices.