Feeling a little "ho-ho-ho"-ed out already? Gramophone's editor-in-chief, James Jolly, offers these suggestions for seasonal music that bypasses the usual carols, from oratorios to symphonies to a familiar opera with a Christmas Eve setting.
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Charpentier, Messe de Minuit sur des airs de Noel (Kings College Choir, English Chamber Orchestra/David Willcocks) (EMI Classics) |
1. A beautifully pure and serene Mass created by the French Baroque composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier by using French carols--a magical Christmas work given a lovely humane reading from the choir that takes center stage at Christmas.
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Bach, Christmas Oratorio (soloists; Monteverdi Choir; English Baroque Soloists/John Eliot Gardiner) (Arkiv) |
2. Few Christmas works create such a sense of celebration right from their first note. Bach gathers together six cantatas to create this oratorio, and in Gardiner and his unparalleled choir finds performers who bring the work vividly to life.
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Britten, A Ceremony of Carols (New London Choir; Skaila Kanga/Ronald Corp) (Naxos) |
3. Written at sea as Britten returned in 1942 from the USA to England, this ever-popular piece for harp and voices weaves together eleven carols and conjures up a magical world of childhood with some ear-tickling sounds.
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Puccini, La boheme (Mirella Freni; Luciano Pavarotti; Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Herbert von Karajan) (Decca) |
4. A gloriously deluxe recording of this gorgeous opera–which opens on Christmas Eve–with Freni and Pavarotti heart-breaking in the central roles. And Karajan buoys them aloft on orchestral sound of richness and power.
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Penderecki, Christmas Symphony (National Polish Symphony Orchestra, Katowice/Antoni Wit) (Naxos) |
5. Penderecki's strong, modern, but intensely romantic work earns its Christmas subtitle from its use of the carol Silent Night throughout its single-movement span. It has a Bruckner-ian concentration but a muscularity that is inescapably of our time.
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Christmas Concertos by Vivaldi, Corelli, Manfredini, Torelli et al (Il Giardino Armonico) (Teldec) |
6. If you want sparkling playing, charming melodies and plentiful invention, this superbly played collection will give you an Italian Baroque Christmas in an instant. Il Giardino Armonico confirm their credentials as one of Italy’s leading period-instrument ensemble.
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Lauridson, O Magnum Mysterium (Chamber Choir of Europe/Nicol Matt) (Hanssler Classic) |
7. Before Eric Whitacre, we had Morten Lauridson, who has written music of heart-easing beauty that never approaches the bland. O Magnum Mysterium celebrates the mystery and wonder of the Nativity, and Lauridson’s music finds the magic in the words, and thanks to this superb performance, blossoms into life.
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Bridge, Sir Roger de Coverley, Christmas Dance (BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Richard Hickox) (Chandos) |
8. Sir Roger de Coverley’s Dance dates back centuries (it features in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol) and Frank Bridge here composes a magical setting for strings that brings out the best in that much-missed master of English music, Richard Hickox.
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Berlioz, L’enfance du Christ (Soloists; London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra/Colin Davis (LSO Live) |
9. Few conductors have the insight into and passion for Berlioz’ music as Colin Davis, and for this live recording he returns to the Christmas story as told with exquisite imagination by France’s most original Romantic composer. The work is full of poetry and gentle reverie. A must-have for the Christmas season.
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Tchaikovsky – Cherevichki Soloists; Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Lirico Caligari / Gennedy Rozhdestvensky (Dynamic) |
10. Sometimes translated at The Slippers, The Tsarina’s Slippers and the little shoes, this charming opera tells a story set on a Christmas Eve that centres on the love of two young villagers. Being Tchaikovsky, it’s full of beautiful melodies, gracefully orchestrated.
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