WRST Christmas Programming with Dr
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WRST Christmas Programming with Dr. Christmas 2006 Post Crescent Review (Put your cursor over the title of almost any CD for a link to the artist's webpage, the record company, or some other place to get the CD. For a few CDs, however, you'll need to put your cursor over the artist's name.) After listening to over 150 new Christmas CDs for my annual roundup, I’ve decided I’m just as nuts as people who got in line in the wee hours for a PS3. A cure has not been found, so here I go again. CHORAL What’s your size? Christmas chorus, I mean. Mixed or same sex? Young or old? There’s something good for every one, beginning with four California groups. The oversize box that won’t fit under the tree holds Orange County’s huge Pacific Chorale , accompanied by brass and organ on “Christmas Time Is Here” . They generall y produce a big, glorious sound in the tradition of Robert Shaw, but are quite capable even in the quiet glow of Sandstrom’s “Lo, how a rose.” Up in San Jose, The Choral Project’s “Winter” offer the most unu sual program, beginning with Argento’s “Gloria” and including such gems as Whitacre’s “Winter” (featuring a sitar!), both Part’s and Rachmaninoff’s “Bogoroditse Djevo”, and Maddux’s wonderfully wacky “Christmas Goes Classical.” Just a few miles further north we find the 22 voice San Francisco Choral Artists , whose “So Gracious Is The Time” is my top choral pick of the season. Unusual and very modern settings of classic texts abound. Virtually all are “sacred”, but the final track is Gene Puerling’s typically superb arrangement of Thornhill’s atmospheric “Snowfall.” Every choir director will want this disc. The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus is in the same city, but more than ten times the size . Their “Home for the Holidays”, recorded live at the Castro Theatre over the past few years, features serious stuff like Rutter’s “Gloria” and fun stuff like “Coming Out On Christmas”, with a sound like the biggest glee club you’ve ever heard. The Golden State wasn’t the only source of great new CDs. The Santa Fe Desert Chorale’s “Christmas in Santa Fe” offers unfamiliar works and uncommon arrangements of familiar carols, all expertly sung by 20 mixed voices. Chattanooga’s Choral Arts’ “A Christmas Portrait” presents another diverse program by a fine chamber choir, and concludes with the world premiere of the inventive choral version of Dave B rubeck’s “We Three Kings” (originally done for jazz quartet). The smallest group featured here—the two women and six men of The Tiffany Consort —hails from the biggest city: NYC. Their “O Magnum Mysterium” of fers numerous settings of that text, from ancients Palestrina, Byrd, Victoria and Scarlatti to moderns Poulenc and Lauridsen, and their vocal blend is truly breathtaking. St. Olaf, Concordia (Moorhead), and Luther . They’re all institutions of higher learning in the upper Midwest, affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, regularly featured on PBS, and rooted in Norway. They all had their Christmas concerts on the same weekend (Dec. 1-4) in 2005, even sharing some less common music such as the final section of Vaughan Williams’ “Hodie.” They are the “Big Three” of Lutheran collegiate singing, and you won’t find the Christmas spirit better expressed anywhere other than on the CDs of those concerts: St. Olaf’s “O Come To Us Abide With Us Our Lord Immanuel” , Concordia’s “O Come All Ye Faithful” , and Luther’s “Emmanuel – God With Us.” All enthralled me, and you can add “A St. Olaf Christmas in Norway” , a recording of The St. Olaf Choir and Norway’s Nidarosdomens Jentekor” in a Norwegian concert televised last December. But they also know a thing or two about collegiate choral singing in Utah, where that tabernacle crowd hangs out. The University of Utah Singer’s new “Christmastide” showcases fine new arrangements of familiar c arols, and it hurts just a bit to admit they sing as well as our Midwestern young adults. Last year I began this column with a thorough rave about an Austin group called Conspirare, which offers the most astonishing mix of sacred and secular Christmas and non-Christmas music in its annual Christmas at the Carillon concerts. This year I received “Always” , their 2004 concert, and “I Still Love You” , their 2005 concert, an d I can report that they too are among the most amazing choral Christmas discs ever in terms of performance quality, innovative programming, and the real spirit of the season. Conspirare’s newest non-Christmas CD was named one of the five “Best Choral Performance” Grammy nominees as I was writing this. No one familiar with the Grammy -winning work that Paul Halley did with the Paul Winter Consort will be at all surprised by the sheer beauty and creativity of “What Child Is This?” , featuring two groups he created—the Chorus Angelicus children and the Gaudeamus adults—and the inventive organ support you’d expect from his long tenure as organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. Early music lovers have fine new choices as well. Gloria Dei Cantores Schola’s “The Coming of Christ” retells the Christmas story through Gregorian Chant. “Tenth- to Sixteenth-Century Secular and Liturgical Music” is the sub stance offered by the four men of the Orlando Consort (supplemented by a bass singer) on their “Medieval Christmas.” The Aulos Ensemble and soprano Julianne Baird have been performing Baroque Christmas music f or many years, and their “In Dulci Jubilo” gifts us with a diversity of music from a diversity of countries. There are at least two noteworthy recordings of Handel’s “Messiah”, both by justly famed British ensembles: the Choir of Clare College under Rene Jacobs , and the Choir of New College Oxford led by Edward Higginbottom The latter features the very unusual 1751 version in which all parts—even the arias—are sung by male voices. The young males of another renowned group, The American Boychoir, offer rather straightforward renditions of carols recorded in 1992, 2000, and 2001 on “Voices of Angels” , but I was even more pleased by their recording of Benjamin Britten’s Christmas classic “A Ceremony of Carols” , which also features Britten’s Missa Brevis and several other works for the season. Some years ago we were up to our pinecones in Celtic Christmas CDs. That tide receded, but this year it seems to be Eastern Europe’s turn. Two are at the top of my pile. I am always electrified by the Bulgarian women’s harmonies, and the Bulgarian Voices Angelite’s “Angel’s Christmas” is surely no exception, with its variety of styles but continuously hair-raising vocalizing. “A New Joy – Orthodox Christmas” features 19 th and 20 th century music from Estonia, Russia, and the Ukraine sung by one of the world’s finest choirs—the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir —led by one of the finest directors, Paul Hillier. “Latvian Solstice” is the third seasonal disc from the New York Latvian Concert Choir , presenting cantatas that demonstrate how the pagan traditions of the solstice and the Christian traditions of Christmas have co-existed without completely melting together in Latvia. “Rejoice” is the second seasonal CD from the women of the Vesnika Choir , joined on some tracks by the Toronto Ukrainian Male Chamber Choir for a very enjoyable program of folk -flavored Ukrainian music. The major Celtic release of note is from the esteemed Revels company, noted for numerous Christmas discs that let us hear how the winter holidays were once celebrated. It is called “Rose and Thistle: English and Scottish Music from the Christmas Revels” , and it is the one recording of all reviewed here that can most readily transport you to another time and place. Once in every year or two, I encounter a CD so full of the season’s meaning that I give it my Christmas Spirit award. This year it goes to “Christmasse Comes But Once A Year” from the Montana A Cappella Society . The MACS are just a bunch of amateurs who love to sing together. Imagine that your neighb ors are pretty darn good singers who like to put on period dress and sing Christmas carols in your living room. Now you’ve got the idea—and this disc really was recorded in a living room! I’ve invited them all to Wisconsin, so clean out your guestrooms. CLASSICAL INSTRUMENTAL The majority of Christmas organ recordings are devoted to classical compositions—French noels, Bach chorales, and such. William Neil’s “Noel: 25 Hymns of Christmas” , uses the John Jay Hopkins Memorial Organ of the National Presbyterian Church in Washington to bring us a rarity—straightforward performances of the best known carols on a magnificent example of the king of instruments. “Christmas with the Giannini Brass ” of North Carolina is one of the most enjoyable brass holiday CDs I’ve heard of late. The serving size is generous—33 tracks—and the highlight is certainly the set of 9 beloved carols in arrangements by Camp Kirkland. The equally enjoyable “Holiday Brass” by D.C.’s Beltway Brass is much shorter, considerably jazzier, and if you want to hear how important a tuba can be in such groups, check out Andy Kochenour’s playing. I’ll alway s have a big place in my heart for the huge orchestral Christmas CDs that were common in the 50’s and 60’s.