Holiday Issue, 2020 All Prices Good through 1/31/21 Music Highlights see page 3 Rick Wakeman Christmas Portraits Muisc for Solo Piano SBMG 19075967592 $16.98 Country see page 37 Carrie Underwood My Gift AEC 003260102 $16.98 Classical see page 7 Recommendations Nicola Benedetti Elgar Violin Concerto DEC B003221602 $18.98 Jazz & Big Band see page 45 It’s a David Benoit Christmas! Partnered with: Vince Guaraldi’s wonderful music for a Charlie Brown Christmas STEI 30163 $16.98 Boxed Sets see page 16 Fritz Reiner The Complete Columbia Album Collection 14-CD Set VT / KY / TN SBMG 19075936772 $59.98 see page 2 HBDirect Mixed-Genre Catalog HBDirect is pleased to present our Holiday Catalog for 2020! In these times, it has become increasingly clear to us just how important and essential music is for the well-being of so many people. While Holiday 2020 we’ve included pages of classical, jazz and popular music here, this issue is clearly about Christmas - and of course, Christmas has its own soundtrack, personal and unique for each of us. Christmas Carols: SWR Vokal Ensemble Therefore, we have decided to present this year’s holiday catalog in our Mixed-Genre format, In Great Britain, Christmas carols are an integral part of Christmas just like plum conscious of the diversity of musical tastes we are serving. Even as some of you might be interested in the pudding and turkey, paper crowns and mistletoe. The Festival of Nine Lessons same music as other customers, we wanted to offer choices – The First Noel, for example, performed by and Carols - a Christmas mass featuring King’s College Choir, nine short read- a vocal soloist, a choir, piano or guitar, in a traditional style, a Medieval setting, perhaps jazz or country & ings and carols has been broadcast live every year since 1928 on Christmas western. We hope to have provided such a diverse range of choices here. If you have access to the internet, Eve. This album however contains traditional, centuries old Christmas Carols, please visit HBDirect.com for even more selections. arranged by British composers like Britten, Holst, Vaughan Williams and Byrd, to We thank you for coming to HBDirect for your music, and we wish you health and happiness this name just a few. 1 CD# SWRM 19094 $18.98 holiday season. Beethoven: Piano Concertos No. 5 - Triple Concerto Born in Strasbourg, Elizabeth Sombart studied piano from the age of seven. She studied all over the world with various teachers, received the rank of Holiday Music Features in this Catalog Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite in 2006 and then was awarded the Choral & Vocal Music for Christmas Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2008. Elizabeth has a strong From intimate arrangements with only a few voices to large choirs with brass and organ, relationship with the RPO and will be continuing this Beethoven Piano Christmas music is so often set for chorus. Look for New Holiday Music (4 & 5); Choral Holiday Concerto cycle with them over the coming months. This third installment of Music (18-21); Christmas Carols (26 & 27); and Solo Vocal Music (28 & 29). this series features Beethoven’s mighty fifth piano concerto as well as his ever-popular triple concerto, featuring Duncan Riddell on violin and Richard A Classical Christmas Harwood on cello. 1CD# SIG 637 $17.98 It is fascinating to hear how the Christmas season was celebrated through the ages by solo voices, instruments, choirs or in various combinations of these performing forces. See our Rick Wakeman: Christmas Portraits Classical Holiday (10-13) & Early Music sections (22 & 23) on the pages noted. Keyboard legend, Rick Wakeman, famous the world over for his hugely successful and high-profile rock career, is pleased to celebrate the fes- Instrumental Christmas Albums tive season with his release Christmas Portraits. With all tracks personally From the intimacy of carols performed by solo piano or guitar to grand settings for brass or full chosen and arranged by Wakeman himself, this special holiday album cel- orchestra, instrumental albums are perfect for dinner accompaniments and fireside listening ebrates Wakeman’s favorite time of the year as he performs festive music, alike. See Piano & Organ (17); A Brass Christmas (25) & Holiday Instrumentals (50 & 51). arranged for solo piano, all performed on his beloved Granary Steinway Model D grand piano. A former student and Fellow of the Royal College of Our Most Popular Holiday Albums Music, Wakeman has covered much musical ground during his wide-rang- Year after year (and decade after decade, in fact!), there is a group of holiday albums which will ing career 1CD# SBMG 19075967592 $16.98 be in demand every season. We are pleased to present Christmas Favorites (8 & 9); Naxos Holiday Favorites (24); Holiday Chestnuts (32 & 33) and Sony Christmas Classics (54 & 55). Christmas Jazz Bach Transcriptions 20-CD Set Simply because the tunes are so well known, the jazz idiom adds a welcome twist to what can Bach’s music is often described as indestructible, in the sense that no matter otherwise become ordinary. Of course, jazz is well loved here at HBD, so we are pleased to how it is performed, its essential spirit survives. Many of the transcriptions present: A Concord Christmas (34 & 35) and Jazz & Big Band Holidays (44 & 45). included here represent the work of contemporary, world-class performers bringing Bach’s masterpieces into the repertoire of their own instruments or Folk, Country, Popular, Kids & World ensembles, giving new timbres to the genius of Bach’s contrapuntal lines. The No matter what kind of music you enjoy, you can be certain to find that genre coloring the music much-loved Goldberg Variations, for example, are given not one, but two new of Christmas. Look for more selections in: Folk & Country Christmas (36 & 37); Popular Artists arrangements, as the interwoven voices for keyboard are divided between the (38 & 39); Christmas Around the World (47-49) and Kids & Family (52 & 53). members of a string trio and a recorder quintet. 20CD# BLC 95943 $56.98 Do You Get the Classics & Jazz Catalog? Get on the mailing list for our catalogs! In addition to this Mixed-Genre Catalog, HBDirect regularly publishes a specialty Classical & Jazz catalog. If you are interested, let us know. You A Taste Of Chanukah / Theodore Bikel & Hankus Netsky remain on the mailing list by placing orders. ‘A Taste of Chanukah’ features 150 musicians from the New England Conserva- Note that, very rarely, a price may be incorrect tory, as well as the Boston Community Gospel Choir, Cantor Morton Shames, in a catalog and cannot be honored. and host Theodore Bikel. Celebrate the millenniums-old traditions of the Festival Changes to sales tax obligations of Lights with dance music, psalms, Klezmer, and even gospel tunes in this per- HBDirect is obliged by law to collect sales tax on fect Chanukah celebration. 1CD# RDR 1166131652 $14.98 merchandise and shipping from residents of VT (6%), KY (6%) and TN (9.725%). Mormon Tabernacle Choir: Ultimate Christmas Collection Leave your wallet in your pocket! One of America’s best loved choral ensembles, the Mormon Tabernacle Introducing a new payment method on HBDirect.com! Choir presents this 25-track holiday collection which includes the most If you’ve placed an order in the previous three months popular sacred and secular Christmas music of all time. Classical hymns like by phone or on the web, you can select Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus,” and Schubert’s “Ave Maria,” are included, as Card On File as your payment method. well as twentieth century classics like Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas,” and We’ll bill your last-used credit card and Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride.” These recordings span several decades, contact you if we have any questions. and feature special guests including conductor Leonard Bernstein. 1CD# SBMG 88985359582 $14.98 New Holiday Music The King’s Singers: Christmas Songbook A Winter’s Night: Christmas Music for Choir, Mormon Tabernacle Choir: Christmas Day Christmas With The 5 Browns This new release is the Christmas Brass Quintet & Organ in the Morning CD Imagine The 5 Browns hosting a festive equivalent of The King’s Singers’ recent The addition of a brass ensemble to Celebrate the Christmas season with the dinner party where classical piano music is release, Great American Songbook. Christmas concerts and carol services, Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra the focus of the night. Snow falls and sleigh Paying homage to the a capella group’s combining with the more traditional at Temple Square as they are joined by bells ring through the stories told through the heritage while still acknowledging their sounds of choir and organ, has become Kelli O’Hara, acclaimed Broadway star, as melodies of Christmas music written through modern passion for swing, the group increasingly popular in recent years. well as Emmy Award-winning actor Richard the ages. Whether performing individually mixes Christmas classics like “In the This recording brings together a number Thomas. The musical selections include or together in various combinations from Bleak Midwinter,” and “The Holly and the of works for the specific forces of choir, charming American folk carols, selections duo to complex five-piano arrangements, Ivy,” with modern tunes such as “Winter brass quintet, organ and percussion, from timeless Broadway productions by The 5 Browns reveal a deep connection to Wonderland,” “Frosty the Snowman,” and “Sleigh Ride.” The group’s some of which have been arranged Rodgers & Hammerstein, and a breathtaking the intent of their material while bringing a favorite arrangers have reworked all of these tunes specifically for the specially for this release.