2023 Christmas Music Thread

[eljr]

Yes, it's way early to be thinking about the Christmas season but great music is great music and it is after labor day that new Christmas music starts coming out.

I was looking for some music from Isabelle Faust and was torn between her Brandenburg Concertos and this one, Christmas with Bach.

I chose Christmas with Bach because of it's varied offerings.

Although it is early, for Christmas season, as I said, great music is great music and it is my first spin since New Year's of anything associated with Christmas.

So, although it is not the season yet, it is Christmas music and it is 2023.

Why not start my Christmas thread? I don't expect to see much if anything here for a couple months but if you care to, here it is.

Christmas with Bach​

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (early music ensemble), Isabelle Faust (violin), Andreas Scholl (counter-tenor), Barbara Schlick (soprano), La Chapelle Royale (early music ensemble), Dorothee Mields (soprano), Ingeborg Danz (contralto), Kristian Bezuidenhout (early keyboard instruments), Antoine Tamestit...

• Release Date: 10th Dec 2021
• Catalogue No: HMNOEL20212DI
• Label: Harmonia Mundi
• Length: 1 hour 44 minutes

You can see a full listing of the tracks here to see why I choose this to listen to today.

It does not need to be the Christmas season to enjoy this or many other Christmas works.

Peace all!

 

[eljr]

​

James MacMillan: Christmas Oratorio​

Lucy Crowe (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Choir, Mark Elder

The spiritual charge of MacMillan’s Oratorio is made palpable, its heady mix of wonder, trepidation and profound mystery stirringly captured. — BBC Music Magazine, Christmas Issue 2022, 4 out of 5 stars More…

• Release Date: 4th Nov 2022
• Catalogue No: LPO0125
• Label: LPO
• Length: 94 minutes

• 
  
  Gramophone Awards
  2023
  Shortlisted - Contemporary

 

[Doghouse]

As an owner of a Yamaha Tyros 5 electric piano, I've already started to annoy my wife by occasionally playing this, including a few jazz chords.

The Christmas Song.mp3 | Powered by Box

app.box.com

 

[Ilikevinyl]

It's Official, Christmas 2023 playlist! Always look forward for you starting playlist, Eljr! Will be posting right after Thanksgiving!

 

[eljr]

Arcadelt: Missa Noe Noe​

Cappella Mediterranea, Leonardo García Alarcón
Chœur de Chambre de Namur

• Release Date: 6th Oct 2023
• Catalogue No: RIC456
• Label: Ricercar
• Length: 62 minutes

 

[eljr]

Handel: Messiah​

Elly Ameling, Anna Reynolds, Philip Langridge, Gwynne Howell
Academy & Chorus of St Martin in the Fields, Neville Marriner

• Release Date: 18th Sep 1995
• Catalogue No: 4448242
• Label: Decca
• Series: Double Decca
• Length: 2 hours 19 minutes

 

[eljr]

Bach, J S: Christmas Oratorio, BWV248​

Mary Bevan (soprano), Clare Wilkinson (alto), Nicholas Mulroy (tenor), Matthew Brook (bass) - Cantatas 1, 3, 6), Joanne Lunn (soprano), Ciara Hendrick (mezzo), Thomas Hobbs (tenor), Konstantin Wolff (bass) - Cantatas 2, 4, 5.
Dunedin Consort, John Butt

It has the same sense of freshness as previous releases…[with] a pleasing transparency of texture, and nimbly sprung rhythms under John Butt’s scholarly direction — BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2016, 4 out of 5 stars More…

• Release Date: 21st Oct 2016
• Catalogue No: CKD499
• Label: Linn
• Length: 2 hours 21 minutes

• 
  
  Presto Recording of the Week
  2nd December 2016
• 
  
  Presto Recordings of the Year
  Finalist 2016

 

[eljr]

Tavener - Ex Maria Virgine

A Christmas Sequence for Choir and Organ
James McVinnie (organ), Stefan Berkieta (baritone), Simon Thomas Jacobs (organ)
Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Timothy Brown

…the singing is strong and enthusiastic, even in the most taxing writing, and the sound is bright and clearly focused… — BBC Music Magazine, December 2008, 4 out of 5 stars More…

• Release Date: 27th Oct 2008
• Catalogue No: 8572168
• Label: Naxos
• Length: 63 minutes

 

[eljr]

​

Calm Christmas​

Chanticleer (vocal ensemble), Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne (vocal ensemble), Anne Azéma (soprano), Ellen Hargis (soprano), Laurie Monahan (mezzo-soprano), Early Music Consort of London (vocal & instrumental ensemble), King's Singers (vocal ensemble), Thibaut Garcia (guitar), Lucienne Renaudin Vary...

• Release Date: 6th Oct 2023
• Catalogue No: 5419775507
• Label: Warner Classics
• Length: 78 minutes

 

[gongli]

Vienna Boy"s Christmas album.

 

[eljr]

Well, with Halloween behind us now and snow showers in the forecast it's officially the Christmas season.
My wife rises early and myself late. She went right to work and when I came downstairs, two trees were already up.

The best way to kick off the season, my favorite Messiah.

Handel: Messiah​

Erin Wall (soprano), Elizabeth DeShong (mezzo-soprano), Andrew Staples (tenor), John Relyea (bass-baritone)
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis

Astonishingly well controlled…the solo voices are rich and weighty…[the] flute provides a charming obbligato to ‘How beautiful are the feet’, while the tenor’s ‘Thy rebuke…’ is intensely moving…a... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2017, 4 out of 5 stars More…

• Release Date: 28th Oct 2016
• Catalogue No: CHSA5176(2)
• Label: Chandos
• Length: 1 hour 53 minutes

• 
  
  Presto Recording of the Week
  2nd December 2016
• 
  
  BBC Music Magazine
  January 2017
  Choral & Song Choice
• 
  
  Presto Recordings of the Year
  Finalist 2016
• 
  
  Grammy Awards
  60th Awards (2017)
  Nominee - Choral Performance

 

[eljr]

​

A Renaissance Christmas​

The Sixteen, Harry Christophers

The Sixteen’s ebulliently pulsing performance [of ‘Resonemus Laudibus’] gets A Renaissance Christmas off to an energetic start, and the tune’s legacy is traced through later settings by Eccard,... — BBC Music Magazine, Christmas Issue 2018, 4 out of 5 stars More…

• Release Date: 28th Sep 2018
• Catalogue No: COR16167
• Label: Coro
• Length: 67 minutes

 

[Ilikevinyl]

​

A Renaissance Christmas​

The Sixteen, Harry Christophers

• Release Date: 28th Sep 2018
• Catalogue No: COR16167
• Label: Coro
• Length: 67 minutes

Eljr, you'll be happy to know one of our FM oldies radio channels is starting today to play 24 hours of Christmas music! We did get our first snowfall this year yesterday, this morning had more but it's almost all melted now. Was looking like Christmas outside!

 

[eljr]

A Pembroke Christmas​

Emma Johnson (clarinet), Wallis Power
The Chapel Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge, The Pembroke College Girls' Choir, Anna Lapwood

Highlights include a numinous take on MacMillan’s O Radiant Dawn, Ailsa McTernan’s soaring solo in Patricia Van Ness’s ‘Archangelus’ and a performance of Kerensa Briggs’s A Tender Shoot, which... — BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2022, 4 out of 5 stars More…

• Release Date: 14th Oct 2022
• Catalogue No: SIGCD724
• Label: Signum
• Length: 70 minutes

 

[eljr]

Eljr, you'll be happy to know one of our FM oldies radio channels is starting today to play 24 hours of Christmas music! We did get our first snowfall this year yesterday, this morning had more but it's almost all melted now. Was looking like Christmas outside!

Yes, I had Sirius playing Christmas music in my car this AM.

They have two stations to choose from. 60 and before and post 1960s.

 

[eljr]

Christmas Star​

Carols for the Christmas season
The Cambridge Singers, John Rutter

• Catalogue No: CSCD503
• Label: Collegium
• Length: 61 minutes
• Release: 1997

 

[eljr]

 

[eljr]

Vaughan Williams, Macmillan & Tavener: Choral Works​

Westminster Abbey Choir / James O'Donnell

James O’Donnell masterminds an account of Vaughan Williams’s Mass in G minor to rank alongside the finest to have come my way...In sum, this classy collection will surely give lasting pleasure. — Gramophone Magazine, September 2023 More…

• Release Date: 2nd Jun 2023
• Catalogue No: CDA68420
• Label: Hyperion
• Length: 72 minutes

 

[eljr]

 

[eljr]

As this is a new release I thought I'd give it another listen.