Music for Advent and Christmas

[ChamberNut]

Now playing the superb Christmas Eve Suite by Rimsky-Korsakov



from this box set:

[ChamberNut]

Some more "Christmas" music, Penderecki's 2nd Symphony.

[ChamberNut]

From Penderecki, back to more traditional music for this time. This recording of The Nutcracker, conducted by Bychkov leading the Berlin Philharmonic, taken from this magnificent Ballet Masterpieces box set:

[Karl Henning]

Choir and clarinet:

Hodie Christus natus est, Opus 76 | Music by Karl Henning | Listen on audio.com

[pjme]

I'm all set for this

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0026d1r

A celebration of Christmas from the stunning candlelit Chapel of King's College, Cambridge. This year marks the seventieth anniversary of the first carol service being broadcast. Led by the Dean, the Revd Dr Stephen Cherry, the programme begins in the time-honoured way as a solo chorister sings the first verse of Once in Royal David's City, just as it did in 1954.

Music includes Henry Walford Davies's setting of O Little Town of Bethlehem, Edvard Grieg's Ave Maris Stella, and Nativity Carol by John Rutter. The story of the Nativity is read by members of King's College in the words of the King James Bible and in poems by Christina Rossetti, Edwin Muir, and G K Chesterton. Congregational carols include O Come All Ye Faithful, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.


Release date:24 December 2024
1 hour, 13 minutes

As always this carol service was tasteful and the Chapel of King's College is a stunningly beautiful building, including a superb Rubens "Adoration of the magi".... but the Brits do love sentimentality in abundance...(Minuit chrétien / O holy night) by Adolphe Adam being the pinnacle of 19th tear jerckery...)
Still, the chorus was wonderful and the readings of poetry hit the right tone.

[hopefullytrusting]

My two Christmas "traditions"

Listening to this version of The Nutcracker (Dorati):



Watching The Snowman:

[Karl Henning]

[Karl Henning]

My friend Todd Brunel is the clarinetist here:

[foxandpeng]

My mom passed away earlier this week, so it has been tough to listen to music. She wanted to hear some Christmas music while in the hospital last week, so I broke out some recordings I hadn't heard in a while. The playing style of British brass bands is not a sound I particularly like, but it doesn't bother me as much in these Huddersfield recordings.

On the other hand, Sir Colin Davis' A Festival of Christmas Carols has easily become a new favorite of mine.
VS

I've only just seen this. I'm really sorry.

[Harry]

My mom passed away earlier this week, so it has been tough to listen to music. She wanted to hear some Christmas music while in the hospital last week, so I broke out some recordings I hadn't heard in a while. The playing style of British brass bands is not a sound I particularly like, but it doesn't bother me as much in these Huddersfield recordings.

On the other hand, Sir Colin Davis' A Festival of Christmas Carols has easily become a new favorite of mine.
VS

My condolences. I am sorry for your loss. Just saw this message.

[Karl Henning]

My mom passed away earlier this week, so it has been tough to listen to music. She wanted to hear some Christmas music while in the hospital last week, so I broke out some recordings I hadn't heard in a while. The playing style of British brass bands is not a sound I particularly like, but it doesn't bother me as much in these Huddersfield recordings.

On the other hand, Sir Colin Davis' A Festival of Christmas Carols has easily become a new favorite of mine.
VS

Deeply sorry, buddy!

[Karl Henning]

Sweetest Ancient Cradle Song, Op. 67

[Kalevala]

@VonStupp I'm so very sorry for your loss.

K

[VonStupp]

@VonStupp I'm so very sorry for your loss.

K

Thank you @Kalevala @Karl Henning @Harry , and if I didn't mention it before @Florestan @ritter @Franco_Manitobain from earlier. I appreciate you taking time to send your thoughts my way!
VS

[Kalevala]

Thank you @Kalevala @Karl Henning @Harry , and if I didn't mention it before @Florestan @ritter @Franco_Manitobain from earlier. I appreciate you taking time to send your thoughts my way!
VS

It's hard when you lose a parent.

Wishing you all the best,

K

[Mandryka]

Excellent choice! It is such a wonderful work.

Frank Martin's "Le mystère de la nativité" is a tougher nut to crack.

When you're not exactly sure what to say about something you sort of like but can't quite classify, you might resort to using the word "interesting". Frank Martin's ponderous and intermittently fascinating "mystery play" certainly is interesting, from the huge choruses, highly dramatic vocal solo parts, passages of spoken dialogue, and richly colored orchestral accompaniments and interludes. But it's far more than that: its propulsive, compelling sense of action, multitude of "characters", and theatrical spirit keep you listening. The Stravinsky of Symphony of Psalms appears periodically--the opening gestures, the orchestral introduction to the "Et incarnatus est" movement, various starkly harmonized choral sections--and even more evident is the Debussy of Pelléas et Mélisande. But more apparent is the uniquely engaging style of Martin, who uses many tools and draws from many different materials to convey the meaning of the text: 12-tone themes, brass fanfares, extended vocal arias, speech/song, polyphonic choral sections, impressionistic, moody orchestral settings, and more traditional melodic/harmonic structures.

In Le Mystère de la Nativité he sets what the rather skimpy liner notes describe as the "complementary story to the passion--namely the birth of Jesus" based on texts to the 15th-century mystery play Mystère de la Passion by Arnoul Gréban. As usual with Martin, the work is laden with references to light and darkness, the spiritual and material, love and death--subjects holding priority among themes essential to human existence. Stage directions for this one-hour-and-40-minute work include "requiring three simultaneous stages representing the three levels of heaven, earth, and hell." As you listen to the music, you can tell which area is being represented even if you can't understand the text: the vulgar shouting and ugly vocalizations of Satan, the simpler, more tuneful, "folklike" earth music, and the more harmonically pure and fundamental sounds of the heavenly angels. Sometimes the sheer dramatic impact of the music--especially in the second and third parts--sounds more like an opera than a cantata or oratorio.

Nevertheless, listening to this intriguing piece puts you in the middle of a skillfully-crafted re-creation of one of the world's most revered stories, examined from an unusual perspective--with input from both heaven and hell! The chorus and orchestra are uniformly excellent and are shown to luminous effect by the detailed, well-balanced live recording (applause-o-phobes can just click "stop" in the slight pause after the last chord and you'll be fine). Soloists, too, are quite respectable, especially bass Michael Pavlu, baritone Peter Brechbühler, and tenor Hans-Jürg Rickenbacher. This certainly is one of the more unusual additions to the catalog of Christmas-themed recordings, but it's one that rewards as much as it mystifies. Unfortunately, for English speakers that mystery extends to the text translations, which are printed only in French and German.

[11/15/2001] --David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com on the third release / Musiques Suisses.


Cascavelle issued the worldpremiere recording with both Aafje Heynis and Elly Ameling in their youthful ( ca 1958?) prime.
Ameling's /Mary's slumbersong ( at ca 12.30) is exquisite.

[flash=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/v/dXmGhrbB0Jc[/flash]


The Luna discs combines Golgotha, Le mystère de la nativité and the 2nd pianoconcerto. The line up of soloists and conductors is impressive!




Track 1-GOLGOTHA - PASSION ORATORIO (1946) 17 (Part One)

Edda Moser
Christa Ludwig
Peter Schreier
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Harry Peeters

Arnold Schönberg Chor - ORF Chor
Einstudierung: Erwin Ortner
Orgel: Thomas Daniel Schlee
ORF Symphonieorchester
Dirigent: Lothar Zagrosek
Salzburger Festspiele, Felsenreitschule
11. August 1986

CD 2

Track 1-2
GOLGOTHA - PASSION ORATORIO (1946) (Part Two)

Track 3-11
DAS MYSTERIUM VON DER GEBURT DES HERRN (Part One)

Le mystère de la Nativité
Oper in 3 Teilen (1959) sung in German

Gottvater /Simeon: Tugomir Franc
Erzengel Gabriel / Melchior: Stanley Kolk
Lucifer / Aloris / Jaspar / Le Prêtre: Kurt Ruzicka
Satan / Ysambert: Gerhard Stolze
Beelzebub / Rifflart: Herbert Prikopa
Prologus / Astaroth / Pellion / Balthasar: Hans Christian
Adam / Joseph: Otto Wiener
Eva / Unsere Frau: Ileana Cotrubas
Elisabeth: Anna- Ingrid Mayr

Wiener Jeunesse-Chor - ORF-Chor
Wiener Symphoniker
Director: Bruno Maderna
Wien, Wiener Konzerthaus, Grosser Saal,
December 21,1970

CD 3

Track 1-5
DAS MYSTERIUM VON DER GEBURT DES HERRN (Part Two)

Track 6-8
PIANO CONCERTO NO.2 (1968-1969)

Con moto
Lento
Presto – Cadenza
Paul Badura – Skoda

Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest
Conductor: Josef Krips
Amsterdam, Concertgebouw, January 27, 1972

- See more at: http://www.opera-club.net/release.asp?rel=413#sthash.5tw5yLah.dpuf

This was the only mention of Thomas Daniel Schlee that I could find on the site. I've just discovered him, a CD called Aurora - really very impressive indeed.