This is the second year the #ClassicsaDay team went with a Classical Christmas theme. And that’s fine. If you think about it, composers have been writing works for the season as long as there’s been notation to preserve them. For my contributions, I tried to avoid the obvious choices. In the process, I discovered some […]
Classical
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Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain – An Irish-Appalachian Celebration
In 2015 Apollo’s Fire released “Sugarloaf Mountain: An Appalachian Gathering.” This Classical Crossover chart-topper celebrated the connection between Scotch-Irish mountain music and early Celtic and British music. “Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain” revisits the premise with a fresh batch of tunes. Rest assured these are no delicate forays into folk music by classical practitioners. Director Jeannette […]
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Margaretha Consort Delivers Authentic 17th C. German Christmas
Marit Broekroelofs and the Margretha Consort present a fascinating program of seasonal music. There are plenty of early Baroque Christmas albums to choose from, in just about every flavor. What makes this recording stand out is the consistency of the artistic vision. Broekroelofs has taken the seasonal repertoire of the early Protestant church and presents […]
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Gothenburg Youth Choir Delights with “A Christmas Wish”
I have to admit, when I first played this album I was quite surprised. The voices sounded fuller and lower than I expected for a youth choir. But the members of the Gothenburg Youth Choir are all between the ages of 16 to 25. This is no children’s choir — and therein lies the difference. […]
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#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalChristmas Week 1
This is the second year the #ClassicsaDay team went with a Classical Christmas theme. And that’s fine. If you think about it, composers have been writing works for the season as long as there’s been notation to preserve them. For my contributions, I tried to avoid the obvious choices. In the process, I discovered some […]
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Das neugeborne Kindelein – Baroque Cantatas for the Season
This release presents Christmas cantatas from three German Baroque masters: Dieterich Buxtehude, Georg Philipp Telemann, and Johann Sebastian Bach. All three wrote cantatas for each Sunday of the Liturgical calendar. Buxtehude was of the generation before Telemann and Bach and was a model to the younger composers. His cantata Das neugeborne Kindelein opens the program. It’s […]
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Telemann Christmas Oratorios – stellar performances from the Kölner Akademie
For Telemann, 1730-31 was the “year of oratorios.” Given the rich musical resources of Hamburg, he wrote a series of oratorios for the liturgical year. Michael Alexander Willens and the Kölner Akademie perform three of these recently rediscovered works, all centered around Christmas. The Baroque oratorio was closely related to opera, and Telemann wrote accordingly. The […]
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#ClassicsaDay #ArmisticeClassics Week 4
November 19, 2018, is the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended the First World War. The #ClassicaDay team asked participants to post classical works related to the conflict. For my part, I tried to find examples from both sides of the war, and from as many different countries as possible. Here are my posts […]
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Larsson Symphony No. 3 – Music that should be heard more often
This release completes Andrew Manze’s traversal of Lars-Erik Larsson symphonies — although I hope he doesn’t stop there. Larsson was a talented composer who crafted his own language out of various 20th Century trends. It’s a voice that needs to be heard more often. The centerpiece of this release is Larsson’s 1944 Symphony No. 3 […]