The liner notes for this release are very clear. This is NOT a historical recreation of a Christmas from the 1600s. Rather, it’s sort of an impression of what one might have heard during the holidays in Tudor or Stuart England. I can accept that premise. Christmas music as a separate genre really didn’t develop […]
Holiday music
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The Secret Life of Carols — not what you think
If you — like me — are looking for a seasonal recording with a fresh perspective, check out “The Secret Life of Carols.” The early music ensemble The Telling presents a collection of (mostly) familiar carols in intimate performances. Unlike, say, the Boston Camerata, The Telling doesn’t give us the historical development of each piece. […]
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Jack Dunlap Band ruin Christmas at Offbeat Roadhouse, Dec 20
The Jack Dunlap Band will pull into Offbeat Roadhouse to ruin Christmas on Friday night, December 20, from 8-9 for a concert which will also be broadcast on WTJU. Sure you could listen to Offbeat Roadhouse on the radio (91.1 FM) or on-line, and even video stream it, but concerts always sound better with you as part of the […]
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Spielleyt delights with early Christmas music
The early music ensemble Spielleyt serves up a fresh approach to classical music of the season. Weihnacht der Spielleyt primarily consists of selections from one publication: the Straßburger Gesangbuch of 1697. Technically, this collection came out in the middle of the Baroque period. But most of the songs are much older than that. And Spielleyt peels the […]
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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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#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 […]