I don’t know about 2007 releases, but here are some of my faves.
Indispensable:
Anything Robert Shaw Chorale. Growing up we always listened to “The Many Moods Of Christmas” (1950s release). When I found the CD as an adult, it was a Christmas present to each family unit! We realized as adults that there are sudden sweeping changes in volume and pace and mood, so we call it “The Bipolar Moods of Christmas.” Still good though.
Alfred Deller Consort “The Holly and the Ivy - Carols of Old England” - excellent a capella/(sometimes lute and recorder) vocal ensemble. Alfred Deller was a fabulous…uh, what’s the word for a falsetto tenor so high it’s like a soprano? Ah, yes, countertenor. He sounds like a woman. Anyway, this is how we learned our carols and arrangements and it made us excellent carolers ourselves. My sibs and I can still just start singing any carol and the others jump in with their parts. Brilliant.
Any English boychoir/Cathedral choir album, we have lots. Including the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, and Benjamin Britten A Ceremony of Carols.
Spoken Word: Dylan Thomas A Child’s Christmas in Wales. (Meaningful to us because we’re British.)
Celebration - Christmas Fanfares and Carols, BBC Welsh Chorus, and some readings by Alydd Jones…who has such a beautiful Welsh voice.
sigh This is a really excellent CD.
Vince Guaraldi Trio A Charlie Brown Christmas. My SIL (a church music director) played this at her church as pre-processional and post-recessional music one Christmas, very well received. (Episcopal church so no sacrilege to the reserved Lord. They don’t reserve the Lord, they pitch leftover Lord in the trash.)
GRP Christmas Collections, 3 volumes. Love this. Good for the office as background furniture music. Also have some other jazz Christmas compilation CDs. Really nice. Mel Torme doing the Christmas Song…ah, what a velvet voice.
Stephen Siktberg Christmas guitar–a classical guitarist. Also great background music. Very skillfully done. A Musical Heritage Society release.
Tschaikovsky The Nutcracker. It’s nice to put this on and turn out all the lights except the Christmas lights, and kick back on the couch and dream of the dance!
Handel’s Messiah. Yes, it’s a multipurpose piece of music…covers Christmas and Easter!
Faith of our Fathers Christmas. I like all the Faith of our Fathers releases. Irish Philharmonic, Frank Patterson, various monks/nuns/children choirs.
EWTN/OLAM’s organ instrumental music for Christmas.
I mentioned the Patty Loveless Bluegrass White Snow CD in a previous post. Already listened to it…first thing.
Not indispensable but rounds out the collection:
I have some fun CDs of Christmas carol instrumentals done with Appalachian or Celtic instrumentation. In fact, I just fired up Joy to the World Appalachian style, man, it’s like a hoedown!
The Charlie Byrd Christmas Album
Garrison Keillor Now it is Christmas again - songs and stories from the Norwegian-Midwestern style. I like the Prairie Home Companion touch.
Fun dinner music: Home At Last - Eddie Bauer Christmas, and Williams Sonoma Dinnertime Companion - My Favorite Things.
A Skaggs Family Christmas (as in Ricky Skaggs) - surprisingly good both as a concert to attend and as a CD. There’s a good spoken word story very much in the mountain oral tradition, along the lines of Christ the visiting stranger tradition.
For a N’Awlins touch: Marcus Roberts Prayer for Peace (piano) and I have a really fun and “dirty” (musically, not morally) version of Winter Wonderland by Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers. (from the WIlliams Sonoma CD.)
I admit to liking Mannheim Steamroller. I also recently saw the Trans Siberian Orchestra in concert, and the first half was dramatic oral interpretation and song (both traditional and original), all about Christmas, and very good; TSO sounds like a symphony but it’s not–it’s like a 80s hair band version of Mannheim Steamroller. I haven’t seen that much big hair since the 80s! They wear tux-tails, though, not spandex pants and shredded shirts. LOL They rock on classical music and the crowd loves it. I like how that gives young folks a taste of classical music–it’s like putting cheese sauce on to make the kids eat their vegetables.
TSO was a great show, but I’m not sure I’d buy the CD.
Of local interest to Twin Cities MinnesOtans:
Holy Childhood Schola Cantorum (St. Paul MN) Good News and Great Joy. This church’s/school’s music program was really exceptional throughout the long drought…they should get a medal for bravery during hazardous duty…or something. They deserve much more recognition for their accomplishment.
The MinnesOta Boychoir - Heaven Sent and Winter Wonderland. (My Dnephew was in this choir.)
That was really awful. The glottal stop on the very first syllable was my warning that I wouldn’t make it through the first line.
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