The
development of Christmas music begins in the Middle Ages, although it
has to be said that its Christmassy nature is developed more by the
texts which are sung than by the music itself. Comparing two superb CDs
by the Orlando
Consort,
their 'Medieval Christmas' and their similarly thematic 'Medieval
Gardens', the musical aesthetic is very similar,
the differences are present in the style of performance and the text
which is sung. Nevertheless it may be that the sound of medieval and
renaissance polyphony has acquired a connection with Christmas: on
several occasions we have heard people refer to a standard polyphonic
work as 'Christmassy' perhaps for the reason that Christmas is a time
at which people become more aware of sacred music or feel some need to
explore older repetoire.Whether
you think it is particularly festive or not, there are a number of
excellent recordings of medieval Christmas music available, including
the following:
 Orlando Consort -
Medieval
Christmas
This
is Christmas Matters' particular favourite of the medieval recordings we've
listened to.
The Orlando Consort
have a particular knack for presenting what might
be quite same-y material (see the comments below) in an
exciting and invigorating manner. The first
thing they do in putting together their programme is to
divide the material into several different sections: so we
have 'Prophecy',
'New Year's Day', 'Carol', 'Narrative Motets' & 'Noel'. The first
of these sets a sombre, devotional tone, then contrasted with the
strongly-sung first 'New Year' music, driven along by percussion. The
other 'New Year' material is not so different in tone - but 'Annus renascitur' that begins this section does a great job of providing variety. The closing 'Ce jour de l'an'
achieves a similar effect with its dancing rhythms - the Orlando
Consort avoid an overly homogenous sound in a really clever way here.
Somehow they manage to combine contrast and continuity - just as the
way 'Ce jour de l'an' dances
into the 'Carol' section. We could continue to pick out highlights, but
this would end up far too long. It's a wonderful record and the version
here of 'Lullay, lullow, I saw a swete semely syght' is sublime - suffice to say we recommend it wholeheartedly.
 The Sixteen - A
Medieval
English Christmas
This
is a recording which runs the Orlando Consort pretty close. Taking a
more restricted, insular, selection of music, it also has a more varied
aesthetic, with well-judged percussion and instrumentation along with a
more 'traditional' feel. As genres of Christmas music appear
so fluid
to me this isn't surprising, but we did wonder whether to put it on this
page or in the Folk and Traditional music section. It's
a healthy and
creative mix, spanning a range of Christmas songs from the rollicking
'Drive the Cold Winter Away' and 'The Old Year now has Passed Away' to
the utterly sublime 'Lullaby my Sweet Little Babe' by William Byrd. The
soloists and full choir of The
Sixteen do a great job of presenting their programme. Yet
another recording to put alongside their Christmas Oratorio
and Folk and Traditional
offerings. All the recordings by The Sixteen featured
here are available via the download site Audiolunchbox.
Anonymous 4 - On
Yoolis Night & Wolcum Yule  These
two CDs on the Harmonia Mundi label offer two ways of interpreting
Medieval and Renaissance Christmas music. The first, a selection of
Medieval carols and motets,
is similar to the Orlando Consort's
recording above. 'On Yoolis
Night' is sung in
a particularly lovely way, but somehow to us it sounds almost too
polished, achieving a perfection in sound which is in danger of
becoming homogenous. Over the length of an album, the sense of style
achieved
somewhat detracts from the substance of the music. We found the
Orlando Consort and The Sixteen more convincing with the same
repertoire.
 We
might be being a little unfair in that
judgement, but more positively we find their later record 'Wolcum
Yule' far more successful. A more varied selection of
medieval,
renaissance,
traditional and modern pieces, it features wonderfully well-judged
accompaniment by harpist Andrew
Lawrence-King. Two highlights from this disc are a premier
recording
of Peter Maxwell
Davies' setting of Orkney poet George Mackay
Brown's 'A Calendar of Kings' and the
performance of Henry
VIII's
carol 'Grene growith the holy'.
 Heinrich Schütz (left),
who
wrote
during the troubled seventeenth century in Germany, composed a sequence
of beautiful and deeply touching meditations upon the Christmas Story, his
'Weihnachtshistorie'. This consists of a series of arias and choruses
connected by tenor recitatives comprising the Evangelist role. It has a
much smaller-scale nature than Bach's
Christmas Oratorio.
As such it almost seems to have the quality of a bridge between the
medieval and renaissance polyphony and the bolder statements and
instrumentation of the Baroque.
One
of the most striking features of this music - other than its radiant
beauty - is the way in which Schütz characterises all the participants
in the drama, mostly by the instrumentation and the combination of solo
and ensemble voices. The Angel's first announcement is a pure soprano,
followed by a swirling choral multitude and the individual voices of
the shepherds, accompanied by pastoral wind instruments. The Evanglist
knits it all together and keeps the familiar story ticking along. Christmas Matters can recommend each of the three recordings mentioned below. They all we would say achieve a similar level of
distinction with the material. You can dip into any one of them with confidence.
 René Jacobs is as
good in this repertoire as he was with his recording of the Bach. His
recording features particularly good ensemble work in the voices:
tenors Gerd Türk
and Werner Güra
are especially good. This has the best sound of all three of the
versions mentioned here. Warmth and intimacy throughout, although
Jacobs is not afraid to really push the boat out when it comes to the
brass - this is an interpretation that does not lose pungency from its
overall polished beauty. It's our favourite of the three we've listened
to when putting this page together.
 Then
Paul McCreesh
and the Gabrieli Consort
take a different and fascinating
approach, choosing to reconstruct the liturgical context in which the
piece might have been performed. So as well as the Schütz
'Weihnachtshistorie' we get accompanying hymns, liturgical items and
organ pieces. It is a particularly successful approach and his choir
and band carry it off with great aplomb.
 Finally,
on the Naxos
label and so a choice for best value recording (although
the McCreesh and Jacobs won't break the bank either), is the
Oxford Camerata
who take the approach of Jacobs rather than McCreesh
and present the piece by itself. It's a lovely performance.
Summerly's Evangelist, Paul Agnew, is a veteran of Ton Koopman's series
of Bach cantata recordings and he puts in a great performance here. The
choir is also especially good.
 Handel's
'Messiah'
has enjoyed an association with Christmas, despite originally being
performed at Passiontide. The joyful exuberance of much of the music
has no doubt contributed to it becoming more of a fixture of Christmas. Such a popular work has a plethora of
recordings available as you might expect and surveying them is a more
daunting prospect even than the Weihnachtsoratorium.
Nevertheless,
check back for a brief journey through a handful of particularly good
recordings - a mere drop in the ocean of what's out there! We can without hesitation recommend Christopher
Hogwood's groundbreaking
1980s recording on authentic instruments (left), featuring soloists
Judith Nelson
& Emma Kirkby
(sopranos) as well as Carolyn
Watkinson
(contralto), Paul Elliott (tenor)
and David Thomas
(bass). For more
recommendations, see the reviews on the excellent GF Handel
site (scroll down to see them) with recommended
recordings. The site is a treasure trove
of resources on Handel, including an introduction to
'Messiah'.
 Right up to date with the
twentieth century, Benjamin
Britten's
'A Ceremony of Carols' is another much-loved feature of the season.
Similarly to 'Messiah', it could provide ample opportunity for a
comparative review of available recordings. Sadly we only have one to recommend; but it is a beautifully performed
version. The Sixteen
seem to
have a particular knack for the choral music associated with Christmas.
Their Christmas Oratorio is very fine indeed, as are their medieval
'Christus natus est' and traditional
Christmas carol collection.
They perform just as well in this CD of Britten.
 Finally,
more evidence that almost everywhere you turn you can find a wonderful
Christmas CD, Paul Hiller
and the Estonian
Philharmonic Choir's
beautiful selection of Orthodox music for Christmas. Selecting works
predominantly from the beginning of the twentieth century, it begins
with the
spine-tingling sound of the bells of St Alexander Cathedral in Tallinn
and what follows is a tour de force of choral singing. There are so
many highlights that it's difficult to select just a few. Barvinskyi's 'Oh What a Wonder!' is one of them, a
wonderful performance by the soprano soloist. Izvekov's
sequence of Odes 'Christ is Born' is the most substantial piece in
terms of length and has the combination of beauty, simplicity and
meditation present in much of the finest Christmas music. The
image of bells kept returning throughout the
programme (they return literally in Izvekov's first Ode for 'Christ is
Born' and in the final piece), the voices seeming to chime from the
skies. It's well worth
looking out for this one.
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