What's your favourite Christmas album?

[Auricauricle]

The 1959 RCA recording of Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is perhaps the finest rendition of The Messiah that I have ever listened to. While the tempo of this work is closer to majesto than other recordings, the austere and grandiloquent style is not plodding and certainly not boring. The chorus is simply terrific and echoes through the chambers of the venue with ease and grace. Plenty of room also is given to the featured soloists, Jennifer Vyvyan, Monica Sinclair, Jon Vickers and Giorgio Tozzi, each of whom contributes a voice that is spot-on in intonation and (great) affection.



For those who want to get away from Christmas music but wish to maintain the mood, Nikolai Korniev and the St Petersburg Chamber Choir’s recording The Angel Cried is a wonderful listen to anyone. Recorded for Philips in 1997, this disc captures all the wonder and awesome depth of sacred Russian music. This is a very nicely recorded album—after all it is a Philips—and is quite easy to listen to. Like the Beecham, this recording is rather dense and lush, with voices echoing and booming through the recording chamber like the ghosts of the featured composers, including Chesnokov, Kalinnikov and Shvedov…



My favorite recording is, like the Korniev, not a Christmas recording, but one of sacred Russian music. Entitled, appropriately, A Collection of Sacred Russian Choral Music, this MCA Classics recording is rather hard to come by. Featuring the great Russian mezzo soprano, Irina Arkhipova, and the Glinka Choir, the disc includes many of the great early Russian composers listed above and others including Degtyrev, Vedel, and Beresovsky. This is a live recording, and what lucky folks those who attended were! The choir is a true wonder to listen to, booming through the venue in grand, sweet gracefulness. Likewise, Arkhipova’s voice lifts beyond the clouds, seating both the audience and listeners like me, right next to the throne of Heaven where we sit, rapt and entranced!

[Feanor]

In case there's any interest I'm going to recommend a few of my favorite traditional choral, (i.e. classicalish), albums. These are pretty superb music, performance, and sound. I'm listening to the Rutter / Cambridge Singers, (the last one), right now: great.

Andrew Parrott /Traverner Consort - Choral Album: Seven Centuries of Christmas Music ...



Andrew Parrott /Traverner Consort - Choral Album 2 ...



Paul Hillier /Theatre of Voices - Carols From the Old & New Worlds, (N.B. superb sound!)...



Paul Hillier /Pro Arte Singers - Traditional & Modern Carols ...



Pro Cantione Antiqua - Medieval Christmas ...



King's Singers - A Little Christmas Music ...



King's Singers - Deck the Halls: Songs for Christmas ...



Aulos Ensemble - In Dulci Jubilo ...



John Rutter /Cambridge Singers - Chritmas Album ...