German Christmas music from the 17th Century

For those who want a serene playlist of German Christmas music from the 17th century, this is the place! The Margaretha Consort recently recorded this CD, that has played many times on my computer. Conductor, gamba player Marit Broekroelofs wrote the liner notes that can be read here:

https://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.551398&catNum=551398&filetype=About%20this%20Recording&language=English#

Playlist: 

1 Praeludium for Organ in G minor by Franz Tunder 

 Gerrit Hoving (Organ) 

2. Nun komm der Heiden Heiland by Michael Praetorius 

3. O Jesu, nomen dulce by Heinrich Schütz 

4. In dulci jubilo by Michael Praetorius 

Written: by 1619; Germany 

5. Maria durch ein Dornwald arr by Frank Wakelkamp 

6. Puer natus in Bethlehem by Michael Praetorius 

Written: by 1619; Germany 

7. Nobilissime Jesu by Alberich Mazak 

8. Heute ist Christus der Herr geboren, SWV 439 by Heinrich Schütz 

Written: 1632; Germany 

9. Teutsch Et in terra by Michael Praetorius 

10. Illibata ter beata by Petrus Hurtado 

11. Vater unser im Himmelreich by Hans Leo Hassler 

12. Quem pastores by Michael Praetorius 

13. Es ist ein Ros entsprungen by Michael Praetorius 

14. Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern by Johann Hermann Schein 

15. Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her, WV 69 by Heinrich Scheidemann 

16. Veni, veni, Emmanuel, Traditional, arr by Frank Wakelkamp

Margaretha Consort

Conductor:  Marit Broekroelofs

Hope you will enjoy it! 

https://open.spotify.com/album/0DSDnGvaAWLwWwMOJ97Q9w?si=HNQ8STKXT82CqN75JtTt-g (Webplayer link) 

The best Christmas album ever on Spotify, Boston Pops Christmas Party

Ok, RCA Read Seal LSC 2329. *The* ultimate Christmas album. One of the best known albums, also by the Boston Pops Orchestra (more about them, here) and Arthur Fiedler. Not to many words now for this 1959 album, just enjoy the playlist ;-) For more detailed info (about soloists etc), click here. 

Track 01 A Christmas Festival

Track 02 White Christmas

Track 03 Sleigh Ride

Track 05 Winter Wonderland

Track 06 Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers

Track 07 Hansel And Gretel: Dream Pantomine

Track 08 Sleigh Ride

Track 09 The Nutcracker: Dance Of The Sugar-Plum Fairy

Track 10 Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

Track 11 Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town

https://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/1kkLH5i9jZ5KM0dBThfMOk (Webplayer link)

Alt-Christmas Oratorio :-)

In the time of Alt-Right and Alt-Truth, there is a quite more positive “alt” actually and that is Ton Koopman’s “Alt-Weinachtsoratorium”. A collection of Christmas cantata’s by Johann Sebastian Bach. 

Merry christmas and I hope you will enjoy these Christmas Cantata’s…!

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Cantate BWV.182, "Himmelskönig, sei willkommen” (1714)

Barbara Schlick - soprano

Kai Wessel - Alt

Christoph Prégardien - Tenor

Klaus Mertens - Bass

Cantate BWV.62, "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland” (1724)

Dorothea Röschmann - SoprNO

Elisabeth von Magnus, Bogna Bertosz - Alt

Jörg Dürmüller - Tenor

Klaus Mertens - Bass

Cantate BWV.40, "Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes” (1723)

Bogna Bartosz - Alt 

Jörg Dürmüller - Tenor 

Klaus Mertens - Bass

Cantate BWV.65, "Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen” (1724)

Dorothea Röschmann - SoprNO

Elisabeth von Magnus, Bogna Bertosz - Alt

Jörg Dürmüller - Tenor

Klaus Mertens - Bass

https://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/0dfv0t9pbqwf76vHbs70HN

(Webplayer link)

Stephen Fry and Classical Christmas music on Spotify

Here is a very fine collection of Classical Christmas lollipops…

I discovered this CD when listening to this 78 RPM record of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Catchy Christmas overture from the mid ’20's. Could not fin a modern version on Youtube, but, with some trouble, did find it could be heard on the CD below. How nice this collection is! 

Stephen Fry is the narrator in Clement Clarke Moore’s (1779-1863) “The Night before Christmas”. Hope you will enjoy it too! :-)

Liner notes -> Here 

Leopold Mozart (1719-1787) arr. Lane, Philip (b 1950)

-Divertimento in F Major, "Die musikalische Schlittenfahrt" (The Musical Sleigh-ride)

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), arr Sydney Baynes (1879-1938)

-The Forest of Wild Thyme, Op. 74: Christmas Overture 

Jules Massenet (1842-1912)

-La vierge: The Last Sleep of the Virgin (cello solo Matthew Lee)

Philip Lane (b. 1950)

-Overture on French Carols

-The Night before Christmas (narrated by Stephen Fry)

Otto Nicolai (1810-49)

-Weihnachts-Ouverture uber Vom Himmel hoch

John Carmichael (b 1930) arr Philip Lane

-Sleighride to Thredbo (arr. for orchestra)

Franz Liszt (1811-86) arr Anthony Collins (1893-1963)

 Weihnachtsbaum, S613/R307 (excerpts) (arr. for orchestra)

-Scherzoso: Man zundet die Kerzen des Baumes an (Lighting the Tree) 

-Ehemals (Old Times, violin solo by Rebecca Turner)

-Games 

-Bedtime 

Doreen Carwithen (1922-2002) (reconstructed by Philip Lane)

-On the 12th Day

BBC concert orchestra

BBC singers 

Barry Wordsworth, conductor

Stephen Fry, narration on “The Night before Christmas”

https://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/4L2RKAdzQ2Bqoz2QgLtMg5

(HTTP link)

Das alte Jahr vergangen ist - Samuel Scheidt Sacrae Cantiones on Spotify

Last day of the year. And I want to wish you all a happy new year! 
To finish the old year in style, I would like to be the last Spotifytrack on this page to be:
„Das alte Jahr vergangen ist” (the old year is over, freely translated :-) by a composer from the early 17th century, Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654). A German composer who studied with Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck in Amsterdam and who introduced the new, more homophonic choir style of the Italian renaissance in the Northern Countries. 
Really an excellent performance by Belgian ensemble Vox Luminis, of which the Gramophone magazine wrote: 'Vox Luminis' is already an ensemble of the finest calibre; their intonation, tuning and declamatory sensitivity for words are deeply impressive, and the consort singing always shows a keen affinity for emotive harmonic twists.”

See you in 2015! 
Rolf

Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654), Sacrae Cantiones (published 1620)
Surrexit Christus hodie 
Richte mich Gott 
Sende dein Licht und deine Wahreit 
Ist nicht Ephraim mein teurer Sohn 
Lobet im Himmel den Herren  
Vater unser im Himmelreich  
Jauchzet Gott, alle Land  
Puer natus in Bethlehem  
Das alte Jahr vergangen ist

Sara Jäggi & Zsuzsi Tóth, sopranos
Helen Cassano, mezzo-soprano
Paulin Bündgen & Jan Kullmann, counter-tenors
Robert Buckland, Philippe Froeliger & Satoshi Mizukoshi, tenors
Bertrand Delvaux & Lionel Meunier, basses

Masato Suzuki, organ
Ricardo Rodríguez Miranda, viola da gamba
Benny Aghassi & Alain de Rijckere, bassoon
Conductor: Lionel Meunier

http://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/6uyvlSDUDTpeBRAqTzGsz8 (HTTP link)

Christof Graupner Ein Weihnachtsoratorium a Christmas oratorio on Spotify

Christof Graupner is remembered these days primarily because he was the second choice in getting the job for Thomaskantor in Leipzig in 1723. First choice Telemann used the offer to get better conditions and salary in Hamburg, and Graupner would have loved to fill the application if it weren't for his old boss, who would not let him go. The job then went to one JS Bach... In his day Graupner was a very well respected composer, who's legacy was a cause for many legal battles. therefore virtually nothing was issued of his music after his death. Odd enough, it's also the reason why almost all of his music is preserved. 

Thanks to a suggestion from the Classical Music Guide forum (yes classical music forums still exist :-) I was pointed at this CD. It’s not „really” one work, but a collection of 9 cantata’s by Graupner through different time periods. But how great to have heard them!
Sample for instance "Jauchzet ihr Himmel, erfreue dich Erde” for 1st Christmas day, if you have Jauchzet Frolocket enough, this is a fine substitute ! :-)

Hope you will enjoy these works! 

Christoph Graupner (1683-1760) „Ein Weihnachtsoratorium” 

"Die Nacht ist vergangen" GWV 1101 / 22; (1st advent)
"Heulet, denn des Herrn Tag ist nah" GWV 1102 / 26; (2nd advent)
"Wer da glaubet, dass Jesus sei der Christ" GWV 1103 / 40; (3rd advent)
"Tut Busse und lasse sich ein jeglicher taufen" GWV 1104 / 34; (4th advent)
"Wie bald hast Du gelitten" GWV 1109 / 14; (Feast of the circumcision)
"Jauchzet ihr Himmel, erfreue dich Erde" GWV 1105 / 53; (1st Christmas day)
"Sie eifern um Gott" GWV 1106 / 46; (2nd Christmas day)
"Gott sei uns gnädig" GWV 1109 / 41; (New Year)
"Merk auf, mein Herz" GWV1111 / 44 (For January 6th)

Amaryllis Dieltiens, Soprano

Elisabeth Scholl, Soprano

Lothar Blum, Tenor

Reinoud van Mechelen, Tenor
Stefan Geyer, bass

Ex Tempore, 

Mannheimer Hofkapelle,

Florian Heyerick, conductor

http://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/4UThzTN4NgL80B0Q6ccIiZ (HTTP link)

Baroque Christmas on Spotify Classical

The Ultimate Baroque Christmas playlist! :-)

For me, one of the penultima Christmas concerto’s is the F major concerto by Johan Christoph Pez  (1664-1716). Unique about this concerto is, that it was not originally intended for a church service, but for a „Christmas music at home” play, with shepherds and shepherdess in an arcadian and rather erotic mode…

Arcangelo Corelli’s (1653-1713) groundbreaking Christmas  concerto in g-minor was composed for Christmas night (“Fatto per la notte di Natale“). Corelli probably wrote this concerto in 1690 for the young Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni and was played at a special service at Christmas eve. The performance by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra under Nicholas Mc Gegan is swift and fresh, completely ripped of the grave undertones normally connected to this piece. 

Finally, a fine Christmas concerto from Torelli pupil Francesco Manfredini (1684-1762) in C major, probably written around 1718, “per il Santissimo Natale” and probably written for a service at Christmas eve concludes the playlist.

I hope you will enjoy the music, and I with you a Merry Christmas!

Johan Christoph Pez  (1664-1716): Concerto Pastorale in F-Major for 2 recorders, violin, 2 celli and Basso Continuo. 
Günther Höller, Manfred Peters, recorders
Collegium Aureum (on authentic instruments)
Fransjozef Maier, conductor

Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713) Concerto Grosso in g-minor “Fatto per la notte di Natale“ op 6 no 8
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (on authentic instruments)
Nicholas Mc Gegan, conductor

Francesco Manfredini (1684-1762) Concerto in C Major “per il Santissimo Natale” op 3 no 12
Il Gardino Armonico (on authentic instruments)

http://open.spotify.com/album/4PTfJu8u297g5hHJvY9utn (HTTP link)

MERRY CHRISTMAS...!! 

Bach advent cantata and baroque Christmas with Emma Kirkby on Spotify

We are not quite blessed with the survival of Advent cantata’s by Johann Sebastian Bach.

The music of BWV 71a, 186a are lost, 147a we only know because some of the music was re-used in the famous BWV 147 cantata (for a completely different feast in July!) and BWV 141 was actually written by Georg Philip Telemann… Fortunately, the cantata that was written for the 4th Sunday in Advent and had it’s world premiere on December 22 1715, exactly 298 years ago…!

Combined it with a very fine Chrismas CD from Emma Kirkby. Besides two Chrstmas cantatas form Alessandro Scarlatti (yes, daddy of…) she sings a reconstructed aria from BWV 147a.

Hope you enjoy the music!

Johann Sebastian Bach, Cantata „Bereitet die Wege bereitet die 

Bahn” BWV 132 (1st performance: December 22, 1715 - Weimar)

Ingrid Schmithüsen, soprano 

Yoshikazu Mera, Counter-tenor:

Makoto Sakurada, tenor

Peter Kooy, bass

Bach Collegium Japan,

Masaaki Suzuki, conductor

(recorded 1997)

Philipp Friedrich Böddecker - Natus est Jesus (1651)

Alessandro Scarlatti - Non Sò Qual Più M'ingombra (1716)

Johann Pachelbel - Cannon & Gigue

Johann Sebastian Bach - Offne Dich Mein Ganzes Herze from BWV 61

Air from 3nd suite

Bereite Dir, Jesu noch ist so die Bahn from BWV 147a

Alessandro Scarlatti - O Di Betlemme, Altera Poverta Venturosa

Arcangelo Corelli - Concerto Grosso In G Minor, Op. 6 No. 8 ('Fatto Per La Notte Natale’, published 1714, one year after Corelli’s death)

Emma Kirkby, soprano

London Baroque

Charles Medlam, conductor

(recorded 2000)

http://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/1tBFJ23dCv9wf9dOgWC1jj (HTTP link)