From Advent to Epiphany
Classical editor ROBERT HUGILL rounds up the best in Classical Christmas albums for 2016.
What Becomes a Classic Most?
Streisand at her apex in recordings made almost three-and-a-half decades apart. Make no mistake--she’s the classic here, and a classy one at that.
Timeless Enya, for All Seasons
Irish enchantress Enya has offered not a Christmas album, but rather an album-length meditation on the Yuletide season, its sound, its totems, its joys, its summons to reflection and introspection.
A Christmas Dialogue Continues
Consider Classic as the next installment of Martina McBride’s ongoing dialogue with Christmas, and a fairly scintillating one at that. It earns its title.
A Classic Restored
Long unavailable on these shores in CD form, a Christmas classic from GLEN CAMPBELL, 1968's THAT CHRISTMAS FEELING, has finally been reissued by Capitol Nashville. Noel!
Christmas, Close to Home, Hearth and Heart
In his songs about home, hearth and heart, RICK LANG evokes a down-home Christmas celebration, with the help of some talented musicians who took his songs to unexpected places.
Our Christmas Best to You
An unassuming tape from the late '80s, sent as a holiday gift to media friends by what its now BONNEVILLE INTERNATIONAL, turns out to be the most heartwarming of Yuletide messages, an instant seasonal classic.
Tchaikovsky, Straight & Ellingtonized (Or, ‘Let’s Play Two!’)
TCHAIKOVSKY wrote THE NUTCRACKER SUITE, DUKE ELLINGTON and BILLY STRAYHORN reimagined it, and HARMONIE ENSEMBLE NEW YORK offers both versions on a must-have holiday album.
Coventry Carol (Lully, lullay): Twists and Turns
The ancient origins and twists and turns in the evolution of 'COVENTRY CAROL (Lully, lullay)," one of the most plaintive of sacred seasonal songs
‘A Wonderfully Grand Way to Hear the Familiar Carols’
For choral music lovers, two beautiful Christmas albums from British sources: CHRISTMAS FROM WORCESTER BY THE WORCESTER CATHEDRAL CHOIR and CHRISTMAS FROM SELWYN, with the CHAPEL CHOIR OF SELWYN COLLEGE.
45 Years Later, Still Right on Time
The tipoff is in the title: MERRY CHRISTMAS WITH MARTY ROBBINS. One of country's greatest singers is intimately involved in the thoughtful songs he shares with us for the Yuletide including two of his own.
