The Best Christmas Carols Album In The World...Ever!

Product Information

Nothing says ‘Christmas’ like a choral arrangement of ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’. But which one should you choose? There’s the popular version by Holst, or an arrangement by choral whizz Bob Chilcott – but you’re probably most likely to hear Harold Edward Darke’s setting. The choir of King’s College, Cambridge use it every year at Christmas. Based on a poem by the English poet Christina Rossetti, this carol was written sometime before 1872 in response to a magazine request for a Christmas poem. The poem became recognised as a carol after it appeared in The English Hymnalin 1906, with music by Gustav Holst. Based upon a poem by 19th-century English poet Christina Rossetti, “In The Bleak Midwinter” was first set to music in 1906 by The Planets composer Gustav Holst. This tale of Christ’s first and second coming is one of the world’s most stirring hymns and is delivered here with a suitable potency by Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel. Choir Of King’s College, Cambridge: Ding Dong Merrily On High The BBC Music Magazine team gets hundreds of recordings passed across our desks every month – and Christmas is no different.

Right after World War II, when Muddy Waters was roughing up the blues in Chicago, Charles Brown was smoothing them out in Los Angeles. In 1947, he wrote and sang the most enduring R&B Christmas song ever penned, “Merry Christmas, Baby,” (though the credit went to his bandleader Johnny Moore), later the basis for one of Elvis Presley’s greatest performances. He also sang and wrote “Please Come Home for Christmas,” another timeless standard. Never has an artist been better served by the December holiday. —Geoffrey Himes Christine Schäfer, Bernarda Fink, Werner Güra, Gerald Finley, Christian Gerhaher; Arnold Schoenberg Choir; Concentus Musicus Wien/Nikolaus Harnoncourt Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 8869711225-2 Before she treaded ever so slightly into secular pop fare, Amy Grant was a giant in Christian music—and she’s still seen as such. There’s one branch of Christian music in particular that she does better than just about any pop star—Christmas music. A Christmas Album is unapologetically spiritual and sonically quite bold, full of sweeping orchestral arrangements, weird synthy pathways and twangy, down-home touchy-feelies (It’s impossible not to yearn for home when you hear “Tennessee Christmas,” whether you hail from the South or not) alike. I can’t readily supply another Christmas album that sounds like this one. The horns on jaunty instrumental number “Praise the King” sound like an actual choir of angels, and I’m convinced the spirited “Love Has Come” will thaw even the iciest hearts. If you need an album to play for the Scrooge in your life, you can’t go wrong with Amy Grant’s hearty Christmas masterpiece. —Ellen JohnsonA very different Hodie, this time by Vaughan Williams. Beside the taut architecture and distilled art of Britten, it can feel a little rambling and indulgent, but his recreation of a Christmas service, with the lessons here sung by a girl's choir, is great festive fun. This new recording presents the work with intimacy and warmth. In the much-loved Fantasia on Christmas Carols for baritone (here Stephen Gadd), chorus and orchestra, the composer delved into England’s rich carol heritage, beginning with the mournful ‘This is the truth sent from above‘ and including ‘On Christmas night all Christians sing’ and the ‘Gloucestershire Wassail’. The Sixteen/Harry Christophers, Alexandra Kidgell, Edward McMullan, Mark Dobell, Robert Macdonald, Ben Davies, Rob Macdonald, Katy Hill, Tim Jones, Charlotte Mobbs, George Pooley Coro COR16188 A substantial Christmas banquet from Michael Waldron and a rich-toned LCS, bringing together carols both traditional and modern. Warming.

Nelson wrote his enduring Christmas classic, “Pretty Paper,” inspired by a memory of a legless man in Fort Worth who pushed himself down the sidewalk on rollers and sold gift wrap. Roy Orbison turned it into a Top 20 single in 1963, and Nelson re-recorded it for this 1979 album produced by Booker T. Jones of the MGs. A country singer with a Texas twang and jazz phrasing, Nelson can make the most familiar songs sound new, especially slow numbers such as “White Christmas” and “Blue Christmas.” —Geoffrey Himes The Choral Scholars of University College Dublin, Irish Chamber Orchestra/Desmond Earley Signum SIGCD643 Schütz’s Italianate oratorio is one of the masterpieces of the early Baroque and is performed beautifully here. Voices and instruments are superbly balanced within the rich recorded texture. Adventa The Choral Scholars of University College, Dublin recently marked their 20th anniversary, and Be All Merry is a celebration of the high standards they have reached under founding artistic director Desmond Earley. The recording mixes interesting arrangements of familiar tunes with contemporary works, including haunting Irish-language settings by Fionntán Ó Cearbhaill and Adhamhnán Mac Domhnaill. All of our eSongbooks are supplied with a single user licence which allows the Words on Screen™ software to be installed on ONE computer only, or be streamed by a single user.

24. See Amid the Winter’s Snow

The lyrics for this carol were written by Massachusetts pastor Edmund Sears and refer to ideas of war and peace. The most common musical setting was adapted from an English melody in 1874 by Arthur Sullivan. No fewer than half the choir’s two-dozen members step out for solos, revealing the in-depth quality of Earley’s singers. The glowing tonal blend that he elicits is a constant pleasure, and there’s a real emotional connection in the performances. Following a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Rector Phillips Brooks wrote the text to this hymn after he was inspired by the view of Bethlehem from the hills of Palestine. Three years later in 1871, his church organist Lewis Redner wrote the melody for the local Sunday school children’s choir. In which the cream of A&M Records’ easy listening artists – Herb Alpert, Burt Bacharach and Sérgio Mendez among them – offer up a Christmas album as velvety-smooth as eggnog. The highlight: Claudine Longet’s delicate confection of strings, acoustic guitar and breathy vocals, Snow. 18. Various artists – Ghosts of Christmas Past (1981)

A vibrant, limpid performance of Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols (the four-part version) sits at the heart of a new album by the mixed-voice Choir of Clare College, Cambridge. Conductor Graham Ross relishes the lustiness of ‘Wolcum Yole!’ without allowing scrappiness, and ‘There is no rose’ has a wealth of alluringly contoured dynamic detail. Tanya Houghton’s harp playing is unfailingly sensitive. A delightful album by an all-male a cappella group is hard to come by – all too often they’re po-faced or schmaltzy; but this is neither. An elegant blend of old and new. In dulci jubilo I grew up exposed to multiple religions. My dad’s side of the family were foot-washing Italian Catholics, while my mom’s side were Jews from New York. In college, my mom was reborn as a Christian, and for me as a kid, Easter with Nonno Giuseppe was as big of a deal as going to seder at temple with my Popi Mel. Now on every Christmas morning, my mom and I listen to A Christmas Album by Barbra Streisand, a collection of spectacular renditions of yule-time classics by not just a Jewish woman, but one of the most notable and beloved Jews in show business. Moments like Babs’ broadway pizzaz on “Jingle Bells?” to her church choir-worthy range on “Sleep In Heavenly Peace (Silent Night)” to her impeccable singing in Latin on “Gounod’s Ave Maria,” have made A Christmas Album one of the top 10 Christmas albums of all time, selling over 5.3 million copies. And for my mom and I, the juxtaposition of faiths across each of the album’s splendid 33 minutes is a constant reminder of accepting and respecting every person’s God-given right to believe and worship whatever and however they’d like. Nothing is more fitting over the holidays than that. —Adrian SpinelliJohn Rutter’s music is always popular at this time of year, and after hearing the soaring melodies of the Candlelight Carol, it’s easy to see why. An octet of singers from the Trinity Boys Choir presents seasonal music from a bygone age. Necessarily staid, perhaps, but with a warm, intimate atmosphere nonetheless. An album so good, it can leave you faintly baffled: how did she make Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas so, well, sexy? Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas is a triumph from start to finish – no schmaltz, no excess, just one beautiful arrangement and incredible, seemingly effortless vocal after another. 1. Vince Guaraldi Trio– A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) We’d be remiss if we didn’t also include the Choir of King’s College’s rendition of “O Come All Ye Faithful,” a stirring celebration of Christmas. It’s unclear exactly who wrote the hymn originally. Some say John Francis Wade or King John IV of Portugal. Others aren’t so sure. What’s undeniable, however, is that it’s a highlight of the annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. Gabrieli, Paul McCreesh: Messiah HWV 56/Pt.2: Hallelujah The merriment here is rather sober, but not without its charms. There’s some welcome sparkle in Bednall’s brass writing and Chilcott’s entry has a wistfully sweet innocence. O Holy Night