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This disc is a far cry from the typical fare we’ve come to expect on the shelves around the Christmas season. The inclusion of Bach’s sublime Cantata 63 and Mendelssohn’s Vom Himmel hoch give the disc a year round appeal.
Vaughan Williams’ joyful The First Nowell is a veritable feast of well loved carols and the London Philharmonic Choir together with soloists Lisa Milne and Christopher Maltman exude Christmas cheer.
Vaughan Williams himself said ‘I think that every Christmas play ought to begin with God rest you Merry and end with The First Nowell.’
Johann Sebastian Bach: Christen, atzet diesen Tag, BWV 63
Chorale: Christen, atzet diesen Tag (Chorus)
Recitative: O selger Tag! O ungemeines Heute! (Mezzo-soprano)
Aria: Gott, du hast es wohl gefuget (Soprano, Bass)
Recitative: So kehret sich nun heut das bange Leid (Tenor)
Aria: Ruft und fleht den Himmel an (Mezzo-soprano, Tenor)
Recitative: Verdoppelt euch demnach (Bass)
Chorale: Hochster, schau in Gnaden an (Chorus)
Felix Mendelssohn: Vom Himmel hoch
Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her (Chorus)
Aria: Es ist der Herr Christ, unser Gott (Baritone)
Er bring euch alle Seligkeit (Chorus)
Aria: Sei willekomm', du edler Gast (Soprano)
Arioso: Das also hat gefallen dir (Baritone)
Chorale: Lob, Ehr sei Gott im hochsten Thron
Ralph Vaughan Williams: The First Nowell
Prelude: God rest you merry - The truth from above (Baritone, Chorus)
Angelus ad Virgenem (Soprano)
Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell! (Chorus)
The Cherry Tree Carol: Joseph was an old man (Chorus)
The Cherry Tree Carol: As Joseph was awalking (Soprano)
O, Joseph being an old man truly (Baritone) - The king of all power was in Bethlehem born (Chorus)
In Bethlehem City, "A Virgin most pure" (Chorus)
On Christmas night all Christians sing (Baritone, Chorus)
The Salutation Carol: 'Tidings true be come new (Chorus)
How brightly shone the morning star (Chorus)
Interlude
The First Nowell (Soprano, Baritone, Chorus)
4th December 2010
***
“The LPO and Choir provide serious nourishment while opening our ears to the sort of Christmas music that gets overlooked amid the tinsel...Jurowski makes an unlikely but worthy VW champion...All in all, this is a programme combining enterprise and tradition, to be enjoyed during the Christmas season and beyond.”
Click on any of the works listed above for alternative recordings.
Chorale: Christen, atzet diesen Tag (Chorus)