Sibelius: En etsi valtaa, loistoa (text: Zacharias Topelius), Op. 1 No. 4 (Giv mig ej glans, ej guld, ej prakt / Give me no splendour, gold or pomp)

With his magnificent voice and magnetic stage personality, the Swedish baritone Peter Mattei has delighted audiences at the Metropolitan in New York, La Scala in Milan and Covent Garden in London, performing roles such as the Count in The Marriage of Figaro (“…Peter Mattei, making a belated Covent Garden debut as a crisply incisive Count Almaviva”) The Telegraph on The Marriage of Figaro) and the title roles in Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin and The Barber of Seville.

The present disc is an anthology of highlights from fifteen years’ of recordings, taking in classic Swedish and international Christmas carols as well as Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.

Angèle Dubeau takes us on a Christmas journey through a world with diverse origins and traditions. This celebration of the Nativity takes us to Finland, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, Mexico and Canada and includes pieces by Vivaldi, Torelli, Sibelius, Ireland, Glazunov and Brubeck.

This festive release from Phoenix Edition showcases a variety of traditional Christmas songs from Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland. These recordings are heartily recommended to anyone interested in hearing traditional Christmas melodies from Scandinavia. The selection includes a mixture of unknown songs with one or two familiar carols translated into a variety of languages. The unmistakable, typical Scandinavian melancholic tones are almost meditative and provide a relaxed and contemplative listening experience

This new Christmas release features star soprano Soile Isokoski in favourite Christmas Carols from Finland, Germany and Britain. Matti Hyökki conducts the renowned Finnish YL Male Voice Choir accompanied by organ and cor anglais.

This Christmas CD was recorded in April 2007 and it is the first CD in a series of four. It is the first CD produced since the choir resumed its musical ambitions under its present conductor, Christoffer Holgersson, in 2001.

Few festivals are as rich in music as Christmas. And the thirst for music at Christmas seems never to be satisfied. The Christmas message of peace and goodwill is always relevant, whether we are thinking of our 'little world', our family and friends, or look out across the 'big world'. And perhaps, in times of tumult and struggle, it is all the more important to sing songs of peace and reconciliation.

In 1917 the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams arranged Nine Christmas Carols for the choir that he got together in the ambulance unit in which he was serving in Greece. A knowledge of this background gives an extra dimension to performing these settings. How strange the carol God Rest You Merry Gentlemen, with its message "Now to the Lord sing praises… and with true love and brotherhood each other now embrace", must have sounded as it was sung by the young soldiers in the presence of war and privations.