Nordqvist: Jul, jul, strålande jul (text: Edvard Evers) (Yule, Yule, Radiant Yule)

Norwegian tuba player Øystein Baadsvik, with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra under Torodd Wigum, and Cantus Women’s Choir here present an unique disc.

The programme consists of lavish arrangements of international and Nordic Christmas favourites, with a few surprises included,

On a previous disc from Baadsvik for BIS, The Daily Telegraph wrote "that anything a violin can do, a tuba can do too"

Described by Choir & Organ as ‘a tremendous choir, with superb technique and an immense, expressive range’, Orphei Drängar give proof of its versatility in a highly varied programme which still manages to stay within the theme of Christmas: original settings and new arrangements of Swedish folk songs and Christmas classics, English carols and Broadway songs – with Stille Nacht, a Russian hymn in praise of the Holy Virgin and Eric Whitacre’s widely admired Lux aurumque.

This CD shows the variety of Christmas choral music. The settings and melodies are from Germany, Italy and England. Many of the song settings have been newly arranged and include some modern jazz elements.

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 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.