Christmas 2003

Most years, the December issue of BBC Music mag includes a disk of Christmas themed music. I'm going to wait a month before playing the more overtly seasonal ones but this disk from 2003 seems generalised enough to give a spin today, the days are getting darker anyway ! There are three pieces featured, the first of which I've already talked about in connection with a commercial disk of Respighi's music, L'adorazione dei Magi from the Trittico Botticelliano featuring the ancient and mysterious tune of the Advent hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel. The second piece is by Britten, the song collection A Boy Is Born, and the disk concludes with Une cantate de Noel by Honegger. The Britten piece is a student work written when he was 19. Sung acapella, it is a virtuoso choral showpiece with a distinctive English feel. As opposed to this student piece, Honegger's cantata was his final major work. With organ and other instrumental accompaniment, it is a sentimental and consoling work that conveys the warmth of Christmas without featuring any generally well known themes. The performers on the disk are the BBC Singers, the Choir of King's College Cambridge and the BBC Concert Orchestra under Stephen Cleobury in the Respighi and Honegger and Trinity Boys Choir and the BBC Symphony Chorus directed by Stephen Jackson in the Britten. Soloists in the Honegger are treble Oliver Perkins, baritone Stuart MacIntyre and organist Robert Quinney while the solo singer in the Britten is treble Alexander Main-Ian.