Christmas 2007

I've just received the new December issue of the BBC Music mag and as is often the case, the cover disk is another selection of Christmas orientated music. The performers are The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists directed by John Eliot Gardiner and the music heavily features recordings made during their mammoth Bach pilgimage of 2000, when they played all of his cantatas on their appropriate feast days throughout the year. There is a complete performance of one of the Christmas cantatas for Leipzig, BWV 110, plus extracts from BWV 40, BWV 133 and BWV 190. Fortuitously, there's only one slight duplication in the case of the BWV 133 extract with the commercial disk I have by Collegium Vocale Ghent. These are live recordings and do not have quite the luxury casting ( the soloists here are taken from within the choir ) and recorded sound of the Belgians but it is still a worthwhile listen. The disk also has some fine extra items. The Familiar Shepherd's farewell from Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ is given a moving performance and there are two excellent examples of unaccompanied 16th century motets, one by the french composer known as Mouton and one by Clemens Non Papa. The booklet notes don't mention where he comes from, I'd guess the low countries without doing a search on the net.