Christmas 2002

Later today, BBC radio 3 is broadcasting 8 hours of music in Christmas Around Europe from various European countries including Canada ! The show is a collaborative effort from a number of national radio broadcasting companies. So before sampling that, I've played this BBC Music mag cover disk from Christmas 2002 similarly titled Christmas Around Europe and featuring highlights from an earlier broadcast. Not the greatest or most profound music in the world but a nice seasonal starter. This disk has music by Jacobus Gallus from Slovenia, light music by Hindemith from Germany, Sibelius from ( surprise surprise ) Finland, a mass by Jan Wanski from Poland, traditional music from Sweden and the Czech Republic and a Spanish contribution of Christmas villancicos y canciones from Rodrigo. No stellar names among the performers but all nicely played and sung.