Ivory Infant Jesus, 17th century Macau

The Infant Jesus, holding the world in his hands, carved in ivory in the 17th century.  Once ivory objects were made all over Asia and Europe from very early on. Since Africa and India were part of the East-West trade route, smaller religious figures
like these were common in Portuguese communities, all along the route. In Macau, there's a museum of baroque religious art, ivory, silver, gold reflecting the prosperity the city once enjoyed. This particular figure is in Macau, but it's carved in the "Indian" style, Goa being a major centre of religious art.  Japanese and Chinese ivory workers were also involved. Santos were also revered in private homes. My grandparents inherited an heirloom cabinet from the 18th century, big enough that the sons could crawl in to do the cleaning before Holy Days, as part of religious observance.  It was destroyed during the war.  Eventually my Dad started a collection but it was nowhere quite the same. Most of the figures were clothed in hand-embroidered silks and lace, but very few of those garments survived, especially since new garments were regularly made, as a sign of veneration. But the carving is so exquisite that it's a good thing that the figures are now displayed in their natural glory.

Here's a poem written in Macanese patua. Portuguese from Portugal can't follow the grammar or the vocabulary, since it borrows so freely from Asian languages.

Jesus pequinino

Justo ja nace

De frio tremido

Na nga cham di Belem

Filo Divino Di Virgem Maria

Vem-ca nos vai azinha

Vem-ca nos vai azinha

Vem-ca vai azinha adora nosso Rei

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, refugees. What was God trying to tell us ?

The Nativity, a painting by Lu Hong nian ( 陸鴻年) 1914-1989. Summoned by Chinese angels, shepherds are arriving at the cave in which Mary, Joseph and the Infant Jesus are taking shelter.  Mary and Joseph were refugees, fleeing persecution. The North China context is important. No cosy "western" fantasy here.   In Lu's lifetime, people all over China were refugees of some sort or other, displaced by war and suffering. No-one chooses to risk their lives to become a refugee. whatever the reasons.  Why did God deliberately chose to send Jesus to be born in suffering and hardship ? God could do anything he likes, but he was making a powerful statement. Too many miss the point, entirely.

In Lu's case, that Chinese context was especially important because he sought to connect Christian concepts to Chinese tradition and values. There's a huge body of art of this type, though Lu as an artist was way above the usual prayer book art we grew up with.  This approach goes way back to the first Jesuits who entered China,  respecting Chinese social mores and values.   A Jesuit in the Forbidden City, R Po-chai Hsia, OUP 2010.  Meticulously researched, and the first to use original sources in Chinese, and written with genuine understanding of Chinese society and mores, it is pretty much essential reading. The same cannot be said of the more populist best sellers.  Lu's experiences as a Catholic are also relevant. Given the role of western involvement in China and Cold War politics, a minority church would not have beeen a priority. This painting was made in 1951, as Korea and China were drawn in almost as pawns in a wider geopolitical game.  For Lu, the experience of Mary and Joseph, persecuted, was only too real.




At this time of year, so many people think in terms of material excess. Rituals observed through gritted teeth, with everyone pretending to be happy for the camera. And some, alas, would turn Mary and Jesus away if they turned up seeking shelter.  remeberthe smash hit "Feed the world at Christmas" and the truly offensive chorus "Don't they know it's Christmas time?" As if the whole world was white and middle class and money replaced genuine compassion.  The rest of world does not exist to reinforce pernicious ideas of assumed superiority.  One year a charity called at my door. "I've already given", I said, telling the truth. "Well in that case, I DON'T wish you a happy Christmas" said the "Christian", in front of her kids and mine. That's why I make a point of supporting non west centric causes which all year round emphasize working with communities in their own society, supplying water, health, education so people don't have to become refugees in the first place.

Christmas non-fare on BBC

photo: Jean-Christophe BENOIST [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]

This year's Christmas schedule on BBC radio and TV is more meagre than ever, unless you really like animated cartoons.  Maybe that says something. Especially since the original Manchurian Candidate is being screened on BBC TV 2 at midnight tonight. That's the Cold War thriller from 1962, where men who were brainwashed by the nation's enemies come to realize that the bad guys have a much mor sinister plan.  Soon the whole nation will be brainwashed. Can movies become reality?  Be scared, be very, very scared.

At least we still have Carols from King's College, Cambridge, BBC TV2 24th December at 1700 hr. This will be repeated on 25th December on BBC Radio 3 at 1400.   King's College is magnificent. People visit year round, from all over the globe. It's in a league of its own. In musical terms no comparison to regular community church choirs, however loved they are.  King's is an institution that goes way beyond being religious. Being able to sing at this standard can get you fast tracked into Cambridge and set you up for life. Some alumni go on to careers in music, most go on to other things, but the experience of singing at this level, and in these surroundings is probably like nothing else.  The photo above shows what you see when you look upwards. It just happens to be the largest medieval fan vaulted ceiling in the world.

A Baroque Christmas Harmonia Mundi - Charpentier Pastorale de Noël

A baroque Christmas from Harmonia Mundi, this year's offering in their acclaimed series. Great value for money - four CDs of music so good that it shouldn't be saved just for Christmas.  Bach's immortal Christmas Oratorio BWV 248 with René Jacobs,  and seasonal works by Corelli, Buxtehude,  Schütz, Rosenmüller and others.  The prize here, though is the Pastorale de Noël by Marc-Antoine Charpentier with Ensemble Correspondances, with Sébastien Daucé, highly acclaimed on its first release just  a few years ago. Daucé and Ensemble Correspondances are among the finest of many very specialists in French baroque. Please read here about their Le Concert Royale de la Nuit, their recreation of the extravaganza with which Louis XIV dazzled his Court. They have also focussed on Charpentier and in particular the Histoires sacrées (Please read more here), which have roots both in sacred oratorio and in the mystery plays of the Middle Ages.  Their performances are outstanding : paragons of the art, presented with stylish flourish. This set is worth purchasing for this superlative Charpentier. 
 
Charpentier's patron was Marie de Lorraine, Duchesse de Guise, an independent woman whose tastes were freer and more informal than those at the royal Court.  In the Pastorale sur la Naissance de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ, H. 483, Charpentier adapts the pastoral style into a work of piety, somewhat unusual at the time. Between 1684 and 1686 he created three versions, with different second parts, all of which are recorded together for the first time on this disc.

"The first part of the pastorale is imbued with solemnity", writes Daucé. "The protagonists evoke the condition of humanity, permeated by sin, violence, darkness and death, and, in this state of extreme wretchedness, call for a divine sign bringing light, peace, justice and redemption.". The exquisite balance of voices in the ensembles suggests rapture, and the restrained power of the soloist in "Ecoutez-moi, peuple fidele" suggests emotional authority. Charpentier's instrumental writing is equally meticulous, marking the "contrast between the tenuousness of the recitative and the plenitude of the chorus, and above all of the device of silence".  The instrumental interlude that is the "Simphonie de la Nuit" marks in many ways the spiritual core of the first of the two parts of this Pastorale. A sublime "Paix en terre" completes the first half : voices and instruments in glorious harmony.

The second part of H.483 is a series of vignettes illustrating the Nativity scene.  Particularly attractive is the section "Cette nuit d'une vierge aussis pure que belle", the countertenor line lambent and clear, haloed by female voices. All three second parts follow the same pattern but each section within is different. In version H.483a,"We encounter the naïve and folklike elements which the first part of the work had completely avoided", writes Daucé. "Here the musical gesture draws on the same popular imagery with which painters and designers have always depicted the Nativity scene."  Especially imporessive is "Heureux bergers" for tenor with ensemble. This version ends joyously, voices accompanied by pipes, strings and percussion. "Faisons de nos joyeux cantiques", "Menuet de la Bergère" and " Ne laissons point sans louanges".  There are just four sections in the second part of version H.483b. "Le Soleil recommence à dorer nos montagnes" is contemplative, introducing a more reverential character.  The infant Jesus is addressed as  "Ouy Siegneur" framing the last section which is along as the first three sections put togerther, for it celebrates the "Source de lumière et de grâce".
Also included on the Ensemble Correspondances disc is Charpentiers' Grands antiennes de O de l'avent, (1693) ten anthems, each beginning with the word "O" on the veneration of Advent.

The best -known piece on this set will be Bach's Christmas Oratorio (Weihnachts-Oratorium) BWV 248  with René Jacobs conducting the RIAS Kammerchor and Akademie für Alte Musik  with soloists Dorothea Röschmann, Andreas Scholl, Werner Güra and Klaus Häger, all then at their prime. Recorded in 1997, this performance evokes the spirit of early 18th century Lutheran piety.  In modern times, we're overwhelmed by commercialized Christmas kitsch and consumerist excess, and the banality of the seasonal music that comes with it.  All the more reason then to turn to performances like this which reflect the real values of Christmas, and the promise of hope in dark times.  Strong stuff, but necessary.  The fourth disc on this set is a collection of pieces by Corelli (Concerto Grosso), Johann Rosenmüller, Buxtehude, Heinrich Schütz (Heute ist Christus geboren, Concerto Vocale/René Jacobs), Louis-Claude Daquin, Domenico Zipoli, and Claude Bénigne Balbastre from performances recorded between 1976 and 2004.

Christmas at St George's, Windsor

Christmas at St George's Chapel, Windsor, with the Choir of St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, James Vivian, organist and conductor. New from Hyperion, this continues their series of previous recordings with this Choir.  The College of St George, founded in 1348, is unusual in that it is a Royal Peculiar, a parish under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch. The Choir of St George's Chapel comprises twelve lay clerks, who live within Windsor Castle, and  twenty choristers drawn from St. George's School nearby. St George's is a close-knit, residential community, providing services at daily office throughout the year : effectively the Queen's own chapel and choir.

This recording takes us through three important seasons in the liturgical calendar - Advent, Christmas and Epiphany.  Each section is planned in a sequence connecting the past to the present. William Byrd is represented three times - Vigilate for Advent, Puer natus est nobis for Christmas and Ecce Avenit for Epiphany,  serving as a pivot between the modern Church of England, the Reformation and the church before that.  The melody Creator of the Stars and Night used in the Vespers on the four Sundays in Advent, dates from the seventh century, heard here with a text from Victorian times. The cantor is Simon Whiteley. The polyphony of Byrd's Vigilate rings out beautifully in this Chapel, a masterpiece of Gothic architecture.  Orlando Gibbons’ This is the record of St John, from the same period, connects to the new Anglican tradition. Both are complemented by Joseph Rheinberger's "Rorate caeli" from Neun Advent-Motteten op 176 (1893)  for four-part chorus.  Michael Finnissy's Telling (2008) sets an anonymous 16th century text."Man stands in doubt, but seeks about, where they mayest him see". Finnissy comments on the final chord of the refrain, on its "mystery, ambiguity and even irrationality". After all, a miracle has happened beyond normal understanding. "Must carols be fluffy and sentimental?", he asks. No qualms in the jolliness of  Arvo Pärt's Bogoróditse Djévo, from 1990 but already a Christmas  classic.  In an acknowledgement of other threads of the British choral tradition, A Tender Shoot by Otto Goldschmidt who founded the Bach Choir in 1875. If it sounds familiar, it's because it's a variation of the hymn to the Virgin Mary,  Es ist ein Ros' entrsprungen in English translation. John Gardner's Tomorrow shall be my dancing day (1966) is another modern classic, where the organ, usually solemn, does a jerky "dance".

Christmas here begins with Puer natus est nobis, twice, first as plainsong (Ben Alden, cantor), then in William Byrd's version, from his Gradualia Book 2, (before 1607), Alden being joined by two altos and the choir, the parts forming a tracery as elaborate and beautifully structured as the ceiling above the choir stalls in St George's Chapel.  "On Christmas night, all Christians Sing", is heard here based on the song collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams in May, 1904, near Horsham, hence the title The Sussex Carol. The text was first published in the 17th century but its origins may go back even further.  Here it is heard in an arrangement by Philip Ledger from 1986, where the sound of pealing bells is evoked in the voice parts and organ.  "Minuit, chrétiens, c'est l'heure solennelle", Adolphe Adam's Cantique de Noël is here heard in the original, Nicholas Madden singing in fairly idiomatic French.  This isn't carol so much as art song, given that Adam wrote grand opera (Le postillon de Lonjumeau), audiences of the time expecting performance standards equal to what they might hear in the opera house.  Madden's voice rings clearly and carries well, supported by the organ.

More bells in Mykola Leontovich's The Carol of the Bells, an arrangement of the Ukrainian folksong Schedryck, heard here in English translation. Another Philip Ledger arrangement of a traditional carol, I saw Three Ships is followed by an arrangement by David Briggs of Away in the Manger. "I wrapped the original melody up in a post impressionist harmonic language, saturated in garlic and one or two other exotic, succulent herbs!".  It is a delight, Briggs’ background as an organist spicing up the organ part so it glows with rich warmth.  In contrast, the sparkling voices of the young choristers of St George's enliven The Seven Joys of Mary arranged by William Whitehead.
Just as the introit to Christmas in this collection began with plainsong and Byrd,  Epiphany is marked by Ecce Avenit, first with cantor Ben Alden, then with the full blown polyphony of William Byrd. West Gallery music, usually simple metrical psalm, originated in smaller parishes in Georgian times. The term "West Gallery" refers to the practice of placing choirs in a gallery on the west side of the chapel, facing the altar but behind the congregation. Their relative informality fell out of favour after the rise in popularity of organs and more organzied religious practice in the 19th century.  In Under the Greewood Tree, Thomas Hardy describes this social change in rural Dorset. West Gallery hymnal would have been even more remote from the perspective of high Victorian Windsor, so it's good to hear how the Choir of St George's Chapel enjoy singing A Gallery Carol, from Dorset, in an arrangement by Reginald Jacques. The background to Bethlehem Down is even more irreverent. Neither Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine) nor Bruce Blunt, who wrote the text, were religious. They wrote the hymn for a newspaper competition to raise money so they could indulge in alcohol.  Nontheless, the hymn was an instant hit, and remains a favourite to this day. God moves in mysterious ways.  This most rewarding collection concludes with an exuberant flourish. Nowell Sing We was commissioned for the 2014 Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in York Minster. The composer is Matthew Martin (b. 1976) Director of Music at Keble College, Oxford.  It's a heady mix blending Latin and English texts, in a spicy cocktail of sound, the organ wild and free, before a sudden, conventional coda.

New Year in Vienna and the Elbphilharmonie Fledermaus

On New Year's Day, Johann Strauss Die Fledermaus live from the Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Manfred Honeck conducting the NDR Elbphilharmonie Ochestra, in a stylish semi-staging  by Michael Struminger and Renate Martin.  This is what good semi staging should be, making the most of resources to hand, creating a unique perspective.  The acoustic patterns on the vertical surfaces are replicated in the patterns on the costumes.  The hall at the Elbphilharmonie  rises in multi layers around the main platform, with smaller areas where singers can move between, depending on the action,and can be heard without getting muffled.  The hall "transforms" seamlessly from boudoir to party to prison, a concept which is pretty much central to the meaning of the opera.  Swift changes of scene are of the essence. Think about it - everyone's scamming, pretending to be what they're not. They're locked into farce but they get out, just as quick. Alcohol muddles the mind but releases the unconscious.  Die Fledermaus is satire, and savage satire at that, by no means Schlagobers schmaltz. 

Honeck keeps the music zipping along, too. The last thing you want in Die Fledermaus is ponderous Sitzfleisch ! Honeck also brings out the punch beneath the surface fluff, keeping tempi tight.  The dialogue was snappy - quickfire puns and cracks, visual jokes, switching from German to French and to English, too, for the occasion.  The cast included Bo Skovhus (Gabriel von Eisenstein), Michael Nagy (Dr Falke), Astrid Kesssler (Rosalinde),  Katharina Konradi (Adele), Adrian Angelico as Prince Orlovsky, - singers who can speak and act as well as sing.

This broadcast was the third performance, the second on New Years Eve when so much else was going on - Berlin, Munich, Leipzig, Venice - and of course fireworks and parties in the real world outside.  Not much that I know of in Dresden because the boss man there was in Vienna, conducting the Vienna New Year Gala.  That has never been a concert in the normal sense, but a party. Complaining that it's not sober enough is to miss the whole point, and to complain that Christian Thielemann was too sober on top of that is just plain nuts.  The Gala follows the Opernball : waltzes, polkas, and czardas are dances, and dances (and marches) are for fairly large groups of people who need to keep more or less together so the ensemble doesn't collapse in chaos.  Again, a metaphor for society and for Viennese society in particular.  Dance "is" discipline, you can't flop about and be fuzzy.  All the better that Christian Thielemann understood the music and its background and kept things punchy, not floppy.

Fun New Years Eve concert - Lang Lang, Mariss Jansons

New Years Eve, enjoying the Silversterkonzert from Munich, with Mariss Jansons and Lang Lang and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.   I should've been listening to Daniel Barenboim's all-Ravel concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker , like my pals did,  but it's New Year's Eve ! Not the time to be safe and sober.  What is wrong about having fun ? Some of us put enough into music year-round, that we can afford to party !  Like most New Year concerts, the programme was wide ranging and light hearted, a buffet with popular treats asnd more exotic fare.
The kick-off started, appropriately, with Leonard Bernstein Candide overture,  but Jansons and the BRSO showed their true mettle in Debussy's Clair de Lune, in the arrangement by Leopold Stokowski. Big, full bodied yet classy and stylish. Aha, a piano piece for large orchestra on a programme with a megastar pianist ! Witty good humour. Then a bit of Elgar, gentler, more personal  Elgar, closer to the composer's soul than public blockbusters.  Elgar's Wand of Youth Suite no 2 is marked op. 1b though it was completed for publication long after Enigma, Gerontius and Pomp and Circunstance.  The suites are compilations of some of Elgar's earliest works, some written to entertain children, but anyone, including adults can respond to the magic that is "the wand of youth".  Here we heard "The Wild Bears", a jolly piece which dances with vivacious freedom.  A joyous performance ! Sibelius, too, in the form of Kuolema from Valse Triste op 44, and Antonín Dvořák Slavonic Dance op 72/15. 

Xian Xing Hai, (middle) in Paris with Nie Er and other compsoers

Lang Lang joined Jansons and the orchestra for the andante to Mozart Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 21  KV 467.  The Herkulessaal in Munich is a tiny hall and Lang Lang usually plays very big halls indeed.  It might be fashionable in some circles to sneer at him because he's successful, but he learned his music the hard way, working his way up. So here we heard the "real" Lang Lang to some extent, playing for pleasure, adapting for the small hall and the more intimate vibe.  Without a pause, Jansons segued into Xian Xing Hai's Yellow River Concerto, the section "Ode to the Yellow River".  In the west, people just don't understand the role of Western classical music in China.  Interest was established fairly early on in China, enough so that it could support conservatories in Shangahi and Beijing from the early years of the 20th century.   Even now, it's normal for middle class kids to play piano and know the basics of classical  music, both western and Chinese.  Xian Xing Hai (冼星海, 905 -1945) was a virtuoso pianist but also studied composition and Chinese classsical music. Like so many Chinese intellectuals and modernizers he gravitated to Paris when it was the place to be in creative terms.  Japan invaded China in 1931, occupying much of North China. By the time Xian returned to Shanghai, the country was in turmoil.  Xian wrote the soundtrack for Ma-Xu Weibang's film A Song at Midnight (夜半歌聲) which is marketed as "The first Chinese horror movie" but much more sophisticated than a horror movie, with pointed references to the social and political situation and also to western classical music, to Beethoven and to Freedom.  Please read more about it HERE. When civil war broke out Xian headed to Yenan, following the Communists. There he wrote the original Yellow River Cantata,  (黄河大合唱) for orchestra, chorus and soloists.  Please read more about it here - it is a very good piece "more" than just music, it's a kind of expression of the soul of Chinese history, symbolized by the Huangho River, the cradle of Chinese civilization.   The Yellow River Concerto suite was created decades after Xian's death.  It's not nearly as good as the full cantata, but it is a vehicle for piano and orchestra, which is why Lang Lang played it here.  It's new to Jansons and the BRSO, so they didn't do it justice. 
 More mainstream was the Chopin Grande valse brillante op. 18, closer to what Jansons, the orchestra and Lang Lang usually do. It's not fair to sneer at Lang Lang because he's so famous. Pianists (and violinists) have always been "pop stars". Think Chopin and Liszt or Paganini.  Or Bernstein and Gergiev.  Lang Lang has inspired millions of ordinary Chinese to take up western classical music : imagine the same happening in other countries where people seem to take pride in despising "elitist" art forms.  Jansons has recorded Yūzō Toyama
(b 1931) Yugen, a suite for ballet, and here we heard the Men's Dance . Its use of percussion provides a strong foundation for the keening string legato  and flashes of brass : you can almost visualize these ideas translated for dance.
Back to more standard New Year's Eve party fare with Pietro Mascagni Cavalleria rusticana. Intermezzo, Johannes Brahms,  Hungarian Dance No 5 and the Prelude to  La Revoltosa by Ruperto Chapi (1851-1909) a bit of "Spanish" colour  to continue the "international" theme.  To conclude, the Finale to György Ligeti's Romanian Concerto, sneaking in a dose of modern for audiences who assume they might be averse to the avant garde. 

It's Elf !

Festive Bach Christmas Oratorio : Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment SJSS

Festive Bach Weihnachts-Oratorium (Christmas Oratorio) BVW248 at St John's Smith Square with The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment conducted by Stephen Layton, with the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, and soloists Anna Dennis, Helen Charlston, Gwilym Bowen, and Matthew Brook.  Wonderful to experience it at St John's Smith Square  at Christmas, once a baroque church, now one of the most celebrated of vanues for baroque and early music.  The lights of the chandelier were reflected in the window behind : a magical optical illusion. The auditorium was lit in gold and red.  During the performance a door was opened so light shone in from the back of the hall as well as from the front.  If this was an accident, it was a happy one.  Going home along the Thames by the Embankment increased the impact still further.

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment  - who are incapable of doing dull - felt freer and livelier  in this joyfyul atmosphere.  A punchy opening : natural horns and drums creating a suitably rustic ambience. Christ was born in a stable, to a refugee mother fleeing from persecution   Forget that, and miss the whole point of the Nativity.  The audacity of the concept : God Made Man  ! "Jauchzet, frohlocket! auf, preiset die Tage" A miracle has happened. If we don't feel excitement, there's something wrong with us, whatever we believe, be excited.  Hence the value of period performance, where unsophisticated instruments are played with energetic verve,  creating music which, however divine, never loses a human touch.  The brighter, lighter textures of period instruments sparkle at faster tempi, further enhancing the sense of adventure. For singers, this means greater emphasis on diction and clarity.  For singers of the calibre of the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, this presents no problems.  You don't get to sing at this level unless you're very good, and most of these singers have come through top level youth ensembles. The Oxbridge style matters, too, giving the singing youthful freshness and enthusiasm that comes from the heart.  In Part II, "The Adoration of the Shepherds", the mood is more contemplative. Layton brought out gentler rhythms, evoking the rocking of a cradle :gentle rapture. "Ach mein herzliebes Jesulein, Mach dir ein rein sanft Bettelein".

The voices became hushed,  soloists blended into the chorus.

The Evangelist is a tenor (Gwilym Bowen), higher voices in the baroque are associated with heroes.  The "English tenor" Fach has its roots in the ardent rapture of the sacred oratorio, where sincerity is of the essence, beauty lies in the ideas being expressed not independent thereof.  The Evangelist is haloed by cello, bassoon and continuo.  The purity of the concept of the Nativity is further highlighted by the restraint of Bach's orchestration.  Soloists are supported with the addition of other instruments: oboe d'amore forr the alto, trumpet and extra violins for the bass.  The larger orchestra comes into focus when the voices are employed in larger combinations. In this performance, the occasion being Christmas, we heard Parts I, II and III with Part VI, where all four soloists participate, in accord with chorus and orchestra. Again, the mood is worshipful, but not subdued, despite the more restrained tempi, for the miracle of the Nativity has come to pass. 

Posthumous Christmas : Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Christmas Overture is "posthumous", in the sense that the present form in which it's known was made thirteen years after the composer’s death by a popular arranger, Sydney Barnes.  Colerdge-Taylor's original music was more extensive, being incidental music for a children's play, The Forest of Wild Thyme, in 1910.  There must be dozens of Christmas compilations but this is robust and rather jolly. One wonders what remains of the original manuscript. There's a good recording by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Barry Wordsworth.

While still a student at the Royal College of Music, Coleridge-Taylor came to the attention of August Jaeger and Edward Elgar who arranged a commission for him at the 1897 Three Choirs Festival.    Hiawatha's Wedding Feast followed soon after, then the full Song of Hiawatha. By the age of 25, Coleridge-Taylor was a resounding success.   Hiawatha was a hit because it suited the taste of the time for grand excess, but it's actually a more more sophisticated work than its reputation might suggest.  Even in Hiawatha, Coleridge-Taylor experiments with non-western form, following Longfellow's attempts to recreate Native American chant and the use of exotc speech rhythm. 

Although he never knew his father and was brought up in an entirely English  environment, being half Black might have shaped his sense of identity, though his interest in the possibilities of "new world" music might also have been sparked by Dvořák and German and French composers of the era. Imagine if he had lived to know Ravel or Starvinsky, or to experience the Jazz Age and the innovations of the 1920's!  Understanding Coleridge-Taylor means understanding the social context in which he was operating, and very specifically the black and non-western culture  of his time.  

Thus I cannot recommend highly enough the book Samuel Coleridge -Taylor: a Musical Life by Jeffrey Green (Pickering & Chatto, 2011, 296pp). This is the kind of proper examination that Coleridge-Taylor deserves. Green is a meticulous researcher, with an encylopedic knowledge of Black society in Britain in Coleridge-Taylor's time.  Green's research is meticulous, drawing on sources rarely explored, and is presented with intelligent analysis. It's absolutely essential for anyone interested in multi-cultural Britain. But he's also superb on the social context of Victorian  and Edwardian Britain: a lesson for anyone really interested in knowing what life might have been like in crowded terrace houses and large extended families. Indeed, anyone interested in modern Britain needs to know Green's work.  

The first books on Coleridge-Taylor were written in the early years of the 20th century, before most could even conceive the subtleties of race and class politics. Thus the early books were a sanitized mix of myth and wishful thinking.  The tag "The Black Mahler" for example which has nothing to do with Coleridge-Taylor as a man and his music. It was coined in reference to Coleridge-Taylor’s celebrity when he arrived  in the United States, the reference being to the celebrity as a conductor accorded to Mahler when he visited America in the same period.  Nowadays anything with the word "Mahler" in it sells, so the temptation is to exploit the term for money value even though it's highly misleading.

1916 Hanukkah Germans, Armenian Christians

German troops at the front 1916

Armenian Christians, Christmas 1916, in the midst of the Armenian Genocide
Read more HERE

How people saw in New Year 1914-1915

Christmas in Vienna 2014 LINK

The 2014 Gala Christmas Concert from the Wiener Konzerthaus was broadcast live on ORF TV this morning (Austria only) but is now available HERE on Arte.tv. 

Alas, not in UK, though it's been possible in the past. No doubt it will appear on other sources.


"Des chants de Noël du monde entier sont au menu de ce concert de l’avent donné à Vienne. L’orchestre de l'ORF, dirigé par Sascha Goetzel, accompagne la Wiener Singakademie et les Petits chanteurs de Vienne, ainsi que quatre solistes : la soprano russe Vesselina Kasarova, la mezzo-soprano bulgare Natalia Ushakova, le ténor mexicain Ramón Vargas et le baryton polonais Artur Rucinski. Au programme : les moments forts du traditionnel concert de l’avent donné le 19 décembre au Wiener Konzerthaus. "

Weihnachten 1914

Ernst Busch Alte-neues Weihnachtslied

Traditional German Christmas carol spiced up by Ernst Busch in his inimitable way. Much closer to the real spirit of Christmas than tinsel, big spending and drunken binges !

On hanget korkeat, neitosket

On hanget korkeat, neitosket ("How high the snowdrifts"}.  by Jean Sibelius, op 1/5 published as Viisi joululaulua, a collection of five songs in 1913, but originally written in 1901 for a Helsinki magazine's Christmas edition. The poet was  Willki Joukahainen (1879-1929)  a poet and journalist who would later become a minister of state when Finland became independent. The photo at right shows Ainola, Sibelius's family home, under heavy snow

Listen to the singing and use your imagination to figure out what the words might mean.  The purpose of the exercise is not to guess precise meaning but to respond emotionally to the effect the music has on you. That is all "listening to the music" means, not formal structural analysis or anything like that, but sensitivity to what is being communicated on a deeper level.  Useful life skill, too.

Finnish is a particularly expressive language because of the many vowel sounds which have to be spoken separately, not elided, creating a natural musical line. I don't know what the words in the song mean, but what I get from the music is the steady pace, like the natural rhythms of snowfall. The clear, high registers suggest, to me, the brightness of light on snow,, sunshine or moonlight. The quieter passages suggests to me the hush that envelops the countryside when snow muffles normal sound. This approach to music probably comes naturally to Lieder and orchestral audiences, but would also be useful to cultivate in opera, where music is part of meaning, not just soundtrack. Here is a link to the text, in Finnish, easily babel translated.

 Enjoy and have a peaceful moment!
 

From Admiral Jellicoe, Happy Christmas NOT

Swedish Xmas from Stone Records

Stone Record's Christmas discs  are always a delight but this year's offering is unique. Deck the Halls, with Susanna Andersson and the Little Venice Ensemble. Imagine yourself at a house party, where some of the young European musicians based in London, (relatively far away from home) celebrate by performing together. The joyous energy on this disc is bound to chase away chills and bring good cheer. Expect surprises!

Standards like Deck the Halls  and Silent Night are livened up in new arrangements by Bjõrn Kleiman (b. 1978) of the Little Venice Ensemble, who have been holding annual Christmas festivals in Little Venice, London, for some years.  Thus they bring to this "house party"  a merry mix of spontaneity and professionalism. Kleiman not only plays (piano and violin) but is also the recording engineer and editor.  The sound quality is so clear that you get the impression of actually being in the same room as the musicians: having fun. Gentle humour, too. We hear reindeer snuffle snuffle before Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride. Anyone who's encountered real reindeer up close will be thrilled. Real reindeer have personalities, unlike the fakes we see in shopping malls this time of year.

Susanna Andersson is the soloist. She's done Blonde at Garsington Opera's  Die Entführung aus dem Serail (more here), The Baby in Oliver Knussen's Higgelty Piggelty Pop (more here) and George Benjamin's Into the Little Hill (more here). Here she's having fun, adding vibrato to In the Bleak Midwinter so you can feel the shivering cold.

There are chamber arrangements of Bach and Brahms, with organ, and  Hollywood favourites like  Gene Autry's Here comes Santa Claus, and  Have yourself a merry little Christmas, complete with retro noises evoking the era of 78's.   Best of all, though, are the arrangements of Swedish songs, old and new.  Bereden vag fõr Herran is an old Swedish advent hymn, arranged in a folk-tune version arranged and played by Karin Norlén. I did a double take: Norlén makes the viola sing like a Nyckleharpa, a Swedish fiddle with a unique low, droning character.  Two hymns by women : Nu tändas tusem julesjus, (Emily Kõhler (1858-1925)  and Bethlehems Stjärna (Alice Tégner 1864-1943), both first  arranged by Anders Öhrwall and arranged for chamber forces by Kleiman.

There are songs by Percy Grainger and Max Reger, but the discoveries on this disc are two modern songs, Koppången (Per-Erik Moreaus b 1950) and I Bethlehem (Jerker Leijohn (1956-2009) Koppången is a lyrical folk-inspired song about nature and faith. I Bethlehem is a contemporary art song, in the repertoire of Håkan Hagegård, arranged here by Kleiman for soloist, strings and organ. A wonderful song, which really should be better known. It describes shepherds at the nativity, reverent with wonder at the miracle they behold.  Exquisite and beautifully sincere., with nice part for violin.  There's a lot of new music written in Scandinavia and Finland, quite lost to the English-speaking world.  This song is so good that it's worth the whole price of purchase. Get the CD direct from Stone Records here or from the usual dealers.

Dresdner Kreuzchor Weihnachtszyklus 1945

Rudolf Mauersberger's Weihnachtszyklus first performed 15th December 1944.with the Dresdner Kreuzchor. Two months later, Dresden would be destroyed by British and American firebombs, flattening the historic old quarter of the city, one of the treasures of German culture.  Coventry doesn't compare. The boys of the Kreuzchor hid for shelter in a dark cellar nearby, not knowing what was going on outside, or if their families were safe. Mauersberger, their choirmaster, calmed them down by making them sing songs of faith. Can hymns have been quite so fervent, out of the mouths of children?

Mauersberger's Weihnachtszyklus is beautiful bercause it celebrates Christmas from the perspective of children. It's not yet another telling of the Bible story, which the choristers sang about all year round. Instead, it describes the Dresden Striezelmarkt, or Christmas fair, and the simple folk toys that children marvelled at before Christmas was commercialized. We can hear bells, cuckoo calls,  and rhythms suggesting the movement of mechanical toys. The choristers sing with real enthusiasm, all the more touching because many of these boys, one of whom is Peter Schreier,  had been huddled together as the bombs fell around them four years earlier.

Perhaps Mauersberger's Weihnachtszyklus fell out of favour in the DDR because it was a raw reminder of the war, and of lost innocence, but I think that is exactly why it should become part of the Christmas repertoire not only in Germany but elsewhere. Do watch the video, published by a Dresdner Kreuzchor source, because it includes photos from their archives, not seen otherwise. Every British youth choir "needs" to hear this.

Christmas in Vienna 2013 viewing link

Angelika Kirchschlager, Ursula Langmayr (replacing Anna Prohaska), Luca Pisaroni and Joel Prieto in this year's Wiener Konzerthaus "Christmas in Vienna" broadcast (link here). This annual concert is a treasure because it's a complete antithesis to the formal stodge we normally get at Xmas, and also refreshingly different to the famous Neujahrskonzerts at the Goldenersaal at the Musikverein. You can also tell, by the number of women and blacks on the platform that it's the ORF Radio Symphonieorchester Wien not the Wiener Philharmoniker. The audience turns up in normal clothes, just as the shepherds turned up at the stable in Bethlehem.

The opening shots show the soloists and conductor Erwin Ortner put gifts under a simple Xmas tree,  while the boys of the Wiener Sängerknaben pretend to snatch them away. Of course it's staged - but it's good humoured and full of charm.  Musical values, though, are extremely strong. Bright trumpets announce Adeste Fidelis, soloists, choir and orchestra celebrating together. 

Angelika Kirchschlager is in her element. She always sings beautifully, but here she seems much more relaxed and spontaneous than she might be in a more pressurized recital. Maybe her children are listening, and she knows it.  When she and Luca Pisaroni sang Englebert Humperdinck Weihnachten, they gave the simple song the human, personal warmth it needs. The voices of the Wiener Sängerknaben rang out like angels as they stood in the golden balcony above the choir and orchestra. 

Glorious Bach, of course, (nice trumpet) but also Ariel Ramirez "Gloria" from Missa Criolla (12964) which combines South American folk instruments with conventional orchestra and singers. The folk musicians wear red ponchos - quite a showpiece - and Prieto sang with them in the small upper stage balcony. The piece suited Prieto well, and he sang with concentrated focus.  Pisaroni and Kirchschlager showed the comic side of their talents with "Baby, it's cold outside". They were classy, and stylish. Prieto and Langmayr duetted with "Let it snow". Neither can sing in English, but it didn't matter, they conveyed the mood. Then, Vienna's own contribution to the Christmas repertoire, Franz Xaver Gruber's Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht. Magical ! Watch it again HERE.

Earlier today on Arte TV, a version of Monteverdi Poppea. Not the full Monty, but Rock Baroque. The very fact that European rockers can engage with Monteverdi is quite something. Anglo rednecks, I suspect, would sneer at the very thought. It wasn't my thing but it was good to hear that these musicians were prepared to engage with new/old ideas and create anew. More than can be said for many who think they know better. Later tonight, Marc Minkowski conducts Berlioz - should worth staying up for. 
 

photo : ORF Ali Schafler (not 2013)