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MERRY CHRISTMAS–Original Masters

David Vernier

Artistic Quality:

Sound Quality:

I’m never quite sure exactly who these raid-the-archives Christmas music compilations are for, but if you enjoyed DG’s earlier “Original Masters” release, The Christmas Album (from 2003–type Q7051 in Search Reviews), you’ll likely not be among the happier consumers of this follow-up effort. You certainly can’t complain about the quantity of music on these two generously-filled CDs (70-plus minutes each), nor can you deny that many of the performers are top-drawer–Richter, Walcha, Wunderlich, Fischer-Dieskau, Prey. The problem is that, while the disc’s cover touts the fact that 25 of the tracks are “new to CD”, many of the premieres are of poor mono quality or are not well performed and would have been better left unreleased.

While there’s substantial musical variety in this program–solo organ, orchestra and choir, solo voice with piano, small vocal ensembles, children’s choir, church bells–only listeners who don’t mind drab, poorly balanced mono sound will appreciate many of these selections, mostly culled from 1950s DG and Polydor recordings. And a large number of the performances are by sub-par groups such as the very amateur-sounding Singgemeinde Eschwege and the cute but now almost amusingly quaint Kinderchor Erich Bender. Again, you have to wonder who but the most serious old-fashioned Christmas-album completist would appreciate this bumpy trip through DG’s holiday LP past. Even the famed Trapp Family Singers selections are excruciatingly close-miked and often intonationally approximate.

Not surprisingly, the best tracks are offered by tenor Fritz Wunderlich, organist Helmut Walcha, and baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, the latter at his most lyrical and lovely in songs by Reinecke, Loewe, Humperdinck, and Reger, ably accompanied by pianist Jörg Demus on a 1971 LP. However, in his never-before-released Cantique de Noël, he’s a completely different singer, his rendition of this favorite tune tonally harsh, stylistically unidiomatic, and nearly ugly. On the plus side, the retro booklet graphics and entertaining liner notes by project manager/program compiler David Butchart are a treat to see and to read. Although I loved the earlier compilation mentioned above and looked forward to this one, I have to say that my usual obsession with Christmas recordings of every type was decidedly dulled by this uninspiring collection.

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Recording Details:

Album Title: MERRY CHRISTMAS--Original Masters

Songs, carols, hymns, organ pieces, choral & instrumental works by J.S. Bach, Praetorius, Humperdinck, Reger, Reinecke, others -

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