Often these major-label compilations brought out for Christmas-season consumption seem thrown together by someone in the marketing department who knows nothing about music, and even less about compatibility of works, quality of selections, or how to put them together in a logical manner. Thank heaven, this one doesn’t follow that pattern, but rather turns out to be a very fine collection of some of the better Christmas-themed Baroque works from the substantial–and generally excellent–Archiv catalog.
It begins with one of John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir’s more vibrant–make that electrifying–exhibitions, the opening chorus from J.S. Bach’s cantata BWV 62, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland. Whoever organized the program made a perfect choice–and not only here but throughout, making just the right juxtapositions of instrumental and choral works, moods and keys to keep things flowing easily and amiably along. We hear Trevor Pinnock’s English Concert in a set of brightly colored, crisply articulated Noëls by Charpentier, followed by Gabrieli’s warmly brassy Audite principes, sung and played by Paul McCreesh’s aptly named Gabrieli Consort & Players.
Selections from Charpentier’s Midnight Mass and Christmas oratorio are included (performed by Marc Minkowski’s Choeurs et Les Musiciens du Louvre), as are choruses from Heinrich Schütz’s Christmas Story and Sacred Concerto with McCreesh and his consort. The beloved Pastorale from Corelli’s popular “Christmas Concerto” receives first-rate treatment from Pinnock, and the disc concludes with four rarely-heard Praetorius works, the last a rousing In dulci jubilo that will rattle the walls of your living room! In keeping with the relative sophistication of the programming, the package also includes brief but informative notes on the music and performances, along with (gasp!) texts and translations. I’m impressed–and you should be too, perhaps enough to go out and buy the original recordings from which these fine selections were drawn.
