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The Night before Christmas
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A pleasing seasonal gem from Naxos
Review date: 2006-12-29 Rating: 10 out of 10
I received this CD just before Christmas and was able to `road-test' it in appropriate circumstances (so to speak). Naxos have bucked the trend for increasingly saccharine carol compilations and instead featured Christmas-inspired orchestral pieces. The result is an interesting disc which is sure to give much pleasure at this and other Christmases.
Highlights include Coleridge-Taylor's Christmas Overture, arranged by Sydney Baynes from music for `The Forest of Wild Thyme': this is a bracing little piece which does not outstay its welcome, and uses carols as its inspiration. There is even a nod to Wagner's Magic Fire Music from Die Walkure (via Sullivan and Elgar), and the orchestration, (whether Coleridge-Taylor's or Baynes's) is clean and clear.
The `title track' is a setting of Clement Clark Moore's famous 1822 poem by composer and arranger Philip Lane. Narrated by Stephen Fry, the piece lasts only fractionally longer than it would take to read the poem, and the music adds just the requisite atmosphere without detracting from the verse.
The Overture on French Carols is Lane's other compositional contribution to the CD- very good it is too- but he is also responsible for the arrangement of a Sleigh Ride reputedly by Leopold Mozart, and the reconstruction of a Film Score by Doreen Carwithen. The latter, at more than 20 minutes, is the longest piece on the disc and represents the Twelve Days of Christmas taken literally, as the postman delivers all the items on the list for each day until the house is awash with milkmaids, colley birds, partridges etc. Unfortunately, we miss some of the visual humour which must have made this a riotous enterprise, though the music is witty and well-orchestrated, including an admirable choral contribution from the BBC Singers.
The BBC Concert Orchestra under Barry Wordsworth demonstrate, once again, what a versatile- nay, virtuoso- band they are. To be recommended.
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Product Details/Specifications
Artist(s):
Various Composers
Recording label: Naxos
Manufacturer: Naxos
EAN: 0747313033171
Binding: Audio CD
Release date: 2006-10-30
Universal product code (UPC): 747313033171
Number of discs: 1