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Track Listings
| 1. Leopold Mozart - Classic Sleighride |
| 2. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor - Christmas Overture |
| 3. Jules Massanet - The last sleep of the Virgin |
| 4. Philip Lane - Overture on French Carols |
| 5. Philip Lane - The Night before Christmas |
| 6. Otto Nicolai - Christmas Overture |
| 7. John Carmichael - Sleighride to Thredbo |
| 8. Franz Liszt - The Christmas Tree Suite |
| 9. Doreen Carwithen - On the Twelfth Day |
Product Description
Review
For an easy listening Christmas that sits safely on the side of good taste, this disc provides an enjoyable choice. Despite Stephen Fry's star billing, he narrates just one short work: Philip Lane's fun setting of Clement Clarke Moore's The Night Before Christmas. The rest of the programme is given over to a range of seasonally inspired orchestral and vocal music, from the rather over-earnest Christmas Overture by Otto Nicolai to Doreen Carwithen's 1955 score for an Oscar-nominated short film, On theTwelfth Day, with a couple of sleigh rides (by Leopold Mozart and Joim Carmichael), a French carol potpourri (Philip Lane) and Liszt's Christmas Tree Suite thrown in for good measure. --Daily Telegraph (UK), December 2006
CD Description
An ideal collection of christmas music and narration by Stephen Fry.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
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.
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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