New Release: Weihnachtsfreude (December 6, 2009)

The Christmas season, as we celebrate it today, comes to us from a complex mix of European traditions, the French, the British, and most importantly, the German. So many wonderful songs help us celebrate and remember this season, many of them old and from anonymous sources.  But classical composers are people too, with their Christmas beliefs and their Christmas memories, and many have written their own versions of seasonal music.  Of the composers whose work fills this collection of song, most are not likely well known to the English-speaking concert audience:  Respighi, Chaminade, Trunk, Reger, Niedlinger, and especially Cornelius (Humperdinck is familiar for his opera Hansel and Gretel, but not for his song); only Fauré speaks of Christmas through his most known compositional genre.

All speak in their own way of the story of hope that is Christmas, of the bright joy of children, and our own memories of Christmas present and past.