Season’s Greetings from Toccata Classics
For Toccata Classics 2016 is coming to a close in a burst of recognition: our Beat Furrer CD (TOCC0360) has just won the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik and, with Volume One of the complete Krenek Piano Concertos (TOCC0323), was one of two Toccata Classics CDs chosen as The Times/The Sunday Times ‘100 Best Records of the Year’. And now the folk at Naxos Music Library have chosen Sadie Harrison’s Rosegarden of Light (TOCC0342) and Volume One of the Emil Tabakov (TOCC0365) symphonies as two of their sixteen ‘Favorite Albums of the Year’: when you consider that NML releases some 850 recordings per month, from some 312 record labels, to have two recordings chosen as among of the best sixteen recordings of the year is quite a compliment. Toccata founder Martin Anderson can’t go out and celebrate, though: he still has two weeks of his Sponsored Slim to run (loss to date:37 lbs). So you can see that we are better at the unconventional than the conventional, and so we don’t have any new Christmas music to offer you as a free download this year – but perhaps you won’t notice if we don’t mention it. We will make good with some more free downloads – new stuff! – in 2017!
Listen To This Recording:
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Judith Bingham: Christmas Past, Christmas Present
- I. The Christmas Tree (minim = 60)
- II. Christmas Eve (♩ = 116)
- III. Giving (♩ = 60)
- IV. Christmas Past (♩. = 120)
- No. 1 ‘Introduction: Christmas Night’
- No. 2 ‘Where is the King of the Jews?’
- No. 3 ‘The High Priests and the Scribes’
- No. 4 ‘To Bethlehem’
- No. 5 ‘The Adoration’
- No. 6 ‘Herod’
- No. 7 ‘Homeward Bound’
- Altböhmisches Weihnachtslied (‘Old Bohemian Christmas Song’), Op. 5
- Altgermanisches Julfest (‘Old Germanic Yule Feast’), Op. 7
- No. 1, ‘Song of St Mary the Virgin’ (The Magnificat)
- No. 4, ‘Christmas Day’
- The Nativity of Christ: I. Nativity Song
- The Nativity of Christ: II. Having beheld a strange nativity
- The Nativity of Christ: III. It is meet
- The Nativity of Christ: IV. Come, let us worship
- The Nativity of Christ: V. Glory to the most Holy Trinity
Otto Malling: The Three Kings: Christmas Mood-Pictures for Organ
Robin Milford: Swan Songs
Georgy Sviridov: The Nativity of Christ
Dr. C. M. Biggs :
Georgy Sviridov’s The Nativity of Christ is a beautiful work that references Renaissance and Medieval sensibilities and is ideally suited to cathedral acoustic. The choir in this performance serves the work very well indeed with unerring tuning, tight ensemble and splendid control of dynamic contrast.
Bob Lagaaij :
Four stars; but that’s because I am not a real fan of Christmas. The marvellous music can’t help that….