Music

...Of course, there are other excellent reasons why it is losing something of its claim to be the representative Christmas piece...

...Another too-long neglected Christmas work, now somewhat more available, is the Heinrich Schiitz Weih-nachts-Historie...

...For years, this Berlioz masterpiece was almost forgotten, except for a rather botched editing of "L" adieu des bergers" by Clarence Dickinson...

...The Cantata Singers, conducted by Arthur Mendel, capture the spirit of this beautiful work perfectly on a record that is rather hard to come by (REB Editions 3), but it's well worth the effort...

...In Music of the Medieval Court and Countryside (Decca DL 9100) there are some wonderful pieces, and an earlier recording of English Medieval Christmas Carols (Esoteric 521) shows off the group in several carols that sum up perfectly the curious combination of piety and earthiness that flourished in medieval times...

...My current vote for the piece I would most like to see installed as part and parcel of Christmas (along with plum pudding, the office party and Lionel Barrymore renditions of The Christmas Carol) is the truly thrilling L'enjance du Christ...

...If you can't find the Cantata Singers record, there is a new one out by the Collegium Musi-cum (Oiseau 50020) that should give you no cause for complaint...

...The most recent is a performance by Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony (RCA Victor LM 6053...

...Most of the musical amateurs who so enthusiastically hymn its praises don't seem to know that the average performance has been so wrenched out of its logical development that some of the pieces considered most typical of the spirit of Christmas (e.g., the "Hallelujah" chorus) are actually part of the section properly belonging to Easter...

...It is a careful and workmanlike performance, but, on the whole, I found it rather disappointing...

...The result is that I am beginning to find it something of a majestic bore...

...Living almost a century before Bach (who studied him carefully), Schiitz wrote in a style that suggests some of the master's early work...

...Far and away the best performance now available is by Andre Cluytens (Vox PL 7122), using soloists from the Paris Opera, the Raymond St...

...I can't think of a better album to give or get at Christmas...

...Paul Chorus, and the Orchestra of the Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire...

...Like everyone, I have heard many magnificent performances of Handel's masterpiece both on record and in the concert hall, and I have also taken part in several performances that were somewhat less than passable...

...Furthermore, some really fine Christmas music has been all too neglected by the self-appointed traditionalists...

...As a result, there are now no fewer than three complete recordings—of widely varying merit...

...Throughout the record, there are excellent performances by the chorus and by individual soloists, but the glory belongs to Cluytens—and to Berlioz...

...He gets his most telling effects in the second part ("The Flight into Egypt"), and during "The Angels' Warning to the Holy Family" and "Shepherds' Farewell" he achieves the ultimate in artistic perfection...

...In the past, Munch has directed some notable Berlioz performances (I have yet to hear anyone better his renditions of The Roman Carnival Overture or The Damnation of Faust, the latter brilliantly recorded for Victor on LM 6114), but when he gets away from the huge and spectacular orchestral effects usually equated with Berlioz in the popular mind, he seems to lose his way...

...almost all the way through, his tempi are markedly slow, and, in "L'adieu des bergers," there are such marked alterations in tempi and dynamics that the simple beauty the composer was striving for is largely lost...

...He is at his best in the Weihnachts-Historie, and the mood of the music is both moving and tender...

...If you're not familiar with Schiitz's masterpiece, you're in for a rewarding experience...

...Under Cluytens's sensitive and inspired direction, the subtle beauty of the music is fully realized, so that he seems to be spurring the performers on to play and sing better than they know...

...A few years ago, however, Thomas Scherman began doing it as an extra concert of his Little Orchestra Society, and it has since become amazingly popular...

...Schiitz was much under the influence of Gabrieli, but he took the polyphonic style much farther, using it more interestingly and dramatically than anyone up to the time of Bach...

...MUSIC By Hibbard James Christmas Without The Messiah' At the risk of being condemned as a heretic, I want to confess to a modest ambition: For once, I am hoping to get through the Christmas season without being subjected to The Messiah...

...For Christmas music of a slightly different sort, I can recommend two excellent recordings by the New York Pro Musica Antiqua...

...Much of it is a matter of tempo...

...Thomas Scherman has also recorded L'enfance du Christ (Columbia 5SL 199), but when this was done he did not have quite as full control of the orchestra, soloists and chorus as he later achieved...