Hallé - A Christmas Celebration
Hallé Choir, Hallé Youth Choir, Hallé Children’s Chorus
Hallé/Stephen Bell
rec. live, 21 December 2014 Bridgewater Hall, Manchester; studio July 2014 Hallé St. Peter’s, Ancoats, Manchester
No texts provided
HALLÉ CDHLL7545 [76.04]
The Hallé certainly enjoys its Christmas concerts. It’s
the time when all the Hallé family – the Orchestra, Choir, Youth Choir
and Children’s Choir – traditionally gather together in Manchester
for its annual Carol Concerts to celebrate joyously the Christmas season.
Here on this album, Hallé - A Christmas Celebration,
conductor Stephen Bell has assembled eighteen Christmas-themed works from
across the ages, many popular favourites and several not so well known, including
of course traditional carols.
There are several works that I particularly enjoyed and that make a special
impression. The booklet notes state that “you can’t start
a concert without a stirring overture” and here the collection
kicks off with Nigel Hess’s A Christmas Overture. Hess is best
known as a composer of television theme music, notably for Ladies in Lavender
and Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. He provides here a rousing instrumental
cornucopia of well known Christmas melodies such as Ding Dong Merrily
on High, The Twelve Days of Christmas and We Wish You a
Merry Christmas. A highlight is the traditional Christmas song In
Dulci Jubilo. Thought to originate from the fourteenth century in a German
Monastery, it is sung affectingly in a lovely choral arrangement by Robert
Pearsall. Next comes a world premiere recording: Noel! for organ
and orchestra by Roderick Elms, written especially for the Hallé. It’s
another medley on Christmas carols, including ‘Sussex Carol’
On Christmas night all Christians sing, I Saw Three Ships
(Come Sailing In) and Of the Father's Love Begotten,
making an uplifting “festive romp.”
New to me is John Rutter’s Angels’ Carol. Infused
with that characteristic Rutter memorability, it is most beautifully sung
by the choir. Yet another splendid instrumental medley of carols, A Christmas
Carnival by Richard Bissill, is a delight, featuring the much loved Silent
Night, Good King Wenceslas and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
Striking is the way Bissell has given the work a strong flavour of the Hollywood
Musical from between the wars. Heartily irresistible is Leroy Anderson celebrated
instrumental Sleigh Ride, with the enthusiastic audience clapping
the catchy theme. Delightfully sung by the choir is Harold Darke’s glorious
music to Christina Rossetti’s text In The Bleak Midwinter,
and who can fail to be put in the Christmas spirit after hearing the Hallé
perform Arthur Warrell’s arrangement of the carol We Wish You A
Merry Christmas?
The recordings are from 2014, made either in studio conditions at Hallé St.
Peter’s or live at a Bridgewater Hall Christmas Concert, where the applause
has been retained. The sound is first class with a splendid balance between
orchestra and choirs. The accompanying booklet includes some concise information
about the works but no sung texts are provided.
As I have come to expect the Hallé choral and orchestral forces under Stephen
Bell are in sterling form. This often uplifting and often comforting programme
is a wonderful way to help celebrate Christmas.
Michael Cookson
Previous review:
Marc Rochester
Track listing
1. Nigel Hess - A Christmas Overture [7.27]
2. Adam arr. Battiwalla - O Holy Night [6.20]
3. John Gardner - Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day [1.55]
4. arr. Pearsall - In Dulci Jubilo [4.07]
5. Roderick Elms - Noel! (World Premiere Recording) [4.05]
6. John Williams - Somewhere In My Memory [3.41
7. Adam Saunders - Fairytale Sleigh ride [4.35]
8. John Rutter - Angels’ Carol [3.17]
9. Sergei Prokofiev - Waltz, Winter Bonfire [3.19]
10. arr. Gustav Holst - Personent Hodie [2.31]
11. John Ireland - The Holy Boy [3.01]
12. Elizabeth Poston - Jesus Christ the Apple Tree [3.08]
13. Richard Bissill - A Christmas Carnival [11.01]
14. Harold Darke/Christina Rossetti - In The Bleak Midwinter [4.53]
15. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Dance of the Tumblers [4.03]
16. Marta Keen arr. Alwyn Green - Christmas on the Beach at Waikiki [3.29]
17. Leroy Anderson - Sleigh Ride [3.09]
18. arr Arthur Warrell - We Wish You A Merry Christmas [2.01]
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