The Gothic Catalog: Christmas

Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

2010 Wrap-up from VocalEssence!

With our recent new VocalEssence releases (Behold This Heavenly Night, and Gratitude, Gravy and Garrison), we thought it would be fun to share their year-end wrap-up!

Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas from the Gothic Catalog!

Merry Christmas from the Gothic Catalog! You can still get great Gothic Catalog recordings for your holiday celebrations!

ClassicsOnline is privileged to offer Christmas music from the Gothic family of labels. Gothic specializes in Choral and Organ works, and has grown to include the catalogs of Loft Recordings, Clarion, Quilisma and the Washington National Chorus. Within these large catalogs are plenty of selections suitable for the Holidays. For a limited time, please take 20% off these holiday recordings from the Gothic catalog.

Click here to visit the Gothic Christmas Catalog on ClassicsOnline.com!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Christmas at America's First Cathedral Review!

The Baltimore Sun's music blog "Clef Notes & Drama Queens" recently reviewed the Baltimore Choral Arts Society's new Gothic Records release "Christmas at America's First Cathedral".

From "Tim Smith's Clef Notes & Drama Queens":

"...'Christmas at America's First Cathedral' by our very own Baltimore Choral Arts Society (Gothic Records). This is a souvenir of the 2009 concert at the Baltimore Basilica and comes complete with a DVD of the event. The recording, which captures the warm, reverberant acoustics of that historic space beautifully, offers a program that is generous in providing fresh material.

The imaginative and instantly appealing new works by Rosephayne Powell and James Lee III provide welcome additions to Christmas repertoire. And it's refreshing to have some less obvious, season-appropriate selections by Handel (his other great "Hallelujah" Chorus, from "Judas Maccabeus") and Mendelssohn ("Rise Up" from "St. Paul" makes a cool curtain-raiser).
The chorus and orchestra, led by Tom Hall, sound admirably vibrant. So does soprano soloist Janice Chandler-Eteme."

Read the full article here.

Purchase from the Gothic Catalog!

List Price: $18.98
Gothic Catalog Price: $15.98
You save $3.00!

USPS:

Dec. 16 Express Mail International to Asia/Pacific Rim, Australia, New Zealand and Europe
Dec. 19 Express Mail International to Canada
Dec. 19 Global Express Guaranteed to Asia/Pacific Rim, Australia, New Zealand and Europe
Dec. 19 Global Express Guaranteed to Canada
Dec. 20 Priority Mail to USA

United Parcel Service (UPS) will deliver on December 24, 2010:
Dec. 12 UPS Ground (3-10 days, depending on distance)
Dec. 20 UPS 3-day Select
Dec. 21 UPS 2-day
Dec. 22 UPS Next Day

Monday, December 13, 2010

Behold This Heavenly Night

Last week we offered our newest Christmas release "Behold This Heavenly Night" as a prize for our Christmas Contest, so today we thought we would tell you a little more about the album!

Behold this Heavenly Night
VocalEssence Ensemble Singers and Chorus
Sigrid Johnson, associate conductor
Philip Brunelle, conductor

In 1998, VocalEssence and the American Composers Forum joined forces to offer an annual contest encouraging the composition of new carols. Over the years hundreds of worthy carols have been submitted. “Behold This Heavenly Night” presents the world premiere of some of these contest-winning carols alongside outstanding arrangements of more familiar melodies. Also included is the U.S. premiere of John Rutter’s new “Carol of the Magi” and a unique arrangement of “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” translated into Latin by Philip Brunelle and his son Christopher.

Ding Dong! Merrily on High — arr by Malcolm Williamson
What Child — Paul W Lohman
The Piping Carol * — James Sclater
Un Nacimento (A Nativity Scene) * — Diego Luzuriaga
A Mother’s Carol * — Scott Ethier
I Wonder as I Wander — John Jacob Niles, arr Martin Neary
Sweet Was the Song * — Matthew Brown
Night of Silence — Daniel Kantor, arr John Ferguson
See Amid the Winter Snow * — Robert Sieving
In the Bleak Midwinter * — Alan J Higbee
The Shepherd and the King * — Brian Holmes
Carol of the Magi — John Rutter
Calm on the Listening Ear * — John Christian Rommereim
The Darkest Midnight in December * — Stephen Main
Jingle Bells — James Lord Pierpont, arr J David Moore
Welcome the King * — Michael Glasgow
The Virgin’s Cradle Hymn * — Richard E Voorhaar
Behold the Dark and Bitter Night * — Thomas Fielding
It Fell Upon the High Midnight * — Paul Gibson
Rudolphus Rubrinasus * — Johnny Marks, arr Philip Brunelle

List Price: $18.98
Our Price:$15.98
You save $3.00!

Want this album in time for Christmas? Click to check out our Holiday Shipping Schedule!

Friday, December 10, 2010

The Organ Loft - Christmas Mix

The Organ Loft - December 12, 2010
Christmas Mix
Webcast and Broadcast Schedule

Program: Christmas Mix

arr. Andrew Carter: “Hodie Christus Natus est”¹
Arcangelo Corelli, arr. Richard Eteson: Concerto Grosso, Op.6 No.8 (“Christmas Concerto”) (excerpt)²
Harold Darke, arr. Tom Bullard: “In the bleak midwinter”²
J.S. Bach, arr. Snedecor: Chorale No. 64 from the “Christmas Oratorio”³
French melody arr. Andrew Carter: “A maiden most gentle”¹
Carter: Toccata on Veni Emmanuel¹
Anon, arr. Carter: Angelus ad Virginem¹
Anon, arr. Carter: “I wonder as I wander”¹
Anon, arr. Carter: Spanish lullaby¹
John Tavener:”Mother and Child”⁴
Franz Grüber, arr Carter: Stille Nacht¹

Recordings Used: Click Links to purchase these recordings

“Andrew Carter’s Christmas Carols” Quire of London, John Scott, organ, Andrew Carter, director, YORK CD 169
“The Swingle Singers…unwrapped” Signum SIGCD107
“A Brass & Organ Christmas in Grace Cathedral” Gothic G-49120
“Mother and Child” Tenebrae, Nigel Short, director, Signum SIGCD501

Find the Broadcasts online from:

KING-FM Seattle's Classical Choice — Sundays at 10:00 PM

And

OREGON: KWAX-FM and the University of Oregon radio network — Sundays at 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Messiah

Händel's Messiah is arguably the most widely shared musical experience in our culture. Each year the oratorio is sung by tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands o people in choirs and choral societies across the globe. Händel's music is indelibly part of our musical consciousness, with the "Hallelujah" chorus eliciting a level of recognition and emotional respose perhaps only otherwise achieved by the opening bars of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. No other composition is so generally familiar or so well loved. - John Scott Organist and Director of Music Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue

Please on this eve of Christmas enjoy some samples of the Washington National Cathedral Choirs live recording of Händel's Messiah:

Sinfony (Overture)
For Unto us a Child is Born
Pifa (Pastoral Symphony)
Glory to God in the Highest
"Hallelujah" Chorus
Chorus (revelation 5: 12-14)

Click to Purchase this album

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Hear the Christmas Angels

"Christmas is maybe the most intimate of seasons. It taps something deep in the human spirit — a yearning to be connected to each other and to God. And it stirs an array of memories of home. We are nomads these days, but beneath our restless lives we often notice the longing to be with those we love, to have a sense that we belong, that there is a place in this universe for us. 'Our hearts are restless till they rest in You,' St. Augustine once prayed. Home is where love is, and where God is.

Christmas is one of the most profound and moving seasons of the year at Washington National Cathedral. During this holy time, the Cathedral welcomes visitors and worshipers from near and far, in person and online, who are seeking a home where they can celebrate the birth of the Christ Child, God coming in flesh to live with us. This event 2,000 years ago unleashed a movement of hope and peace that is still at work today. In the Christmas season more than a billion people will travel to churches across the globe to sing carols and songs of their own traditions as they tell this story again and experience its hopeful, liberating power.

The selections on this recording include some of our favorite hymns and carols. We hope that they will allow you to enter into the mystery and beauty of the Christmas season. And we hope too that as you listen to them, you will be touched by the spirit of this Cathedral and will be reminded that here you have a home, not only at Christmas but throughout the year." - The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III

Hear The Christmas Angels is a spectacular selection of favorite Hymns and Carols from the Washington National Cathedral featuring: The Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, The Cathedral Choir of Men and Girls, Cathedral Voices, The Cathedral Orchestra and members of the Washington Symphonic Brass. Michael McCarthy and Scott Hanoian, directors and Erik Wm. Suter, organist.

Take a listen to these samples from Hear the Christmas Angels:

O Come All Ye Faithful
Angels We Have Heard on High
O Holy Night
Joy to the World

Monday, December 21, 2009

Dr. Christmas Reviews/Teaser

Today we thought we would share a short review of two of our Christmas albums with the Washington National Cathedral Choirs. More important than the actual reviews though, is the fact that they were included in the "Dr. Christmas" "Nice List" during his annual CD review!

THE DR. CHRISTMAS RADIO SHOW

Every year since 1989, in the week or so before Christmas, UW Oshkosh sociology professor Dr. Gerry Grzyb has become "Dr. Christmas", bringing his astonishing array of holiday music to the airwaves of WRST-FM. Sizeable samples of over 2000 Christmas CDs have been played (there are 7000 in his collection!), with 172 added in 2008 alone. The diversity of the program lies in the fact that there is almost no genre of Christmas music that Dr. Christmas won't play, the one major exception being chlildren's music since it is obviously made for a much younger audience. Dr. C. likes it all, and plays it all, and the playlists provide ample evidence of that.

ABOUT DR. CHRISTMAS

The good doctor has been honored in a number of ways.
Kyle Munson, longtime music critic for the Des Moines Register, wrote that he was “perhaps the nation’s foremost authority on Christmas music."

In recognition of his commitment to independent music, the Association For Independent Music (now defunct) named him one of the five judges in the Seasonal Music category for its Indie Awards (which were the independent music version of the Grammy).

A variety of musicians cite his reviews of their CDs that appeared in the Appleton Post Crescent on their websites.

His show has been written about in newspapers from Morro Bay, CA to Erie, PA, and it was listed as one of the distinctive ways people celebrate Christmas in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Munich's largest quality paper (roughly the equivalent of our New York Times).

In 2008 he was featured on WNYC, the public radio station in New York City. He took part in a debate about Christmas music as part of WNYC’s Soundcheck program.

Dr. Christmas is also heard on WRST's web stream. Last year, he had listeners around the country; click here for a map of them all! Stream listeners were also recorded in Toronto and its metro area, Dublin, Ireland, and even Hong Kong, China!

So here is Dr. Christmas' short blurb on our albums:

An equally big sound emanates from the multiple choirs, organ, orchestra, and brass ensemble assembled for “Hear the Christmas Angels” at the Washington National Cathedral. The fare is mostly familiar arrangements of favorite carols, including five from modern carolmeister John Rutter. “Sing In Exultation”, featuring the Cathedral Choirs of Men and Girls and of Men and Boys, aims to provide a musical tour of carols as well as the different acoustical spaces of that same D.C. landmark. There’s plenty of musical diversity here, including instrumental and organ pieces that make for a welcome freshness....Click to Read the full list of Christmas Reviews

It's an honor to be included in a list full of top-notch ensembles and labels.

Here's a quick teaser - We will be featuring select samples and information on these two albums plus one more throughout this week!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

A VocalEssence Christmas!

Make your Christmas A VocalEssence Christmas with Welcome Christmas - Carols & Lullabies from Around the World!

Welcome Christmas
Carols & Lullabies from Around the World
VocalEssence
Phillip Brunelle, director

From across the United States have come composers and arrangers whose work contributes to this collection of Christmas music. These are carols from around the world brought together in arrangements that reflect an inherently American diversity and spirit. From Virgil Thomson's camp meeting setting of "The Holly and the Ivy" and Steve Barnett's swing verson of "Go Tell It on the Mountain" to Randall Davidson's homespun "Christ Was Born on Christmas Day" and Conrad Susa's magnificent Carols & Lullabies, commissioned from Susa specifically for VocalEssence. Maestro Brunelle has chosen carols-both familiar and unfamiliar-tied to one another by their inventiveness, charm and beauty in one of the year's most exciting new holiday discs.