REVIEW POTPOURRI: Christmas music recommendations

by Peter Cates

Christmas music recommendations

Some Christmas music recommendations:

Perry Como

1. Perry Como Sings Merry Christmas Music; RCA Victor, 20-1968-71, four 10 inch 78s, recorded mid-40s.

With Russ Case’s very soft toned arrangements for chorus and orchestra, Mr. C’s own delivery of That Christmas Feeling, I’ll Be Home for Christmas and Little Town of Bethlehem, along with five other selections, had that kind of scrupulously rehearsed vocalism that always made his singing seem so easy.

Richard Tauber

2. Richard Tauber, tenor with organ and bells and singing in German-O Sanctissima; Silent Night. Parlophone, RO 20164, 10 inch 78, recorded 1930s.

Tenor Richard Tauber was most noted for singing Viennese operettas, such as Strauss’s Die Fledermaus and Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow and, before his early death from cancer in 1947, had the dynamics, the high notes of both power and beauty, and the delicacy of phrasing that communicated.

On this shellac, the two classic carols are phrased with exquisite elegance.

Eydie Gorme

3. Eydie Gorme and the Trio Los Panchos – Navidad Means Christmas. Columbia CL-2557, 12-inch LP, recorded early 1960s. Eydie Gorme (1928-2013) recorded two to three albums with Trio Los Panchos, one of the most gifted groups of Mariachis to hit the limelight.

Their collaboration in Latin-American Christmas songs is a bejeweled example of their artistry.

4. Christmas Hymns and Carols – Trinity Choir. Victor-35712, 12-inc, two-sided acoustic shellac disc, recorded October 3, 1921.

During the acoustic and early electrical recording eras from World War I to about 1930, the Trinity Choir was a name used by Victor to any number of different groups of singers quickly assembled. And very often, great singing was achieved by these ad-hoc groups.

Quite often the singers were already recording under their own names and maintaining solo careers in the studio and on stage.

Due to the immense amount of research since the internet age, the personnel and recording data on so many of these old discs can be accessed on Google, as on this two sider from October 3, 1921, when Victor was doing most of its recording in an old church in Camden, New Jersey.

The singers included Lucy Isabelle Marsh, Elsie Baker, Olive Kline, Lambert Murphy, Reinald Werrenrath and Charles Harrison, each of whose records are on my shelves here and which are frequently enjoyed as they each had magnificent voices. Josef Pasternack conducted the chorus and his name appears on a number of orchestral discs from this era with the studio Victor Symphony Orchestra.

The Xmas carols and hymns gathered not only included the well-known Joy to the World, We Three Kings, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Silent Night, The First Noel (misspelled on the label as Nowell), and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen but also some long forgotten but very beautiful numbers – Christians Awake, The Angels and the Shepherds, Calm on the Listening Ear of Night, and A Joyful Christmas Song. The Choir sang very beautifully, seeming to truly know what they were singing, unlike the once over lightly, very boring performances of Christmas music during the last 50 years.

Most of the above recordings can be heard via Youtube.