Largely Traditional
KEITH BRAMICH listens to Christmas music recorded in 1975 in Atlanta, Georgia
'... an intriguing glimpse of the work of Robert Shaw and his Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus from nearly fifty years ago.'
American conductor Robert Shaw, active from about 1941 until shortly before his death in 1999, is best known for his work with choirs. This recording of Christmas music, made in Atlanta, Georgia, USA in December 1975, features Shaw's work with both the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Chorus. First issued on two LPs as Nativity in 1976, this 2023 re-release features sparkling new high resolution transfers from the original analogue master tapes. Apparently the original recording was in quadraphonic, which it might be possible to hear in this Naxos transfer with the right equipment.
The album opens with a magical and atmospheric version of O come, O come, Emmanuel on tuned percussion, as veteran composer and arranger Alice Parker (born 1925) keeps us waiting for nearly a minute before the voices enter.
Listen — traditional, arranged by Alice Parker: O Come, O Come Emmanuel
(VOX-NX-3027CD track 1, 0:05-1:01)
℗ 1976 Vox Productions Inc / 2023 Naxos Rights Europe Ltd :
The fare on this recording is largely traditional, with a mixture of the well-known and expected - the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah, The Coventry Carol and popular excerpts from Christmas and wintertide works by Bach, Berlioz and Vivaldi.
Listen — Vivaldi: Gloria in excelsis Deo (Gloria in D)
(VOX-NX-3027CD track 11, 0:28-1:09)
℗ 1976 Vox Productions Inc / 2023 Naxos Rights Europe Ltd :
There are also rarities here such as the second track - the sixteenth century carol So Blest a Sight, again arranged by Alice Parker, and featuring soprano soloist Louise Lindsey Seidel, who hailed from Hamilton, Alabama, and moved to Atlanta in 1974, the year before this recording was made.
Listen — traditional, arranged by Alice Parker: So Blest a Sight
(VOX-NX-3027CD track 2, 0:00-0:42)
℗ 1976 Vox Productions Inc / 2023 Naxos Rights Europe Ltd :
Graham Wade's liner notes explain that the selections here trace the path of Christmas music through from the eighth or ninth century of O come, O come, Emmanuel through to some of the pillars of more recent music with Vivaldi, J S Bach, Handel and beyond. What the notes don't explain is the presence here of the Farandole from Bizet's L'Arlésienne Suite No 2 (in an arrangement by Ernest Guiraud) or its relevance to Christmastide.
What is of course relevant to the Christmas story is the desperate slaughter of children by Herod - I almost wrote Netanyahu - depicted in The Coventry Carol, and I was going to mention that the arrangement here is by Robert Shaw himself, but on a closer look, this is actually an error in the booklet track list ... I'm sure that the arranger credited here should be Martin Shaw (1875-1958).
Erich Leinsdorf contributes a lovely orchestration of Brahms' chorale prelude Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen.
Gian Carlo Menotti's children's opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's fifteenth century painting Adoration of the Magi, was commissioned by NBC in 1951, and in the scrabble to get everything ready, Menotti's partner Samuel Barber had to help out with the orchestrations. Amahl was broadcast widely in the USA every Christmas until 1965, becoming very popular, so it would have been an obvious choice for Robert Shaw's recording, where he chose the purely orchestral Introduction, March and Shepherd's Dance for inclusion here. (The BBC also broadcast several productions of Amahl in the UK in the 1950s. This was before my time, and I didn't come across it until the early 21st century, when I sang in the chorus for London-based American conductor Leslie Anne Lewis's production at Roehampton University.)
Listen — Menotti: Shepherd's Dance (Amahl and the Night Visitors)
(VOX-NX-3027CD track 16, 2:40-3:20)
℗ 1976 Vox Productions Inc / 2023 Naxos Rights Europe Ltd :
The Menotti is as modern as we get on this album. The following track, written only a couple of decades or so earlier, is another very different Italian work on the same theme - Respighi's sinuous and eastern-sounding Adoration of the Magi, with the O come, O come, Emmanuel theme never far away, from his Botticelli Pictures.
Listen — Respighi: L'adorazione dei Magi (Trittico botticelliano)
(VOX-NX-3027CD track 17, 3:23-4:21)
℗ 1976 Vox Productions Inc / 2023 Naxos Rights Europe Ltd :
Performances and recording quality here are excellent, providing an intriguing glimpse of the work of Robert Shaw and his Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus from nearly fifty years ago.
Copyright © 27 November 2023
Keith Bramich,
Amsterdam, Netherlands
