Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I listen to a lot of music. That includes lots of Christmas Music. For holiday music, I have jazz, blues, rock, gospel, country, pops, and klezmer. But I only have two classical albums. Another way of putting it is I have about 200 classical albums in my collection, but only two of them are Christmas related.
The two that I have are both great. One, obviously, is The Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky. The other is Hodie and Fantasia on Christmas Carols by Vaughan Williams. The Nutcracker is on London Records with Sir George Solti conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Hodie is on EMI Classics with Sir David Wilcox conducting the Bach Choir – Choristers of Westminster Abbey and the London Symphony Orchestra on Hodie and Barry Rose conducting the Choir of Guildford Cathedral String Orchestra on Fantasia on Christmas Carols.
It’s weird that I only have the two considering how much I like them. I do have some classical adjacent albums, but I’d call them pops instead of classical. Those are things like A Canadian Brass Christmas. But only two of the real, hard-core classical Christmas albums. I’m sure others exist. I just don’t know what they are.
It’s hard trying to look them up online. There’s a ton of pops Christmas albums, and the searches are flooded with those. That’s really why I’m writing this, as a form of crowdsourcing. Does anyone out there have any recommendations for classical Christmas records? I certainly can’t afford them for this Christmas, but maybe next year. I’d really appreciate it.
