Today, some Christmas-based classical music! We’ll start with an older favorite, the “Carol Symphony” by Victor Hely-Hutchinson:
Next is Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s “Christmas Overture”. This is one of those “performances while distancing” that abounded in the high days of the COVID pandemic. For some reason I find a lot of these kinds of performances highly effective.
Here is “Song for Snow” by Florence Price, that wonderful Black American composer whose work has been undergoing a massive rediscovery over the last few years.
This next work, Stella Natalis by Sir Karl Jenkins, is new to me. (The entire work is in a playlist as opposed to a single video, so hopefully this embeds correctly.) I found this information on this work:
Karl Jenkins, the classically trained master of global ‘crossover,’ has composed a new work for choir and orchestra, Stella Natalis, as a gift to music lovers of all stylistic and spiritual backgrounds for the 2009 holiday season. Its coupling, Joy to the world, features arrangements by Jenkins of carols from around the globe in keeping with the composer’s inclusive and universal approach to the message of music.
Enjoy! It’s pretty cool.