All with a hint of Christmas.
I use the term curious in that Vladimir Jurowski is not the first name I would associate with any of these composers, and the time span of these three cantatas covers nearly 250 years.
In any event, Bach and Mendelssohn go well together, for the latter was a fanboi of the former. Indeed, Mendelssohn's Von Himmel Hoch cantata is fashioned straight from Bach's playbook. Oddly, this team didn't use Bach's cantata BWV 606, which would have tied together these two composer's works even more closely.
The Vaughan Williams cantata, The First Nowell, is the odd duck of the program, but is stronger in its seasonal tidings for the masses. There are apparently 20 carols throughout its runtime, although my non-British, non-Anglican synapses can only identify three or so of them.
But, a little bit of the Baroque, some of the Romantic Era, and a modicum from the 20th Century is a rare sighting on record indeed, nonetheless from a Russian conductor in front of a British orchestra. For such oddities, we shall always celebrate at The Keep.
A review from 2019
The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s in-house label gives us a very quirky program: obscure Christmas cantatas by Bach, Mendelssohn, and Vaughan Williams rather than the more straightforward all-in-one composer record. The sound here is pretty good, London’s Royal Festival Hall has a pretty dry landscape, but LPO gives a satisfyingly full sound for the acoustic. Particularly fine is the symphonic quality of the London Philharmonic Chorus which is heard well against the orchestra.
Neither Vladimir Jurowski nor the London Philharmonic would be considered foremost Bach interpreters, especially considering today’s historically-informed trends, but for those who do enjoy the big-band Baroque recordings of decades ago, this performance of Bach’s 30-minute Cantata 63 is a rare find. Decidedly more weighty in its orchestral presentation (a nod to the London oboes) and with less forward motion than Gardiner on SDG or Rilling on Hännsler, I find the difference satisfying, if only the first movement had a little more swing. The soloists here are good, with tenor Andrew Staples’ effortless singing rising to the top, and along with Romanian mezzo Ruxandra Donose, neither are unfortunately represented on the rest of the program.
Mendelssohn’s criminally under-performed cantata Vom Himmel Hoch takes much inspiration from Bach’s cantatas, whom Mendelssohn was a devoted fan boy, but one only has to listen to Mendelssohn’s orchestrations to know he was firmly planted in the Romantic Era, with grander orchestral settings, lusher solo and wind features, and surprisingly more complex choral settings. Only Mendelssohn’s inclusion of A Mighty Fortress puts the average listener in familiar “tune” territory, but Vom Himmel Hoch is delightful, if not slight in its 14-minute runtime. The choral and vocal singing is all on the up and up in Mendelssohn, although baritone Christopher Maltman exhibits the occasional slowed vibrato that he does not show in the other works on this program, but is noticeable, and Scottish soprano Lisa Milne gets a little pushy in her upper range here.
Standing out from Bach and Mendelssohn, Vaughan William’s 30-minute, 12-movement The First Nowell incidental music features previously existing Christmas carols, much of which were completely unknown to me outside of the title carol, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, and The Sussex Carol. Much of Vaughan Williams’ music is understated outside of the opening and closing movements, VW putting much of the focus on the stories of Christmastime, but quite colourful compared to the more straight-laced German cantatas previous and is certainly more festive from a modern perspective. Soloists Milne and Maltman are given better shining solo moments here in their native language, and even if the carols aren’t the most familiar, their traditional verse/chorus format is quite satisfying opposite VW’s 20th century orchestrations and gentle vocal evocations.
This recording is a most appreciated different Yuletide offering with generally fine performances from London and Jurowski if not a reference recording of the Mendelssohn. The Bach cantata is probably better represented by Baroque interpreters, but I do like this different modern version, and Vom Himmel Hoch received a pretty good performance on Capriccio under Martin Flämig, but uses boys trebles as opposed to London’s larger adult symphonic chorus and its pairing of the divine Saint-Saens Christmas Oratorio unfortunately uses Germanic Latin (an even stranger German-language Britten Ceremony of Carols on Laserlight). Lastly, Vaughan Williams’ First Nowell got Chandos and the late Sir Richard Hickox as an advocate in his all-Christmas Vaughan Williams program that is probably more appealing to the general listener.
The downside to the physical disc is the absence of listings of the individual movements or their timings, but the texts of all of the works are included. That said, I like this quirky program of Christmas cantatas, performed well by Jurowski and London but with reference performances of the individual works found elsewhere, if not somewhat overall under-represented on record.
Listen on YouTube
Work
Bach: Cantata 63 (27.39)
Mendelssohn: Von Himmel Hoch (13.47)
Vaughan Williams: The First Nowell (28.19)
Soloists
Lisa Milne, soprano
Ruxandra Donose, mezzo-soprano
Andrew Staples, tenor
Christopher Maltman, baritone
Ensembles
London Philharmonic Choir
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Vladimir Jurowski, conductor
Label: LPO
Year: 2010
Timing: 69.45
A quirky Christmas program, for sure.
Not too much to complain about either, but neither is this recording calling to me from afar.
In most cases, each of these works can be found better elsewhere, with like-minded works paired with them.
But if you have a hankering for a Classical Music Yuletide, this should suffice.
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