Christmas Songs / Cecilia Rydinger Alin, Orphei Drangar Male Choir, etc

男声合唱による力強いクリスマス合唱曲集
スウェーデンの名門男声合唱団オルフェイ・ドレンガルによるクリスマス・ソング集。スウェーデン民謡から古典的クリスマス・キャロル、英国やロシアのキャロルからブロードウェイの歌まで盛りだくさん。力強い男声合唱によるクリスマス・キャロルもおつなものです。 ［コメント提供；キングインターナショナル］
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Eminent men's chorus Orphei Drangar's BIS release Christmas Songs should not be confused with the 1991 issue Christmas Music, on which it was led by longtime director Robert Sund. In 2008, Sund passed Orphei Drangar's baton -- rather surprisingly -- to a woman, Cecilia Rydinger Alin. Likewise, BIS' Christmas Songs manages to find a significant place in the mix for another female participant, soprano soloist Ida Falk Winland. Unfortunately, she isn't a very transparent singer and has difficulties with the language in at least the English and American carols programmed here. The listener can barely understand the text in Handel's "He Shall Feed His Flock" from the Messiah, presented as a solo piece for Winland against the bright backdrop of other guests, the Linne Brass Quintet, at a rather brisk tempo; it's not very Christmas-y. That's a pity, as some of the other pieces in the collection certainly are, such as the luscious Lux aurumque of composer Eric Whitacre or the grand rendition of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, heard in as traditional a setting as one might like, buttressed with the brass quintet and a small complement of instruments from the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra. While one is pained to say that Christmas Songs is simply better when the guest soloist is not singing, that's what it amounts to. One must chalk it up to the new director finding her footing with an old ensemble, and as Christmas collections tend to be more forgiving in regard to such experimentation, perhaps this was the right place for it. BIS' Christmas Songs, however, in no way endangers the preeminence of the earlier Christmas Music under Sund, which remains one of the staples of Orphei Drangar's recorded catalog, and listeners programming Christmas Songs as background music for the holidays might want to cherry pick the track selection, as certain pieces are definitely stronger than others.