5 comments about Christmas Collection.

1. Mannheim Steamroller? Christmas music? Do you need to know more? This collection is just great. It will please the most casual listener as well as a musician with a trained ear. The arrangements are just beautiful. Enjoy!!



2. Great pricing and lots of their songs in this collection. Terrific! Also try Trans-Siberian Orchestra.



3. I really enjoyed the dvds. The songs are a mixture of old favorites with some new ones. I played them for my elementary school class and they loved them also. We even played name that tune for music one day using these cds.



4. Mannheim Steamroller is so unique on any kind of music, but Christmas music is particularly accomodating for their interpretation.



5. I've had cassette versions of a couple of these albums, now, I'm getting around to acquiring the cd versions. They are the best Christmas music arrangements ever.

4 comments about 1940's Christmas.

1. This was an excellent set of CD's and quite a value, as well. I have thrown three seperate parties using these CD's in the past month and I have received nothing but praise from my guests. WONDERFUL!



2. I have a large variety of Xmas music but found this set disappointing. Disk 1 is ok, and the other 2 are fair. Some of the recordings are poor as one of the other reviewers mentioned. Other Xmas music will probably deliver a better value.



3. I swore I would never buy a LaserLight anything again. They have to be the worst of repackagers. Horrible mastering, ugly artwork, no liner notes of any sort and absolutely no thought to the material. Alas, I didn't check the label before I clicked. Only one of the CDs is a 1940s compilation. A Sinatra/Crosby compilation and a Glenn Miller Christmas collection are discs two and three. Half of the Sinatra/Crosby disc is from an old broadcast (actually I think it is from their Christmas special - if so. it isn't even 40's). The quality is really, really bad. The Glenn Miller disc is actually a radio program and unless there is a secret Christmas message in Little Bug Jug, the Christmas label is a bit deceptive.
   
   Check out the offerings from ASV - their discs are always high quality.



4. This is the greatest Christmas music..I look forward to listening to it every year! It recalls the WWII era in the most touching way - sentimental favorites like Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and I'll Be Home for Christmas are mixed with some more whimsical tunes like It Happened in Sun Valley (my personal favorite)... It swings and warms and evokes great emotion...I can't say enough...

   It is something that I think everyone should have in their collection at Christmastime!!

1 comments about Bach: Weihnachts-Oratorium/Larsson, von Magnus, Prégardien, Martens, Koopman.

1. There is no better conductor of Bach's cantatas than Ton Koopman. The hallmark of his skill is the sense the listener gets that he puts his whole heart and mind into each segment, focusing its special musical mood and finding exactly the tempo and dynamic to express that mood. In the cantatas assembled to create the Christmas Oratorio, there are many such miniature dramas of tempo and affect, but some well-known conductors have failed to differentiate them, resulting in a long earnest piety rather than a celebration of sound. Koopman's orchestra is wonderfully transparent and light-hearted by comparison; the clarity and independence of intrumental parts seems fresh and inventive, no matter how often the listener has heard the same notes from other bands. Koopman has chosen women to sing the soprano and alto arias, with very expressive results from the latter, and Pregardien is surely the most consistently masterful Bach tenor on the scene.
   Frankly, although I'm not Christian, I find the Bach Oratorio more in tune with my feelings about the Christian mysteries than Handel's Messiah, and this is the music I always turn on to feel the joy of mid-winter renewal.

3 comments about Season's Greetings: 20th Century Masters/The Millennium Collection.

1. I had expected it to be a little bit better ... but all in all, I guess it is a decent collection to Christmas songs.



2. There are few Christmas albums by single artists that I can listen to straight though. As such I have made more than a dozen Christmas anthology albums of my own from the more than 200 Christmas albums in my collection. On each album I would mix the familiar with the new. This Hip-O collection does the same thing. You get old chestnuts like Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" and Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" alongside more contemporary performances like Dru Hill's "This Christmas" and Vince Gill's "It Won't Be the Same This Year." For some, the wide range of styles will be turn off. Me? I like the diversity of the music. My only criticism is that this collection would have easily fit on two discs. When I put a CD in the player I don't want to have to change it for at least an hour. If your going to make me pay for three CDs, fill all three CDs. RECOMMENDED



3. Have you longed for a collection with everything in one album...well, here it is...from the early '40s up through the '90s, the who's who in the entertainment field ~ Bryan Adams, Leroy Anderson, Louis Armstrong, Brook Benton, Chuck Berry, Boyz II Men, Bing Crosby, Do Re Mi Children's Chorus, Jimmy Durante, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Marvin Gaye, Amy Grant, Vince Gill, Bobby Helms, Dru Hill, Isley Brothers (featuring Ronald Isley), Burl Ives, The Jackson 5, Eartha Kitt, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Brenda Lee, Kathy Mattea, Brian McKnight, Stephanie Mills, Aaron Neville, New Edition, The Platters, Harry Simeone Chorale, The Supremes, The Temptations, Mel Torme, Dinah Washington, The Waitresses and Angela Winbush...each artist with their own distinctive interpretation, making the Holiday Season even more special.

   Universal Music Enterprises, share treasures from the vast vault of labels ~ A&M Records, Decca, Island Def Jam Music, Motown Records and Verve Music is sure to bring back many fond memories of your childhood from yuletide's past!

   This collection reminds me of the old Reader's Digest "Christmas Through The Years" (1984), another 3-CD-Set which is high on my collection list (no longer available)...but this release from Hip-O ~ "Season's Greetings-20th Century Masters-The Millennium Collection", is a compilation of beautiful Christmas songs and best-loved carols that will brighten your Christmastide for years to come...treat yourself, pick this one up, an early Christmas presents...put it on, while your trimming the family Christmas tree!

   Total 3-CD-Set ~ Universal/Hip-O Records 314-556-728-2 ~ (2001)

1 comments about Billboard Christmas Greatest Hits.

1. How could Billboard reduce all the Christmas music made by popular artists down to ten songs on a single disc? Well, they couldn't and so they didn't. This is a four disc collection and if you look at the play list and see it begins with Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" and ends with Cheech & Chong's "Santa Claus and His Old Lady," you can decide right then and there whether you holiday spirit is big enough to encompass those diverse ends of the musical spectrum. You do not have to remember that Gene Autry did the original "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" to enjoy it or any of the older tracks, especially Nat King Cole doing "The Christmas Song" (my personal favorite). Meanwhile, those who like to laugh like Santa during the Christmas season can enjoy "novelty" classics from Spike Jones' "All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)" to Weird Al Yankovic's "Christmas at Ground Zero." I have to think that if you start ticking off the songs from these albums that you would be adding to your music collection you are going to need to use your toes as well as your fingers. I mean, you get everyone from the Chipmunks to Elvis, all laid out pretty much chronologically, which will explain why a lot of people might give up on this set by the time they get to that fourth disc. Yes, there will probably be just as many songs that you can do without, but this is why CD players are programmable. But most of you are going to come out ahead on this one.

1 comments about Classical Christmas.

1. Laserlight has the rights to so much recorded music - excellent, good, indifferent, bad - & of such varying sound quality, that it's difficult to rate the label's bargain compilations. Most are afflicted with "excerpt-itis," the "greatest hits" disease. However, some compiler with an interesting ear for the offbeat & a sense of humor put this fine five-CD Christmas box together. He or she did so by leaning on some less familiar music & by relying largely on good performances from ye olde East Germany ensembles & conductors, (as do Koch-Schwann & Berlin Classics labels, at higher prices).

   The #1 disk is a solid performance of The Nutcracker Suite (also issued as a single disk by Laserlight) by Peter Wohlert conducting the Berlin Symphony (not to be confused with the Berlin Philharmonic). With that over-cooked chestnut out of the way, this compilation gets interesting.

   We get some venerable excerpts of Bach cantatas, oratorios, motets & Lutheran hymns, performed by Fidicinia Capella, New Leipzig Bach Collegium Musicum, & the German Bach Soloists, all respectable ensembles. Edita Gruberova even joins in "Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen." Plus an earful of grand organ preludes.

   Handel is represented by a happy section of "Water Music" & a piece for brass instruments from his oratorio, "Judas Maccabaeus." What, no "Halleluah Chorus?" Believe me, you don't need it! But it's here all the same.

   Mozart checks in with the lovely, too brief, "Ave verum Corpus," motet for chorus, strings, & organ, K. 618. We also get snappy, dutiful baroque contributions from Vivaldi, Corelli & Purcell.

   The remainder of the set is filled out with music from: Pavel Josef Vejvanovsky; Francesco Onofrio Manfredini; Johann Ludwig Krebs; George Friedrich Kauffmann; John the Elder Alcock; Michel Corrette; Michael Praetorius; Johann David Heinichen; Johann Heinrich Schmelzer; & Giuseppe Torelli. The inclusion of these marvelous obscurities pushes this bargain compilation over the top.

   I give it four stars because the performances & sound quality vary considerably. But the compensation comes from hours of joyously felt Nativity music, a good deal of it unfamiliar yet beautiful all the same. Load all five into the CD changer, hit the random button, relax & enjoy your spiced eggnog with family & friends.

   The five CDs are titled: 1. The Nutcracker 2. Classical Christmas 3. Christmas Music for Trumpet & Organ 4. Johann Sebastian Bach - Christmas Music 5. Baroque Christmas Music. They can be purchased individually.

5 comments about Time-Life Treasury of Christmas.

1. I am a huge Christmas fan. Whenever I begin to feel a little blue I just pop in one of these CD's and I feel like it's Christmas already. This is the best collection of Christmas I have ever heard.



2. There is perhaps no such thing as the ultimate traditional Christmas music collection, but this comes as close as you're ever going to get. Most of the songs it wouldn't be Christmas Eve without are here, and in their best versions - like Bing Crosby's "White Christmas", Harry Simeone's "Little Drummer Boy" and Gene Autry's "Rudolph" and "Here Comes Santa Claus". The only changes I would make would be to exchange "Baby's First Christmas" and "Tennessee Christmas" for Crosby's "Silver Bells" and a good version of "We Three Kings" - and Nat King Cole's "Christmas Song" instead of Mel Torme's - rather minor griping all things considered. To wrap it all up, Guy Lombardo's classic version of "Auld Lang Syne" ends the album as it symbolically ends the holiday season. Well worth your money if you're starting out your collection.



3. Good selection and variety of artists and songs. Thiscollection falls short,however, in the amount of music -- 30 minutesper CD. You could put the entire collection on one CD, which makes the price tag a bit steep for what you really get. END



4. This is a great "starter kit" for anyone who wants to collect Christmas classics and have them on hand for the holidays. However, I cannot fathom why the cloyingly sweet "Baby's First Christmas" is included in the set. Whenever it comes on, my family and I dive for the stereo to advance to the next track.



5. I found the song arrangements were more jazzy 40's, 50's style than traditional choir/orchestra Christmas styles of the 60's, 70's and 80's. I ended up listening to a radio station as background music for Christmas day, instead of the CD's.

3 comments about Handel's Messiah.

1. The previous review, written in Spanish, is not a review of this item!! The Spanish reviewer is reviewing the Madacy label edition featuring the Orlando Orchestra. This item is on a different label and features the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra! Before you blast away at a product, you may want to make sure to post the comments in the right place... otherwise people need to ignore your comments.



2. La versión del Mesías de la Orquesta Filarmónica de Orlando bajo el sello Madacy es una verdadera decepción en varios aspectos. El principal de ellos es sin duda el hecho de que, contra lo que dice la portada del disco ("The complete messiah"), no se trata de la versión completa de esta obra. Faltan segmentos tan bellos e importantes como los coros "And He shall purify", "His Yoke is easy", "All we like sheep", etc., lo que resta continuidad a quien está acostumbrado a la obra en su totalidad. Y en verdad que no se explica el por qué no se incluyó la obra completa, dado que este título ya viene en dos CD (donde entran perfectamente todos los coros, arias, recitativos, etc.) Seguramente no faltará quien diga "¿qué esperaba por ese precio?"; sin embargo, existen versiones completas, bellamente interpretadas, y que tienen un precio muy reducido (y que son infinitamente más recomendables que esta versión); por ejemplo, podría comprar la de Pople y la Orquesta Festival de Londres, o la dirigida por Dorati con el Concerto Grosso Smithsoniano; la primera tiene la leve desventaja de interpretarse con instrumentos modernos (pero aún así resulta muy superior al disco de Madacy), pero la de Dorati sí utiliza instrumentos de la época, así que incluso en ese aspecto resultaría una perfecta introducción a esta obra para quien desee escucharla en una interpretación lo más cercana a lo que Handel compuso y ejecutó. Por todo lo anterior, realmente le recomiendo que se mantenga alejado de esta interpretación, y mejor busque entre las ya mencionadas, ya que para empeorar las cosas, esta versión no incluye ningún folleto con comentarios sobre la obra, ya no digamos los textos bíblicos empleados, que le permitieran seguir en detalle toda la obra. Ahora que si desea una versión realmente fenomenal, bien podría optar por la de Pinnock y The English Concert; la de Christie y Les Arts Florisants o la que considero la mejor de las versiones que poseo, la de Harnoncourt y el Concentus Musicus Wien; que aunque tienen el inconveniente de ser un poco (o un mucho) más costosas, realmente justifican su precio.



3. This 2 CD set is a great buy. For me Messiah must have a harpsichord, Baroque orchestration, expressive soloists (including a real deep bass), and a chorus that you can understand the words. This recording has all of this and more. The soprano, tenor and alto are also excellent. The orchestration is great and the recording is crisp. The balance between voices and orchestra is well done. I can't believe the quality of this set for such a low price. I am throughly enjoying listening to it (and singing along).

   This would make a fine gift.

No comments about Gregorian Christmas.

1 comments about Christmas in Europe.

1. 1. Deck the Halls - Von Trapp Family
   2. Es Ist Ein Ros' Entsprungen - Von Trapp Family
   3. Hirten, Wachet Auf! - Von Trapp Family
   4. Zu Bethlehem Geboren - Von Trapp Family
   5. Nanita Nana - Von Trapp Family
   6. Il Est Né, Le Divin Enfant - Von Trapp Family
   7. Canzone Di Natale - Von Trapp Family
   8. Es Hat Sich Heut Eröffnet - Von Trapp Family
   9. Jesus, Jesus, Rest Your Head - Von Trapp Family
   10. Shepherds Come A-Running - Von Trapp Family
   11. Lobt Gott Ihr Christen Alle Gleich - Von Trapp Family
   12. Es Wird Scho Glei Dumpa - Von Trapp Family
   13. Nu Är Det Jul Igen - Von Trapp Family
   14. Ihr Kinderlein Kommet - Von Trapp Family
   15. Der Scheibendudler - Von Trapp Family
   16. Carol of the Drum - Von Trapp Family
   17. Deine Wangelen - Von Trapp Family
   18. Weihnachtslied (Silent Night) - Von Trapp Family