Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of our musicians, and classical music lovers! Have a wonderful holiday season, and here to celebrate are two pieces written more than two centuries apart. Bach's Cantata BWV 110, one of the several he wrote for the Christmas day, was first performed in Leipzig on December 25, 1725. Here, in an old recording, is the opening chorus, Unser Mund sei voll Lachens (Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Psalm 126:2). It is performed by the Boys Choir (Knabenchor) of Windsbach, Bavaria, conducted by the choir's founder and director, Hans Thamm, with the Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra.
Olivier Messiaen, a deeply religious man, wrote his piano cycle Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus, or Twenty contemplations on the infant Jesus, in 1944. The whole piece takes about two hours to play, but here you can listen to Movement 13, Noël (Christmas), performed by the pianist Minju Choi. Happy listening!
December 27, 2010
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of our musicians, and classical music lovers! Have a wonderful holiday season, and here to celebrate are two pieces written more than two centuries apart. Bach's Cantata BWV 110, one of the several he wrote for the Christmas day, was first performed in Leipzig on December 25, 1725. Here, in an old recording, is the opening chorus, Unser Mund sei voll Lachens (Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Psalm 126:2). It is performed by the Boys Choir (Knabenchor) of Windsbach, Bavaria, conducted by the choir's founder and director, Hans Thamm, with the Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra.
Olivier Messiaen, a deeply religious man, wrote his piano cycle Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus, or Twenty contemplations on the infant Jesus, in 1944. The whole piece takes about two hours to play, but here you can listen to Movement 13, Noël (Christmas), performed by the pianist Minju Choi. Happy listening!