Christmas
Yuletide Scenes 1: A Scene on the Ice near a TownThursday, 19 December 2013
The term “snow day” may have been coined with the most recent spate of cold winters in mind, encapsulating the modern-day, not to mention British, consequences of winter weather, but Hendrick Avercamp’s Seventeenth-century “snow day”, painted in... Read more... |
L'Enfance du Christ, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Roth, BarbicanSunday, 15 December 2013
For seasonal fare that’s also profound, few pre-Christmas weekends in London can ever have been richer than this one. Hearts battered by John Adams’ nativity oratorio El Niño last night, one hoped for more soothing medicine this afternoon in the... Read more... |
El Niño, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, Jurowski, Royal Festival HallSunday, 15 December 2013
John Adams’ millennial conflagration of musical poems about childbirth, destruction and the divine made manifest not only served as a seasonal farewell and a transcendent epilogue to the Southbank’s year of 20th-century music The Rest is Noise; it... Read more... |
CD: Erasure - Snow GlobeSaturday, 14 December 2013
There's something about the partnership of Vince Clarke and Andy Bell that seems to automatically generate sweetness. This collection of half originals and half Christmas classics is really quite dark, quite a bitter look at winter and the Christmas... Read more... |
CD: Susan Boyle - Home for ChristmasWednesday, 11 December 2013
Few were surprised this week, when Susan Boyle revealed she had been diagnosed with Asperger’s. Some used this knowledge as an opportunity to have another go at Simon Cowell's and his role in putting her in the spotlight. But the brittleness so... Read more... |
CD: Bright Eyes - A Christmas AlbumSunday, 08 December 2013
Nebraskan singer-songwriter Conor Oberst – AKA Bright Eyes - was a famously contrary soul when he first broke through. This greatly benefited his music, if not his commercial potential. Rather than become your typical indie-acoustic whiner, he... Read more... |
CD: Kelly Clarkson - Wrapped in RedSaturday, 07 December 2013
This year, even legendary punk rockers Bad Religion released a Christmas-themed album - as if to underline that, for just about any recording artist, it’s not a matter of "if" but of "when". Christmas Songs only shares one track with Kelly Clarkson’... Read more... |
CD: Musical Gifts from Joshua Bell and FriendsThursday, 05 December 2013
There's an impressive guest list on Joshua Bell's Christmas disc. Vocalists include Renée Fleming, Plácido Domingo, Gloria Estefan and Alison Krauss. Cellist Steven Isserlis pops up, along with Chick Corea. Sony would have us believe that this is... Read more... |
Panto!, ITV1Thursday, 27 December 2012
Pantomime is one of the great festive traditions and the version of Dick Whittington envisaged by John Bishop in this one-off comedy drama checked off every single one of the clichés. Taking a writer’s credit alongside Jonathan Harvey of Gimme Gimme... Read more... |
The Snowman and the Snowdog, Channel 4Tuesday, 25 December 2012
Over the past 29 years, annual screenings of the TV adaptation of Raymond Briggs's 1978 picture book The Snowman have become an integral part of Christmas. Now, on the 30th anniversary of its first broadcast, the original has friendly competition... Read more... |
Yuletide Scenes 5: Hunters in the SnowSunday, 23 December 2012
The great Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder was instrumental in developing landscape painting as a genre in its own right. Hunters in the Snow, 1565, is one of five surviving paintings (Bruegel painted six) in his cycle depicting The Labours... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Christmas DiscsSaturday, 22 December 2012
Advent at Merton Choir of Merton College, Oxford/Peter Phillips and Benjamin Nicholas (Delphian)Delphian’s Christmas CD, recorded in the glowing acoustic of Merton College Chapel, is a satisfyingly solemn, serious affair. Here, the Advent... Read more... |
