A Christmas Choral Spectacular
Margaret Burdett, soprano; Cecily Atkinson, alto; Lynton Atkinson, tenor; Jonathan Prentice, bass; Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and Orchestra; Peter Breiner, conductor.
Naxos 8.557585
Format: CD

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There have been so many recordings of holiday music using large chorus and orchestra that it’s difficult to avoid clichés in making a new one. But A Christmas Choral Spectacular sidesteps the overly familiar, and the credit for this must go to conductor Peter Breiner, who wrote all of the arrangements. Though there are moments of grandeur, the overall tone of the arrangements of the more familiar carols is more pastoral than is usual for this sort of collection. This allows a spirit to grow throughout the program that achieves a feeling of cumulative joy in the final, resounding, resplendent arrangement of "The Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy." Along the way are some less familiar carols, such as "The Infant King" and "Little Jesus Sweetly Slept." The sound is very reverberant, with a long echo decay, yet the up-front balance is good and reasonably transparent. The perspective seems to be from about halfway back in the hall of the recording venue (in Poole, UK). Naxos is releasing this on multichannel DVD-Audio in the UK, but not in the US. If you Google it, you can find and order it as an import….Rad Bennett

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass: Christmas Album
Shout! Factory DK 34411
Format: CD

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Covering ten Christmas standards ranging from Bach to Bacharach, this album is the latest in Shout! Factory’s reissue of Herb Alpert’s albums from the 1960s. The arrangements are inventive and remain fresh decades later; at times, they remind me of the music of Brian Wilson and Esquivel. The arrangements are a good remedy for Christmas albums that play everything straight -- you can be well into some tracks here before you realize you’re listening to such familiar tunes as "Winter Wonderland" or "Jingle Bells." The highlight of the disc is "My Favorite Things." It lacks the intensity of John Coltrane’s classic version, but the tempo and instrumentation are great -- play it at your Christmas party, and your more adventurous guests might start to dance. Shout! Factory has done a good job of remastering. The sound is clear, even if the soundstage is not always stable….Eric Hetherington

Sarah Pierce: It Must be Christmas Time
Little Bear 14252
Format: CD

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Sarah Pierce is an acoustic musician who is basically a folk singer, yet she has surprises up her sleeve at every other turn. This holiday set includes Pierce’s own "Miracle at Hand," a bluesy retelling of the birth of Jesus, as well as four additional Pierce originals and covers of five holiday favorites. "O Holy Night" is heard in a much lower register than usual. In Pierce’s rendition, her husky alto allows one to concentrate more on phrasing and text than bracing for that grandstanding high note toward the end. "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is given a unique, reggae-influenced folk treatment that gives this overworked song a much-needed new sound. The overall feeling of this set is one of simplicity and intimacy. The sound helps with the latter; though manipulated in the studio, the sound is live and in person, with noticeable warmth and presence….Rad Bennett

Claire Martin and Richard Rodney Bennett: When Lights Are Low
Linn AKD 260
Format: Hybrid Multichannel SACD

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Having proven herself one of the best jazz singers around when fronting a big band or jazz trio, Claire Martin has now tackled Everest -- an intimate duo album with composer and pianist Richard Rodney Bennett. Though most Americans know Bennett as the writer of scores for films such as Murder on the Orient Express, and as a composer of concert music for orchestra, band, and just about every other conceivable combination of musicians, he is also a powerhouse jazz pianist, and sings as well. He and Martin share the vocal honors, doubling up for a few duets -- such as their smoky, late-night version of "When Lights Are Low." Martin gets things off to a grand start with a sultry version of "My One and Only," and her version of "Fools Fall in Love" is entirely vulnerable. Bennett counters with a heartbreaking version of "Baby Plays Around." Overall, this is wee-hours jazz full of closing-time laments, done to the max by two pros who sound as if they know every lyric inside out. The 4.0-channel sound is rich and full, if a tad lacking in presence….Rad Bennett

Paul McCartney: Chaos and Creation in the Backyard
Capitol CDP 3 38299 2
Format: CD

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Less than a minute into "Fine Line," the opening track of Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, you know you’re listening to a Paul McCartney album. The tune rocks gently and the melody lodges itself in your mind. Three or four songs in, you realize that you’re listening to a really good Paul McCartney album. McCartney still fills stadiums (his last tour, in 2002, grossed $126 million), but his recordings haven’t made a dent in the charts for a while. So this time around he asked Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck) to produce, and Godrich didn’t let McCartney take the easy way out. Just when you’re expecting things to go squishy, as they have in so many other McCartney discs, something unexpected happens. The acoustic-guitar-based "Jenny Wren" could have been merely sentimental, but McCartney adds to the lyrics a hint of realism that gives the song a tart complexity. We can grant him his moment of nostalgic optimism in "English Tea" when the song is as strong as it is. McCartney is true to himself here -- he still believes in romantic love and pretty melodies. The difference is that he pushes himself beyond the simple satisfaction of entertaining his listeners, and challenges them instead….Joseph Taylor