The Holiday Music Fest

And the Fa La La's go on, with little known holiday songs or recordings.  And this comes from one of my very favorite recordings.  It's called Christmas Goes Baroque, performed by the CSSR State Philharmonic Orchestra (from Czechoslovakia), conducted by Peter Breiner, who did the magnificent, thoughtful arrangements.

What the album does is take popular Christmas songs and arrange them in the style of Baroque composers, in particular Bach, Handel and Vivaldi.  Not only are the arrangements lush and vibrant, but the performances are utterly elegant.  It gives new life to songs you heard many hundreds of time, and even gives the sense that if these songs weren't actually written during Baroque times...they should have been.

Sometimes when other-world arrangements on placed on top of songs, they sound amusing but clearly adapted pastiches; these sound...right.  Here, for just one of 17 examples is "Jingle Bells."  Just listen to what such a simple song can sound like when does with such class and richness.