My Top Five Christmas Albums
The Christmas season officially begins this Saturday at sundown, so I thought I’d share my top 5 albums to listen to during that time.
Praetorius: Mass for Christmas Morning – Gabrieli Consort & Players, Paul McCreesh
This awesome album is a recreation of a Mass on Christmas morning as it may have been in 1610 at Michael Praetorius’s church. It is simply spectacular and blows me away every time I hear it. Great hymns, great playing, great singing, great everything!
Schutz: Christmas Vespers – Gabrieli Consort & Players, Paul McCreesh
This is another liturgical recreation album, not tied to a specific year, but putting several of Heinrich Schutz’s pieces into a liturgical context, where they make more sense. Once again, the hymns are great, and I really enjoy listening to it.
Classic Christmas Carols – The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge
This is the British choral Christmas album I was looking for. It has my favorite arrangements (mainly David Wilcocks) of many familiar Christmas hymns, as well as many carols and anthems. And it’s only $7.99 for the digital download (from Amazon), so you can’t go wrong with this one.
Thompson: The Nativity According to St. Luke
Sections of this piece have been ingrained on my brain since I was little. This is a piece that is very easy to listen to, and will tell you the Christmas story all the way from John the Baptist until Simeon. I highly recommend it!
A Little Christmas Music – The King’s Singers
This album was also a major part of the Christmas season for me growing up. It is just fun!
Merry Christmas and happy listening!
