Any special favorites for the holidays?

[wordswordswords]

Does anyone have any particular favorites among classical works for this season?

I'll give a couple of mine:

Handel's Messiah

J. S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio

[Aravis]

I would have to say Handel for me as well. I don't listen to as much classical music as I did while I was growing up. My mother loves it- she's a violinist- and exposed me to some wonderful music which I have fallen out of the habit of listening to. I think I need to add a little more of it to my life. It always leaves me feeling peaceful and relaxed.

[demgoddess]

Handel's Messiah for me, too. We played it every year when I was in orchestra growing up, and it has definitely become a holiday favorite.

[pinkozcat]

I'll go a bit more modern and say that I love Benjamin Britten's carols.

When I was at school we learnt two of them - This Little Babe which we sang at a school breakup and
There Is No Rose which, although it is only in three parts, was much harder to sing and our singing teacher gave up on that one so we never performed it.

I have them on CD and try to sing along, although boy soprano I never was!

[camillofan]

I'm a big fan of Britten's A Ceremony of Carols, too. Sang them in college, in my first semester, and whenever I hear the beginning of the piece (the chant "Hodie"), besides thinking of Christmas I am also transported back to the large, cold, dark, echo-y chapel where we used to rehearse and where my unworldly freshman self was first exposed to good choral music some quarter-century ago.

I also love Messiah, for which I developed renewed appreciation this year when I sang it with my county's choral society (joined in September because I realized that I missed the rush of singing good music, which it turns out is better than therapy).

Any fans of Amahl and the Night Visitors?

[pinkozcat]

I heard Ahmal and the Night Visitor when I was at school and loved it.

Periodically I look for it in the record shops and don't find it - and then I forget about it again. Thank you for reminding me - I must go and look again.

[Aravis]

I love Amahl! My mother once played Amahl's mother, and my grandfather was Caspar.

[pinkozcat]

For my birthday I received a CD of Haydn's Nelson Mass. It was given to me, at my request, by one of my daughters.

Great stuff!!