Christmas Carols - Musica Sacra, Richard Westenburg

A collection of hymns, carols and motets offers a broad perspective on the unaccompanied choral music of Christmas: its traditional liturgical texts, as reflected in reverent settings by Renaissance and modern masters; and the well- and lesser- known hymns and carols of the world in arrangements which preserve their ethnic and geographic origins. A much-sought after recording, this beautiful collection returns to the catalogue after a long absence.

Musica Sacra is a New York-based professional chorus, founded by the conductor Richard Westenburg in the late 1960s under the sponsorship of Central Presbyterian Church on New York’s Park Avenue. It gave the first extensive all-professional, paid-admission series of concerts for chorus and Orchestra ever undertaken by an American Church and soon was drawing audiences beyond the church’s capacity. After the number of programs was increased with many of them being performed two or three times – to great critical acclaim – it became evident that the group should perform in larger spaces. Musica Sacra has appeared many times at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Town Hall, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and Alice Tully Hall. Richard Westenburg and Musica Sacra have made several commercial recordings for a number of different labels, performing music by Handel, Brahms, Verdi and Victoria.

Silent Night
Carols of the Bells
O magnum mysterium
Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine
The Shepherd’s Carol
Still, Still, Still
O Tannenbaum
The First Noël
Saw You Never in the Twilight
The Holly and the Ivy
A Hymn to the Virgin
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Patapan
Away in a Manger
Angelus ad pastores ait
Did Mary Know?
Deck the Hall
Coventry Carol
Hodie Christus natus est
Baloo, Lammy
I Saw Three Ships
Of the Father’s Love Begotten
E’en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come
As With Gladness Men of Old
I Wonder as I Wander
A la nanita nana
Ding Dong! Merrily on High

Musica Sacra
Richard Westenburg