St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra - A Festival Of Christmas: An Orchestral Celebration

Published Thursday 1st January 2004
St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra - A Festival Of Christmas: An Orchestral Celebration
St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra - A Festival Of Christmas: An Orchestral Celebration

STYLE: Hymnody
RATING 5 5 5 5 5
OUR PRODUCT CODE: 8443-8185
LABEL: Kingsway KMCD2504
FORMAT: CD Album
ITEMS: 1
RRP: £2.99

Reviewed by Simon Carpenter

Another Christmas, another bland orchestral rehash of much loved seasonal musical favourites, this time by the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra who should know better. Well, maybe it's not all bad. There are some nice moments in their version of "Angels We Have Heard From High" (“Angels From The Realms Of Glory” to you and me), but I just think that great tunes such as "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" and "Silent Night" deserve better than this, and have been given it by such as Hely Hutchinson in his Carol Symphony. Alongside the usual suspects ("Joy To The World", "Hark The Herald", etc) are four tracks from the archives (and one or two are definitely showing their age) of other orchestras' recordings of Christmas classics: Bach's "Sheep May Safely Graze" and the "Sinfonia" from his Christmas Oratorio, and two extracts from Handel's Messiah, the "Overture" and the "Pastoral". With their demonstration of what real classical music is, these tracks, quite frankly, rescue this CD for me and move it into the OK category.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

Interested in reviewing music? Find out more here.

Be the first to comment on this article

We welcome your opinions but libellous and abusive comments are not allowed.












We are committed to protecting your privacy. By clicking 'Send comment' you consent to Cross Rhythms storing and processing your personal data. For more information about how we care for your data please see our privacy policy.