On An Overgrown Path

Christmas is a time of celebration. First, and foremost (and often forgotten) it is the time to celebrate the birth of Jesus, and the arrival of God on earth. It is also a time to celebrate other events, here is a personal list of those that Pliable stumbled across on the Overgrown Path in the last twelve months. First day of Christmas - Welsh National Opera's Parsifal, particularly Anthony Negus' inspired conducting Second day of Christmas - The Borodin Quartet's cycle of the Beethoven Quartets in Norwich Third day of Christmas - Mont Ventoux , particularly the off-road downhill. Fourth day of Christmas - The Brahms Clarinet Quintet in the cellar of the ruined Chateau, Chateauneuf du Pape, Provence Fifth day of Christmas - The final scene of Gottedamerung at Longborough Opera again with Anthony Negus conducting Sixth day of Christmas - The hospitality and example of the monks at the Abbey of Ste Madeleine Le Barroux, Provence...

Rudolf Mauersberger has featured on these pages before when I wrote about his immensely moving Dresden Requiem . Mauersberger was Cantor of the Kreuzkirche (Church of the Holy Cross) in Dresden from 1930 until his death in 1971. He was central to the 20th century revival of Bach and Schütz’s music, and is usually remembered today as one of the most important German church musicians of the last century. This categorization is unfair, as not only did Mauersberger write some very under-rated music, but he was also a great humanitarian. His tenure at the Kreuzkirche in Dresden was under two extreme political regimes, first the Third Reich , and then the communist German Democratic Republic . Through these two despotic, and anti-religious regimes Mauersberger kept alive a Protestant church tradition that stretched back to Martin Luther. The anniversaries of the dreadful destruction of Dresden on 13th February are still marked by performances of his Dresden Requiem, and under the GDR the...

The BBC Radio 3 PR machine jumps into top gear today to spin the 'success' of their Bach Christmas. A press release claims a 'runaway success' . But conveniently audience figures will never be available to prove this, as they are not measured over Christmas. Instead the BBC claims are based on 'a record number' of web site hits in December. The claimed figure is '3.1m impressions during the season itself' , although there is no explanation of what 'the season' is, or how this figure compares with previous 'seasons'. I have two problems with these claims, quite apart from the fact that there is no proven link between the web site hits and radio audience size. First, in the past the BBC's claims about internet traffic have not been fully supported. Information leaked from inside the BBC last year indicated that the results from drilling down into the data on the much-trumpeted 1.4 million Beethoven MP3 files may not have spun anywhe...

I spent Christmas evening with the other doctors and the sick. The Commanding Officer had presented the letter with his last bottle of champagne. We raised our mugs and drank to those we love, but before we had had a chance to taste the wine we had to throw ourselves flat on the ground as a stick of bombs fell outside. I seized my doctor's bag and ran to the scene of the explosions, where there were dead and wounded. My shelter with its lovely Christmas decorations became a dressing station. One of the dying men had been hit in the head and there was nothing more I could do for him. He had been with us at our celebration, and had only that moment left to go on duty, but before he went he had said: "I'll finish the carol first, O du fröhliche !" A few moments later he was dead. There was plenty of hard and sad work to do in our Christmas shelter. It is late now, but it is Christmas night still. And so much sadness everywhere." During the bitterly cold Christmas of...

Taizé chants start my musical celebration of Christmas on Future Radio this Sunday, December 23rd. If you have not heard the music of Taizé before you are in for a very special experience. This is Gregorian Chant updated to the 21st century, it is music written for communal celebration, and it is the perfect way to start Christmas. My header photo shows the Church of Reconciliation in Taizé which we visited again this September. The second half of my programme is drawn from the arrangement of the Christmas Vespers by Rudolf Mauersberger that is sung every year by the Kreuzchor in the historic city of Dresden . The programme is broadcast at 5.00pm UK time on Sunday, December 23rd. Convert to local time here , and launch the audio stream here . Read more about the music of Taizé here , and the Dresden Christmas Vespers here. Now visit the green hill faraway called Taizé. Hear my Christmas programme on Future Radio on Sunday December 23 at 5.00pm UK time (convert to local time zones...

"I spent Christmas evening with the other doctors and the sick. The Commanding Officer had presented the letter with his last bottle of champagne. We raised our mugs and drank to those we love, but before we had had a chance to taste the wine we had to throw ourselves flat on the ground as a stick of bombs fell outside. I seized my doctor's bag and ran to the scene of the explosions, where there were dead and wounded. My shelter with its lovely Christmas decorations became a dressing station. One of the dying men had been hit in the head and there was nothing more I could do for him. He had been with us at our celebration, and had only that moment left to go on duty, but before he went he had said: "I'll finish the carol first, O du fröhliche !" A few moments later he was dead. There was plenty of hard and sad work to do in our Christmas shelter. It is late now, but it is Christmas night still. And so much sadness everywhere." The German army was trapped out...

This is the perfect guilt-free Christmas CD . Don’t worry about dumbing down - it has shed-loads of scholarship and musicianship. But don’t worry about muesli and sandals – it delivers demonstration quality sound, has all the favourite Christmas tunes you will ever need, and finishes with one of the great moments of recorded music, the recessional carol In dulci jubilo complete with organ, instrumental ensemble and a very large choir in a 12th century cathedral. A Mass for Christmas Morning presents a selection of Michael Praetorius’ music arranged as it might have been heard in one the large churches in central Germany in the early 17th century. Praetorius was born into a strict Lutheran family, and his compositions became the musical core of the liturgy of Protestant churches in northern Germany. The Lutheran Mass uses the basic structure of the Roman mass, but with more congregational participation – which gives a great opportunity to produce a sonic spectacular. The versatile Pa...

"I spent Christmas evening with the other doctors and the sick. The Commanding Officer had presented the letter with his last bottle of champagne. We raised our mugs and drank to those we love, but before we had had a chance to taste the wine we had to throw ourselves flat on the ground as a stick of bombs fell outside. I seized my doctor's bag and ran to the scene of the explosions, where there were dead and wounded. My shelter with its lovely Christmas decorations became a dressing station. One of the dying men had been hit in the head and there was nothing more I could do for him. He had been with us at our celebration, and had only that moment left to go on duty, but before he went he had said: "I'll finish the carol first, O du Frohliche !" A few moments later he was dead. There was plenty of hard and sad work to do in our Christmas shelter. It is late now, but it is Christmas night still. And so much sadness everywhere." The German army was trapped out...

There is only one outstanding CD release among all the usual Christmas dross. Totally unmissable is Deutsche Grammophon's mid-price re-release of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol & Mr. Pickwick's Christmas (from 1941 and 1944 respectively). Charles Laughton narrates, Ronald Colman is Scrooge, and the music is by Hanns Eisler - yes I repeat that, the music is by Hanns Eisler . This is the only way to satisfy the family with something suitably seasonal from Hollywood, and to satisfy yourself with music from an outstanding 20th century composer from the radical left. And here, exclusively On An Overgrown Path , is a quick burst of Dickens and Eisler, to get you in the Christmas mood - Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk Image credit - Pliable, Berlin Christmas 2005 taken on Nikon F50 SLR hand-held using 200 ASA film. If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to Music history rewritten

"I spent Christmas evening with the other doctors and the sick. The Commanding Officer had presented the letter with his last bottle of champagne. We raised our mugs and drank to those we love, but before we had had a chance to taste the wine we had to throw ourselves flat on the ground as a stick of bombs fell outside. I seized my doctor's bag and ran to the scene of the explosions, where there were dead and wounded. My shelter with its lovely Christmas decorations became a dressing station. One of the dying men had been hit in the head and there was nothing more I could do for him. He had been with us at our celebration, and had only that moment left to go on duty, but before he went he had said: "I'll finish the carol first, O du fröhliche !" A few moments later he was dead. There was plenty of hard and sad work to do in our Christmas shelter. It is late now, but it is Christmas night still. And so much sadness everywhere." The German army was trapped ou...

I don't think there are any boys for whom the singing is a deep religious experience. My mother says I was born three weeks late and that it was typical of me. Talking one's way out of fights is a very useful skill . Once a mugger said, 'Give me your iPod' and I said, 'I'd rather not' , and he said, 'Well, I'd rather not hit you' , and I said, 'Oh come on' , and he was a bit confused by that and then said, 'How much money have you got? ', and I said 'Oh, only a couple of quid' , so he thought a bit more and then walked off. Another time a chav on crutches tried to mug me. I have a weird feeling when I look at myself or my reflection. 'How can that work?' That I exist and am conscious of myself and things move when I want them to move. It's pretty weird. My parents could have created countless different people. Yet they created me, Maud and Tolly. The biggest cheque I've received from Westminster Abbey i...

When asked why his oratorio El Pessebre (The Manger) ignored contemporary musical developments the great Catalan musician Pablo Casals replied with a smile "The figures in a crèche are folk figures; why, they can't sing twelve-tone music!" El Pessebre may be derivative with its echoes of Humperdinck and Wagner, but it is also a delightful example of naïve folk art that provides a welcome alternative to the oceans of musical kitsch that are now inseparable from Christmas. The naïve folk art seen in my header image, which transports the miracle of water into wine from Cana to a hilltop village in Provence, adorns the guest refectory in L'Abbaye du Barroux in France. If your Christmas tastes are more ancient than modern then, staying with the Catalunya, triomfant theme, the CD seen below is recommended; it is Navidad Renacentista , a programme of Renaissance Spanish Christmas music performed by Capella de Ministrers directed by Carles Magraner and recorded in the...

Top independent store Prelude Records reports a surprise best seller in among all the usual Christmas dross. Los Impossibles is the latest release from the early music group L’Arpeggiata which is directed by the immensely talented Christina Pluhar , who also plays the baroque harp and theorbe. L’Arpeggiatta is one of a number of exciting early music groups in Europe who are breaking down musical boundaries, and they featured in a post about improvisation On An Overgrown Post way back back in November 2004. As Christina Pluhar says in the sleeve notes for Los Impossibles – “Music knows no frontiers; even the frontiers of time are blurred … “ The new CD follows a fascinating overgrown musical path through Italy, Spain and Portugal in search of the origins of an obscure early 18th century romanesca found in Mexican manuscript by the Spanish Baroque guitarist Santiago de Murcia . If all that sounds like a dry piece of musicological research fear not, Los Impossible’s position hig...

Those who find the prospect of 4' 33" of Christmas silence too much to bear should try the CD seen above. Independent label Signum Classics has just released the world premiere recording of John Tavener's Towards Silence as a 34 minute budget priced (£5.99 UK) CD . Towards Silence was composed in 2007 to a joint commission from The Rubin Museum , New York and The Music Mind Spirit Trust . The latter is a charity dedicated to 'enriching lives through music' and their website is a rich resource for the new work . John Tavener's spiritual path has taken him from the Russian Orthodox Church via Greece towards the East. His recent compositions are influenced by the controversial Swiss metaphysician Fritjhof Schuon (1907–98) who proposed that all the authentic spiritual traditions present in the world today share the same origin and the same metaphysical principles . Towards Silence, which is scored for four string quartets and a large Tibetan singing bowl, use...

‘One can’t describe what pure transcendence is; it is beyond knowledge; it is zero ; but the borderlands of transcendence are exactly what art is about and it is quite clear what those borderlands are. Sometimes you are just on the edge of transcendence , other times you are somewhere within the region and that is quite easy to describe because it has a lot of connections with the normal states of consciousness we move in day by day, so it can be mediated in those terms . Once one has a clear idea of what is at the basis of art, although art can never actually say it, I think it can induce such experiences in people by suggestion and encouragement : one can then see more clearly the aim of art and where to go, and life becomes very exciting at that point ’ – Jonathan Harvey in conversation with Arnold Whittall . Christmas greetings to all my readers. * The more browsable 'active view' presentation will prevail over the Christmas break, but, fear not, the 'passive view...

This is the Christmas Eve scene at the Syriac Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception in Qaraqosh in northern Iraq. Many Iraqi Christians have taken refuge in Qaraqosh from Islamic fundamentalists in the south of the country and the Church of the Immaculate Conception is the largest church in Iraq. Since Saddam Hussein's arrest in 2003 the population of Qaraqosh has doubled and the town is now home to more than 10,000 refugees. My music for Christmas was recorded in Qaraqosh and comes from a newly released CD from French independent label Ad Vitam . On the disc denominations including Catholic and Orthodox Syriacs and Chaldaeans celebrate the Christian liturgy in the Arabic, Chaldaean, Syriac and Soureth languages, the latter being derived from the Aramaic that Christ spoke. A beautiful and deeply moving disc that bears witness to the healing power of music . There is an Aramaic Passion here and more on Ad Vitam , the label that build bridges of hope and trust, here . * 4...

Decca has taken social media to new heights with an online prayer facility on their website for the Christmas CD from the nuns of Notre-Dame de l'Annonciation. Sadly divine petition seems to have failed* as Voices - Chant from Avignon was beaten to the UK Christmas number one spot by André Rieu's Forever Vienna . Will we see Chant Against the Machine released for Christmas 2011? More on the backstory of the nuns' CD here . * As happens many times, this light-hearted post led to more serious matters. When I started writing it on Dec 21 I spent a lot of time trying to find out which CD was number one in the UK classical specialist chart for the week ending December 18. First I listened to the BBC Radio 3 chart programme on iPlayer , for which I expect many accumulated merits. But to no avail, just a few specific chart CDs were featured and overall chart positions were not given. I then followed the Radio 3 link to the Gramophone chart page which was a week out of date,...

'You know that the success of all religions lies in their mysteries. Once everything has been explained didactically, there are no longer any mysteries, and therefore no reason to return' - Salvador Dali O Magnum Mysterium (O Great Mystery) is a responsorial chant from the Matins of Christmas that has been set by composers ranging from William Byrd to Morten Lauridsen . My header photo was taken a few weeks ago from the tiny village of Suzette in Provence. Le Barroux is in the foreground and the Gregorian chant from the two monasteries there featured in posts several times this year . In the background is Mont Ventoux and Petrarch wrote about his ascent of the mountain in 1336 in one of his Epistolae familiares . Franz Liszt, a composer we will be hearing often in 2011 , set three of Petrarch's Sonnets in his Années de pèlerinage . The elusive Laura prompted Petrarch to give up the priesthood and inspired some of his most celebrated poetry. Petrarch first sighted Laur...

At this festive time it is worth revisiting two Christmas oratorios that have featured here in past years. Last year I praised Paul Constantinescu's Byzantine Christmas oratorio 'The Nativity' for being "music that is neither easy nor difficult to listen to", while two years earlier I recommmended Pau Casal's oratorio El Pessebre (The Manger) as "a delightfully derivative concoction; just let's say that if you like Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel you will like El Pessebre ." I make no claim that 'The Nativity' and El Pessebre are masterpieces. In fact I have developed a deep suspicion of the designation 'masterpiece', which no longer recognises intrinsic merit, but instead merely expresses establishment approval. It does not matter whether a work is a masterpiece or not. What really matters is whether it moves the listener. And, despite the received wisdom that creates gluts of Mahler, Britten, R. Strauss and, next year...

There is some nice chewy music on Future Radio over Christmas. That is me above putting together My World of Music , a two hour special of music from different cultures and traditions around the world which is being broadcast by Future Radio at 4.00pm UK time on December 26th on a local FM frequency and over the internet . A podcast of the programme will be available a few days after broadcast. Here is the playlist together with links to related articles On An Overgrown Path : 1 - Titi Robin (guitar) and Faiz Ali Faiz (voice), Lage Jiya from Jaadu Magic : Accords Croisés AC130 2 - Jean-Rodolpe Kars (piano), Beloved of the Soul from Musique Juive : Editions de l’Emmanuel CDD0148 5.37 3 - Keyvan Chemirani (Iranian percussion) and Pandit Anindo Chatterjee (tabla), Ma maison se trouve sur le chemin emprunté par mon Coeur from Battements au Coeur de l’Orient (Percussion at the heart of the Orient): Accords Croisés AC121 4 - Driss el Maloumi (oud), Rajery (Madagaskan bamboo tubu...