If you appreciate New Age arrangements with a different approach to traditional Christmas songs, one cannot ignore Chip Davis’ creation, Mannheim Steamroller, and their many Christmas albums. The great news is that Real Gone Music has re-released all their Christmas recordings. The two aggregations made both separate and combined releases and their “White Christmas” release is a must-have album. The Living Strings released many albums over the years that, while at the time were considered “budget recordings”, their quality is now widely recognized and are often highly sought-after recordings.Īssociated with the Living Strings were the Living Voices. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. There were also several faceless orchestras such as the 101 Strings that made quality releases, but the finest recordings and arrangements in my opinion were made by the Living Strings. Percy Faith’s orchestrations always set a standard of excellence few could match, and copies of each of his Christmas offerings (he released at least three albums) should be in everyone’s collection. It is now a difficult CD to find but I highly recommend that you scramble to find a copy.īack in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, well-known conductors such as Percy Faith, Andre Kostelanetz and Montovani released a number of high-quality orchestral Christmas recordings. Narada was a music label created for New Age musicians and Peter lent me his copy.Įvery track is by a different artist and the music is stunningly beautiful and largely “moving”. Many years ago, my dad’s good friend Peter Spalding stopped by the house for a game of cribbage and, knowing my love of music, suggested I listen to a CD put out by a collection of artists on the Narada label. Short of Arthur Fiedler’s ubiquitous “Sleigh Ride” and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Carol of the Bells”, the world of commercial radio almost completely ignores the world of beautiful instrumental music. Everyone, including myself, have childhood memories and favourite Christmas songs dripping with nostalgia, but I’ve always “looked beyond” to find great, overlooked music.
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