Jeffrey Reid Baker - Composers Christmas

'Mr. Jeffrey Reid Baker has created here is a CD of over 72 minutes of sometimes hilarious, sometimes deeply affecting, parodies of favorite Christmas carols in the styles of 17 great classical composers (plus one from the Middle Ages whom we must call 'Anonymous'). Mixing the resources of a grand piano and electronic keyboards, Mr. Baker has given us another amazing experience from what the New York Times called his 'intergalactic music box.' He is a sort of impish musical chameleon, seemingly able to create just about any illusion electronically; the wonderful thing is, these are more than tricks: they are fascinating statements of 'what might have been' had Richard Wagner, for example, written 'O Holy Night' instead of the 'Pilgrims' Chorus' in Tannhäuser. What really takes one's breath away in almost all the fantasies on this album is how apt each carol seems in it's new setting. One might almost think that 'O Come, O Come Emmanuel' would have been a better fit than the melody Rachmaninov actually used in his Piano Concerto No. 2! 'Revelations' such as this are what bring smiles to listeners' faces, and we hope you will be among those grinning this week when you hear 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful' magically metamorphosed into 'The Great Gate of Kiev' from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, or Saint-Saëns returning to earth to wink at us with 'The Swan upon a Midnight Clear' from Carnival of the Animals. ' From the review by Bill Parker (Author of Building A Classical Collection)

1) God Rest Ye Mery Gentlemen Ballet for Orchestra
2) We Wish You a Merry Christmas Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
3) We Three Kings Nocturne for Piano Solo
4) Angels We Have Heard on High Concerto for Harpsichord Duet
5) Twelve Days of Christmas Hungarian Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra
6) Deck the Halls Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra
7) Hark the Herald Angels Sing Impromptu for Solo Piano: Tema - Variation 1 - Variation 2 - Variation 3 - Variation 4 - Coda
8) Old St. Nicholas Up on the Housetop Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
9) Away in a Manger Waltz for Solo Piano
10) 'The Swan Upon a Midnight Clear' Cello and Piano Duet
11) Good Christian Men Rejoice Canzona Organ Brass and Percussion
12) O Holy Night Prelude Orchestra
13) Christmascenen (Scenes of Chirstmas) for Piano Solo: Joy to the World - O Christmas Tree - Auld Lang Syne - Good King Wenceslas - O Little Town of Bethlehem - I Saw Three Ships - Jingle Bells
14) Silent Night ; Venite Adoremus Waltzes Orchestra: Silent Night - Venite Adoremus
15) 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful to the Great Gate' for Piano Solo
16) What Child Is This Galliard for Medieval Consort
17) The First Noel Gymnopedie for Solo Piano
18) O Come Emmanuel Concerto No.2 for Piano and Orchestra