Christmas With Michala Petri

In the world of the recorder, Michala Petri is the superstar of the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries. She's equally at home in her instrument's mostly Baroque traditional repertoire,... more

In the world of the recorder, Michala Petri is the superstar of the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries. She's equally at home in her instrument's mostly Baroque traditional repertoire, new music, and crossover material. In her Christmas album, she largely focuses on carols from her native Denmark, but also includes a generous selection of more familiar pieces. These include arrangements of Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen; Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring; Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme; the Pastorale from Messiah; the Schubert and Bach/Gounod versions of Ave Maria; a movement from The Four Seasons, and Silent Night. A number of arrangers, including Petri herself, contributed to the album, and while all the arrangements are fairly traditional, there's a nice variety of styles represented, from straightforward settings giving the melody to the recorder, to more elaborate and virtuosic sets of variations. The diversity of approaches, and Petri's use of a variety of recorders, makes for a nicely diverse collection. Her playing, from the simplest folk tunes to the most demanding variations, is impeccably tasteful and beautifully expressive. The DR Danish Radio Sinfonietta, led by Henrik Vagn Christensen, provides nuanced support. Hnssler's sound is clean and bright. The collection should be attractive to anyone looking for traditional-sounding Christmas music from off the beaten track. ~ Stephen Eddins, Rovi less