Holiday delight

Be it for a stocking stuffer, personal gift or backdrop to a holiday gathering, Glissandi's generous array of Christmas favourites is sure to please. This trio of Niagara's finest musicians have come together and rendered twenty-one tracks with a variety of colours and shadings that keep the ear engaged and the imaginationconjuring up heaps of happiness and joy. Doug Miller brings his considerable talent (he also produced the disc) using a covey of instruments including flutes (soprano, alto, bamboo and Irish) piccolo and recorders to paint the melodic lines from the ethereal calm of "Huron Carol" through a hauntingly eerie "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" to a remarkable rendition of "I Am so Glad" that even has a splash of Brandenburg. All of the arrangements are convincingly anchored by harpist Deborah Braun, including two solos: "Infant Holy," and "Away in a Manger," whose childlike opening morphs into adulthood before slipping back with innocent delight. Violin interventions from David Braun, both melody ("Greensleeves") and accompaniment ("Of the Father's Love Begotten") add another layer of interest. Still, the highlight comes from Berlioz ("Trio" from L'Enfance du Christ), which features the best balance (elsewhere, recording engineer Jeff Wolpert succumbs to the allure of over-reverberation) and harmonic excursions of which the carols' composers can only dream.

Huron Carol - click here to listen to a sample of this song Silent Night Still, Still, Still The Angel Gabriel Infant Holy, Infant Lowly O Come, O Come, Emmanuel - click here to listen to a sample of this song. Away in a Manger What Child Is This Bring a Torch, Jeanette Coventry Carol I Am so Glad

Greensleeves The Holly and the Ivy I wonder as I wander O Holy Night Of the Father's Love Begotten Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent - click here to listen to a sample of this song. In the Bleak Midwinter Trio from L'Enfance du Christ, Op. 25 by Berlioz The First Nowell Pachelbel/Jolly Old St. Nicholas - click here to listen to a sample of this song.

This album is available through Glissandi