NAGRANIE REFERENCYJNE - 20bit - FIBER OPTIC DISK

AllMusic Review by Bob Gottlieb This is one of the most beautiful and heartfelt Christmas discs to come along in a very long time. Featuring the strong, vibrant playing of Jacqueline Schwab, this collection of carols, Appalachian hymns, and spirituals manages to be meditative and emotional without rolling over into sickly sentimental folderol. Schwab's arrangements of Christmas classics like "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," "O Little Town of Bethlehem," and "Go Tell It on the Mountain" are immediately recognizable, but they're played with such impassioned feeling that they somehow ring deeper and truer than usual. The songs here reflect the often conflicting feelings many of us have about Christmas -- a time of birth, children, and joy, but also a time of unease, loneliness, and despair -- but they're played with a simple directness that shines through everything, putting all the poignant, real emotions back into Christmas. The music on this recording is drawn from American folk and popular sources but flows through the filter of my own experiences with the holiday season. I grew up in the great melting pot of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I learned to appreciate a variety of traditions. The variety began in my own home, with a Protestant father and a Jewish mother. We had special holiday traditions all our own. Our tree, for example, was decorated with my grandmother's handmade felt birds, and our annual party featured carol singing to my piano accompaniment. Although those celebrations were secular, I also played for Christmas Eve services at my music teacher's church. During my school years, Harry Belafonte's great recording of spirituals, To Wish You a Merry Christmas, often filled our house. - Jacqueline Schwab