In this episode of Performance Today, we'll explore and connect two forms of expression...poetry and music, for the winter season.

Episode Playlist

Hour 1

David Dickau: Love Came Down at Christmas
Choral Arts Ensemble | Barbara Depman, conductor
Album: MPR Taste Of The Holidays, Vol. 4
MPR 20132

Xavier Montsalvatge: Cradle Song
Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano | Sharon Isbin, guitar
Album: Alma Espanola
Bridge 9491

Felix Mendelssohn: Song without Words No. 36 "Cradle Song" Op. 67
Javier Perianes, piano
Album: Lieder Ohne Worte
Harmonia Mundi 902195

Pietro Yon: Gesu Bambino
Massed Choirs of St. Olaf College | The St. Olaf Orchestra | Sigrid Johnson, conductor
The 2014 St. Olaf Christmas Festival, Skoglund Center Auditorium, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN

Peter Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1 "Winter Dreams" Movements 3 & 4
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra | Mariss Jansons, conductor
Album: Tchaikovsky: The Complete Symphonies
Chandos 8672

Thomas Ravenscroft, arr. Abbie Betinis: Remember, O Thou Man
Jacqui Kerrod, harp | Katharine Dryden, viola | Pro Arte Singers | Arthur Sjogren, conductor
First Presbyterian Church, New Canaan, CT

Matthew Peterson: Corde Natus
St. Olaf Orchestra | Steven Amundson, conductor
St. Olaf Christmas Festival, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN

Traditional, J. Scott Irvine: I Saw Three Ships
True North Brass:  Joan Watson, natural horn | Stuart Laughton, bodhran
Album: A True North Christmas
TNB 4

Hour 2

Anton Arensky: String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 35: III. Finale: Andante Sostenuto - Allegro Moderato
Kirsten Johnson, viola | Lynn Harrell and Zuill Bailey, cellos | Soovin Kim, violin
Album: Dohnanyi: Serenade In C Major - Arensky: String Quartet No. 2
Delos

Engelbert Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel: Dream Pantomime
Boston Pops Orchestra | Arthur Fiedler, conductor
Album: Pops Christmas Party
RCA 6428

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on Greensleeves
Ji-Won Song, Max Yiming Mao, Kenneth Naito, Noelle Naito, violins | Molly Wise, viola | Noemie Raymond-Friset, cello
Heifetz Institute, University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) Fine and Performing Arts Department, Linehan Concert Hall, UMBC, Baltimore, MD

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Cello Concerto (chamber version, world premiere)
Zuill Bailey, cello | Charles Wetherbee, violin | Michael Butterman, conductor
Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, Brungard Aviation Hangar, Boulder, CO

Traditional: Kekeli Tso Kekeli Me
Fisk Jubilee Singers
Album: Sacred Journey
Curb 80452

Traditional: Rockin' Jerusalem
Fisk Jubilee Singers
Album: In Bright Mansions
Curb 78762

Leroy Anderson: A Christmas Festival
WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne | Stefan Parkman, conductor
Philharmonie, Cologne, Germany