ANOTHER NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

and SCROOGE with seasonal works by Liszt, Tchaikovsky and others

FOX Carol Fantasia

B KELLY Scrooge

P LANE Old Christmas Music, Another Night Before Christmas

M CURTIS Christmas Rush – Concert March

V REBIKOV Waltz

LISZT orch G JACOB The Christmas Tree Suite

A SAUNDERS Fairytale Sleighride

A MORLEY Snowride

TCHAIKOVSKY orch LANE Troika

TH JONES Christmas Cracker

Simon Callow,

RTÉ Concert Orchestra

Royal Ballet Sinfonia / Gavin Sutherland

The Christmas net is cast wide in this captivating collection of seasonal music. John Fox has crafted a delightful Carol Fantasia. Bryan Kelly’s Scrooge is an action-packed Dickens compression, brought to visceral life by esteemed actor Simon Callow, who also narrates Philip Lane’s Another Night Before Christmas, an update by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy of the classic poem. Lane’s Old Christmas Music is expressively rich, and spans the centuries. Smaller pieces from Liszt, orchestrated by Gordon Jacob, Rebikov and more recent works, complete a delightful selection.

While the Liszt has been recorded often enough in the piano original, it is here presented in Gordon Jacob’s orchestration. The appeal of this disc is obviously seasonal but will also appeal to Light Music lovers for the suites and interesting selection of material.

Narrator Simon Callow’s films include Amadeus, A Room with a View, Shakespeare in Love and Four Weddings and a Funeral. He has directed over thirty shows, including operas, written sixteen books and been closely involved in work with leading British orchestras.

Conductor Gavin Sutherland’s recording career includes over fifty CDs, mainly with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, and he has appeared with the orchestra extensively both on the concert platform and for Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Naxos 8572744