Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra & Petr Vronský - Dashing: Sounds of the Season (2016) [Hi-Res]

Navona Records is delighted to present DASHING, a festive album for the holiday season featuring brand new works and arrangements of holiday favorites by several outstanding composers, with performances by The Stanbery Singers, the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Salt Lake City Jazz Orchestra.

Familiar faces and tunes make appearances here, such as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s perennial holiday favorite, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from his ballet The Nutcracker. Henry Wolking provides a jazz arrangement of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen; likewise, David Tanner contributes with an arrangement of O Holy Night. His other work, A Visit from St. Nicholas, sets Clement Moore’s classic poem “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” to orchestra, with narration by Kerry Stratton. Delvyn Case and Timothy Lee Miller deliver rousing, spirited music with their Rocket Sleigh for orchestra and A Christmas Celebration for wind band, respectively.

Christopher J. Hoh introduces the album’s choral works with his invitational Come Now and Celebrate, along with a choral arrangement of Thomas W. Talley’s folksong “Behold That Star,” composed in the style of African–American spirituals. L. Peter Deutsch weaves choral voices with solo instruments on each of his Three Winter Holiday Songs, “A Winter’s Rime,” “Hodie Christus Natus Est,” and “The Holly and the Ivy.” James Shrader contributes two choral works—a setting of “In the Bleak Midwinter” as a theme and variations, and Balulalow, written in a traditional Scottish style. Phillip Rhodes rounds out the album with the luminescent A Lullaby for the Nativity.