CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Christmas Collection

CD-Charts > Music > Box Sets
by: Mannheim Steamroller

Release Date October 30, 2001
Mannheim Steamroller? Christmas music? Do you need to know more? This collection is just great. It will please the most casual listener as well as a musician with a trained ear. The arrangements are just beautiful. Enjoy!!

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Classical Christmas

CD-Charts > Music > Box Sets
from: Delta

Release Date September 30, 1993
Laserlight has the rights to so much recorded music - excellent, good, indifferent, bad - & of such varying sound quality, that it's difficult to rate the label's bargain compilations. Most are afflicted with "excerpt-itis," the "greatest hits" disease. However, some compiler with an interesting ear for the offbeat & a sense of humor put this fine five-CD Christmas box together. He or she did so by leaning on some less familiar music & by relying largely on good performances from ye olde East Germany ensembles & conductors, (as do Koch-Schwann & Berlin Classics labels, at higher prices).

The #1 disk is a solid performance of The Nutcracker Suite (also issued as a single disk by Laserlight) by ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
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Time-Life Treasury of Christmas

CD-Charts > Music > Box Sets
by: Various Artists

Release Date January 12, 2000
I am a huge Christmas fan. Whenever I begin to feel a little blue I just pop in one of these CD's and I feel like it's Christmas already. This is the best collection of Christmas I have ever heard.

CD-Charts Position 4
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Bach: Weihnachts-Oratorium/Larsson, von Magnus, Prégardien, Martens, Koopman

CD-Charts > Music > Box Sets
by: Johann Sebastian Bach, The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir, Ton Koopman, Christoph Prégardien, Klaus Mertens, Lisa Larsson, Elisabeth von Magnus

Release Date October 01, 1996
There is no better conductor of Bach's cantatas than Ton Koopman. The hallmark of his skill is the sense the listener gets that he puts his whole heart and mind into each segment, focusing its special musical mood and finding exactly the tempo and dynamic to express that mood. In the cantatas assembled to create the Christmas Oratorio, there are many such miniature dramas of tempo and affect, but some well-known conductors have failed to differentiate them, resulting in a long earnest piety rather than a celebration of sound. Koopman's orchestra is wonderfully transparent and light-hearted by comparison; the clarity and independence of intrumental parts seems fresh and inventive, no matter how often the listener has heard the same notes from other ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
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The Revels Collection - Celebrations of the Winter Solstice

CD-Charts > Music > Box Sets
by: Various Artists

Release Date October 17, 1995
If you've read some of my other reviews, you probably noticed that I'm a fan of Victorian and earlier style recordings-how could you not notice? Well, this collection is as highly recommended as any that I have written about. It's right up there with Robin Petrie's. This collection of Christmas music is played so much in our home from November 1st on, that my children recognize these songs every bit as much as the typical fanfare played daily at this time of year like Santa Claus Is Coming To Town or White Christmas. And the best part is that this is all original 15th thru 19th century music done (mostly) in the original style. My particular favorites include Wassail Carol, Sans Day Holly Carol, Jolly Old Hawk (a great 12th Night pub carol), Abbots ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

1940's Christmas

CD-Charts > Music > Box Sets
by: Various Artists

Release Date August 01, 1996
This was an excellent set of CD's and quite a value, as well. I have thrown three seperate parties using these CD's in the past month and I have received nothing but praise from my guests. WONDERFUL!

CD-Charts Position 7
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Time-Life: Treasury Of Christmas II

CD-Charts > Music > Box Sets
by: Various Artists, Treasury of Christmas

Release Date January 12, 2000
I'm a sucker for the "old-fashioned" Christmas music.....the songs and artists I remember hearing when I was a kid, when they played Christmas music the whole week after Christmas, instead of stopping at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Day! How wonderful to hear Perry Como, Gene Autrey, Lena Horne, Rosemary Clooney, Dean Martin, and Andy Williams sing some of my Christmas favorites. This collection is great!

CD-Charts Position 8
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With Joyful Voice: Christmas Music of Eight Centuries

CD-Charts > Music > Box Sets
from: Nonesuch

Release Date October 26, 1993
These three excellently produced CDs evoke medieval manor houses, renaissance courts, and baroque choir boys as we hear Christmas music, fresh to our ears from another time and place. We hear familiar Christmas carols as well, but in their original setting. A mood of quiet joy pervades the presentation.

CD-Charts Position 9
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Christmas with the Vienna Boys Choir

CD-Charts > Music > Box Sets
by: Vienna Boys' Choir

Release Date August 05, 1997
I have listened to these CDs so many times, and have also given several sets away as gifts. The Coronation Mass is particularly fabulous. Heartily recommended.

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

Best of Jazz

CD-Charts > Music > Box Sets
by: Various Artists

Release Date September 22, 1998
I have listened to these CDs so many times, and have also given several sets away as gifts. The Coronation Mass is particularly fabulous. Heartily recommended.