Shop Now

MusicWeb International Christmas Round-up

This qualifies as both old and new: the Greek kalanda, or carols, an old format, are given new life by this modern Cyprus-born composer. If you are sated with Jingle Bells and all the faux-bonhomie pumped out by the likes of Magic FM – a hazard of my podiatrist’s waiting room – most of the music listed here and in my main article will soothe the troubled breast, but this soprano(s)-plus-piano recital will do especially well. The delicate drawing by Cilia Petridou’s father on the cover neatly sums up the mood of the music.

If, like me, you retain a few rags and tatters of classical and New Testament Greek – ‘these fragments I have shored against my ruins’ – part of the fun of reading the booklet is to pick out the odd word which survives in almost unaltered form. I don’t think, however, that there was a classical word for ‘reindeer’ or ‘sleigh’ (elaphakia, elkéthro). Saint Basil (Ayios Basileios) takes the role of Father Christmas in the Greek Orthodox tradition; his feast day is January 1st, the day for giving gifts as it was in England in Tudor times. In the Roman and Anglican calendars, his day is June 14th.