Amazon.com The songs are familiar carols, but A Windham Hill Christmas retains the Windham Hill Winter Solstice series tradition of unusual arrangements and performances that evoke the mood of the season, especially if your take on that mood is a Northeast, snow-covered landscape, like that depicted on the Hallmark card-like cover. The usual bevy of Windham Hill sampler artists are all here, but it's some of the secondary cast that give the most innovative performances. Tracy Silverman & Thea Suits reinvent "Silent Night." With his pizzicato-delay violin, Silverman lays down a 6/8 rhythm while abstracting the familiar hymn across his bowed violin and Suits's flute, turning it into an ethereal instrumental chorale. Barbara Higbie re-ignites "In Dulci Jubilo" as a Celtic reel, overdubbing herself on piano, violin, Celtic harp and synthesizer. And W.G. Snuffy Walden lays some rustic acoustic guitar across a chamber reading of "The First Noel." There's a few clunkers, notably George Winston inflicting his Vince Guaraldi infatuation on us again; Jim Brickman with a rote reading of "O Holy Night"; and an uncharacteristically saccharine arrangement of "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" by the usually sublime Tim Story. But Mom and Dad will like them, and they serve to highlight the inventiveness of the rest of A Windham Hill Christmas, which is nostalgic and atmospheric at the same time. --John Diliberto
Customer Reviews:
Thank you Windham Hill!January 7, 2009 J. J.(Kalamazoo, MI) I can't tell you how tired I am of hearing the over-played carols and songs of Christmas. I loved them when I was a child. I liked them when I was in high school and college. I've heard same arrangements a million times and it makes me sad that they just don't do anything for me anymore.
Then there's the Windham Hill label! I would think that it has to be difficult to arrange songs that have been sung for 50-100+ years, keep the same spirit, and yet make them sound fresh and different. Somehow, the people over there have figured out how to do it...and do it very well! The predominantly accoustic arrangements are fresh, beautiful, and soothing to the soul.
This is my first Windham Hill album, and it certainly won't be my last! =)
Cant Listen to it on My iPod??November 11, 2008 N. Phelon(Manchester CT) I love Windham Hill but if I cant download it to my iPod then Im moving on.
songlist and artistsSeptember 4, 2006 blueemerald 3 out of 4 found this review helpful
1 Sussex Carol - Brian Dunning 2:22 2 Angels We Have Heard on High - Steve Erquiaga 4:08 3 O Holy Night - Jim Brickman 3:34 4 In Dulci Jubilo - Barbara Higbie 3:59 5 Christmas Is Coming - George Winston 3:48 6 The First Noel - W.G. Snuffy Walden 3:48 7 It Came Upon a Midnight Clear - Tim Story 3:06 8 Silent Night - Thea Suits-Silverman 3:38 9 Christ the Apple Tree/Once in Royal David's City - Alex de Grassi 3:40 10 Deck the Halls - Liz Story 3:02 11 O Come, O Come, Emmanuel - Paul McCandless 3:50 12 What Strangers Are These - David Cullen 3:20 13 The Holly and the Ivy - Nightnoise 4:14 14 Lo, How a Rose - Paul Schwartz 3:55
Buyer BewareDecember 21, 2005 Layton(Folsom, CA) 3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This CD is "copy protected" and will not work in iTunes or on your iPod. So much for the holiday spirit .. I buy a CD and they won't even let me listen to it on my iPod!
WISH I HAD BOUGHT SOMETHING ELSE.........August 5, 2003 W. G. Ellis(MORROW , GEORGIA) 4 out of 23 found this review helpful
I THOUGHT I WAS GETTING SOME NEW ARRANGEMENTS OF TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS MUSIC OR EVEN THE OLD STANDARD ARRANGEMENTS, BUT THIS IS MAILY PIANO AND GUTIAR AND I DON'T CARE MUCH FOR THAT TYPE OF CHRISTMAS MUSIC. FOR THOSE WHO LIKE THIS TYPE OF MUSIC IT IS A GOOD CD TO HAVE.
