Is there still an opening for new entries in the category for Christmas music? Pianist Geir Henning Braaten has a handful of xmas greetings we assume are unfamiliar to most people.
Dreams and darker colours
Carl Nielsen’s Dreaming of Silent Night incorporates Franz Gruber’s Stille Nacht in a kind of dreamy, improvisatory, vision. There is a darker hue to to Busoni’s Sonatina In Diem Nativitatis Christi MCMXVII, written in a time of war and exile. Ending this disc of alternative Christmas music for the piano is Charles-Valentin Alkan with his Alleluia – a piece very much in tune with the merry tidings we celebrate every year. Each of these pieces tell a story, and we like to think that not only do they extend the idea of what Christmas music is all about, but they also represent an account of tales and Christmas stories from other ages and places.
Geir Henning Braaten is a very active and versatile musician. His big discography also includes Edvard Grieg’s collected works for solo piano.
