No Christian feast has so deeply penetrated
into European popular culture as Christmas.
The large number of Christmas carols,
both ancient and modern, are ample evidence
of that. Some of these carols are internationally
known, others have a strong regional
flavour. Both categories are represented
here.
"The idea behind the
program is to introduce a selection
of Christmas carols in Austria with
the inclusion of the Slovenian linguistic
enclave. But the reverse path is also
taken: there are wonderful songs to
be found in the German-language enclaves
in Bulgaria, the Ukraine, Slovakia and
other countries in which century old
traditions, which have already been
lost to us, have been preserved and
catalogued by laudable collectors",
the editor of this production, Hans
Zeppelzauer, writes in the booklet.
This means the title of this disc has
to be taken with a grain of salt.
The programme performed
here is very interesting for more than
one reason. Some of the songs are handed
down through the ages only orally, and
by recording them they are saved from
oblivion. Furthermore, the presence
of songs from German-speaking regions
elsewhere in Europe is important, in
particular as the German communities
in most of these regions have disappeared.
And since this recording contains Christmas
carols from several centuries - including
the 20th - it displays an unbroken tradition
of popular music around Advent and Christmas,
right up to our own time. It also shows
how little this tradition has been affected
by stylistic changes.
The content of popular
Christmas carols often has hardly anything
to do with the story of Christmas as
told in the Bible. An example is 'See
und Blick sind zugefroren'. Songs in
regional dialects often move far away
from the biblical message of Christmas.
On the other hand, quite a number specifically
refer to the biblical message, in particular
those which also appear in religious
and particularly liturgical music of
the 17th and 18th centuries. Examples
include 'Vom Himmel hoch' and 'Wie schön
leuchtet der Morgenstern'. But a more
popular song like the proclamation song
'Gegrüsst sei Maria' (track 8)
also refers to the meaning of Jesus's
birth, when the angel says to Mary:
"Your son will save the world from sin".
The varied nature of
this programme of songs from different
centuries, cultures, languages and dialects
makes it a great pleasure to listen
to. And both ensembles give excellent
performances. I knew the male quartet
schnittpunktvokal: I have reviewed a
previous recording here last year ('A
cappella Christmas' - CPO 777 075-2).
I was impressed by the qualities of
these four singers, and this recording
further validates my positive verdict.
The female ensemble were new to me,
but here we have again four fine singers
who create a beautiful sound, and sing
the carols with great sensitivity. As
they are of Slovenian origin, naturally
they perform the pieces on Slovenian
texts, but they also do well in the
German-language items.
The most popular and
best-known Christmas carol of all times
is 'Stille Nacht'. The male voices open
this disc with a wonderful performance
on the original German text, while the
programme closes with a performance
of both quartets on the German text
and a Slovenian translation.
From the perspective
of European cultural history this recording
is most interesting. Every year so many
discs with Christmas music are released
which are utterly predictable or utterly
tasteless. This recording is a model
of intelligent and creative programming
and stylish performance. To anyone who
wants to hear something different during
the Christmas season I recommend that
they try this one. I am sure I'm not
the only one who will want to enjoy
this disc more than once.
Johan van Veen
männerquartett schnittpunktvokal (*)
(Peter Paumgarten, alto; Christian Paumgarten,
Michael Paumgarten, tenor; Josef Wagner, bass-baritone);
Kvartet VITA (**); (Nina Šalamon,
soprano; Darja Čremožnik,
mezzo; Stanka Čremožnik,
Breda Bider, contralto) 
