Best Holiday CDs?


Is there such a thing as "audiophile quality" Holiday music? What do you play when friends and family gather to share the spirit of the season?
fpeel
here are 2: anonymous4, o yoolis night (harmonia mundi-german pressing) ; carols for christmas (ryko-2 cd's-japanese pressing). these are both very good-excellent in performances/sound.
Spike Jones "Let's Sing a Song of Christmas". My favorite Messiah is Trevor Pinnock. Hogwood pretty good too.
I can't disagree with the Messiah recommendations above, but if you're looking for something different, Harmonia Mundi has a three disc version of the Messiah with Nicholas McGeagan and the Philharmonia Baroque which is very well recorded (as is anything from that label--good recommendation, cornfedboy, for On Yoolis Night) and has ALL of the various versions of the Messiah (I think there are nine), including all of the different variations of the arias for different voices. You can program your player to play whichever version you want, unless you have a spartan high-end transport from some foreign country like I do which doesn't have such a simple convenience. If you've never heard a countertenor you'll get a kick out of this disc. McGeagan's tempos are faster than you may be used to, as well, and it's a small ensemble and choir, but I enjoy it very much. And for another suggestion, the series of recordings by the Cambridge Singers on Collegium ars very nice.
The old standard, "Cantata Domino", on the Proprius label, is still one of the best recordings of vocal Christmas music ever recorded. The recording is available on both CD and LP (I have both versions, and give the LP a clear edge).