First you've got The Singers--Minnesota Choral Artists giving a great rendition of "Go, Tell It On the Mountain" from their CD, Shout the Glad Tidings. I've had this album on repeat since they recorded it back in 2004 and it's finally available for easy download. It also includes some great arrangements by Jocelyn Hagen (the soli quartet part on "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" will kick your ass every time) and Abbie Betinis ("The Babe of Bethlehem") but my favorite track is an almost-never-heard piece by Jack Jarrett called "Go, Pretty Child." He manages to set the words "stomacher" and "mellifluous" without sounding weird or pretentious and, since I had to look that first one up, that probably wasn't easy.
The Choral Arts Ensemble also just released a great album of holiday/Christmas/what-have-you music called Joy to the World which includes a recording of probably the last piece I'll ever use the Basque language in (although, to be fair, most of it is in English). They precede my work immediately with John Rutter's "Good Ale" and, being a lover of that piece's namesake, I'll just recommend that one and say "enough said."
And if that wasn't good enough, these choirs are conducted by identical twin brothers. How cool is that? The choral world has it's own Minnesota twins.
Happy Festivus!
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