A Carnegie Hall Christmas Concert is a feature-length television special starring the opera singers Kathleen Battle and Frederica von Stade, the jazz trumpetist Wynton Marsalis, the Wynton Marsalis Septet, the American Boychoir, the Christmas Concert Chorus, the Orchestra of St. Luke's and the pianist and conductor André Previn. It first aired as part of PBS' Great Performances series in 1991, and was subsequently released on VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, and CD. It was jointly produced by CAMI Video, Sony, PBS and WNET.
Synopsis
The film presents thirty pieces of music performed before an audience in the main auditorium of Carnegie Hall in New York City on December 8, 1991. The soloists mostly stand on a multi-level platform at the front of the stage, the back of which is decorated with three large, lavish panels of Christmas imagery inspired by designs on a Russian lacquer box. The music, presented without any interrupting dialogue, is both sacred and secular. It is drawn from many traditions and performed in a variety of styles, ranging from a cappella hymnody to jazz improvisation. Included in the program are American spirituals, traditional European carols, songs by the twentieth century American composers Hugh Martin, Richard Rodgers and Mel Tormé and compositions by the classical composers Adam, Handel, Humperdinck, Mozart, Praetorius, Prokofiev and Reger. The concert's arrangements by Nancy Allen, Arthur Harris and Alexander Courage – the first composer of music for Star Trek – were specially commissioned for it.
External links
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