Look to the right of the post title to find the orange audio play button to listen to the CD's first track "Veni Emmanuel."

KMFA’s Music Director Chris Johnson has been working furiously to augment the station’s collection of holiday music with the latest in new CD releases. He found one that he really likes and he's recommending it as his Holiday Pick of the Season.

For connoisseurs of classical music, the Christmas Season can present a variety of conflicting emotions. On the one hand, it is the one time of the year when choral and vocal music finally have their day in the wintry sun. On the other hand, it’s a time of the year where kitschy versions of the same familiar tune repeat ad infinitum to the annoyance of some and the adulation of others.

The eight-year-old vocal quartet known as New York Polyphony has a new holiday CD this season which consists of a program of holiday carols spanning seven centuries. It’s been nominated for a Grammy award and, from the very first seconds of the very first track (Andrew Smith’s contemporary setting of Veni Emmanuel), there’s no surprise as to why. These four men each have distinctly beautiful instruments at their disposal, but as with a world class string quartet, it is the so-called “fifth voice” that makes all of the difference. That is to say their technique is so pure, their phrasing so unified, their intonation so perfect, that what emerges is a uniquely separate sound, distinct for both its purity and complexity. So complex is their sound that it’s difficult to remember that they are just four individuals.

If you are looking for traditional and familiar carol arrangements to accompany your holiday season, this is probably not the disc for you. However, if you are looking for a transcendent musical experience and a program of vocal chamber music that you can come back to throughout the year, open up another tab and go wherever you go to get your music, and be sure to add this treasure to your loved-one’s stocking. You’ll probably want one for yourself too.  

- Chris Johnson