Weekly SpinOn:
Christmas Evenings

Track 1: Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a – IIf. Dance of the Reed-Pipes – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Vienna Philharmonic · Herbert von Karajan

This week’s playlist picks up directly from the previous one. In last week’s Weekly SpinOn, we looked at Karajan’s early Decca recordings and at projects from the early 1960s in which repertoire, recording conditions and long-term planning came together. Karajan’s 1962 Decca recording of The Nutcracker with the Vienna Philharmonic was one of those landmarks, and it now opens Christmas Evenings.

The Nutcracker is the Christmas piece of classical music. No other work is heard as consistently during the holiday season, and no other score is so closely linked to the images and rituals of Christmas. That connection is built into the work itself: the ballet is set on Christmas Eve, beginning with a family celebration before moving into the dream world that follows. Yet the status of a universally beloved Christmas piece was not immediate. When the ballet premiered in St Petersburg in 1892, it was met with mixed reactions, and the production was criticised, even though the music itself drew attention.

One reason the score survived and spread so quickly was Tchaikovsky’s own decision to extract a concert suite. By selecting eight movements to form The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a, he allowed pieces like the Dance of the Reed Pipes to circulate independently of the stage. The movement appears in the second act as part of a series of character dances at the court of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Its title refers to small reed instruments associated with folk music; Tchaikovsky suggests their sound through light woodwind writing, especially flutes. Through the success of the suite, this music reached audiences long before the ballet itself became a seasonal fixture.

Track 2: Hänsel und Gretel – Prelude – Engelbert Humperdinck
Philharmonia Orchestra · Herbert von Karajan

After The Nutcracker, the connection to Christmas in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel is less direct, but no less established. The opera is not set during Christmas and contains no explicit holiday scene. Yet it has long been associated with the season, especially in German-speaking countries. One reason lies in its imagery: the witch’s gingerbread house has become part of Christmas visual culture, closely linked to baking, sweets and domestic rituals of the winter period.

Timing also played a role. Hänsel und Gretel premiered on 23 December 1893, just before Christmas, and soon became a family opera regularly performed during the holiday season. Its fairy-tale setting, child protagonists and clear moral framework made it particularly suitable for audiences across generations. Through repeated December performances, the work gradually secured its place in the Christmas calendar, even without a narrative link to the holiday itself.

The Prelude heard here comes from Karajan’s complete 1953 studio recording of Hänsel und Gretel, made at Abbey Road Studios in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Although the Prelude itself is purely orchestral, the sessions brought together a remarkable cast, including Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (Hänsel), Elisabeth Grümmer (Gretel), Josef Metternich (Peter) and Maria von Ilosvay (Gertrud), as well as children’s choirs from Loughton High School for Girls and Bancroft’s School. Mentioning these names places the Prelude within the context of a carefully planned operatic studio production rather than an isolated orchestral excerpt.

The Prelude introduces the opera before any action takes place on stage. It brings together musical material that will later return in the course of the work and presents it in a continuous, unbroken flow. Heard on its own, the piece fits naturally into the evening perspective of Christmas Evenings, before the playlist moves on to music written explicitly for the season.

 

Track 3: Concerto grosso in G minor, Op. 6 No. 8 “Christmas Concerto” – Arcangelo Corelli
Berlin Philharmonic · Herbert von Karajan

The subtitle “Fatto per la notte di Natale” — made for Christmas night — is part of the work’s original title and reflects its intended function. Composed around 1690 and published posthumously in 1714 as part of Corelli’s Op. 6 collection, the concerto stands among the earliest instrumental works written explicitly for the Christmas season.

The piece belongs to a set of twelve concerti grossi that played a decisive role in shaping European instrumental music at the turn of the 18th century. At a time when Christmas music was still largely dominated by vocal and liturgical traditions, Corelli’s concerto offered an instrumental alternative designed for festive use beyond the strict framework of church services. Its association with Christmas was therefore embedded in the work from the outset.

Karajan recorded the Christmas Concerto in August 1970 with the Berlin Philharmonic during a summer recording period in St. Moritz. The sessions took place at the Hotel La Reine Victoria, a location he regularly used for concentrated studio work. This recording later became part of the Karajan Christmas Album, where Corelli’s concerto provides a historical point of reference within a programme shaped by repertoire from very different periods. In Christmas Evenings, it occupies a central position, linking later Christmas traditions back to one of their earliest instrumental expressions.

 

Track 4: Ave Maria, D. 839 – Franz Schubert
Leontyne Price · Vienna Philharmonic · Herbert von Karajan

Schubert’s Ave Maria is frequently included in Christmas programmes. Since the 19th century, it has formed part of the repertoire of Christmas concerts, church services and, later, radio broadcasts and recordings released in December. The title has also become a source of confusion, as many composers have set the same prayer. Schubert’s version, originally written in 1825 as Ellens Gesang III for a song cycle based on Walter Scott’s The Lady of the Lake, gradually detached itself from its literary context and became one of the most widely recognised settings.

This recording cannot be separated from the artistic relationship between Leontyne Price and Herbert von Karajan. Karajan was one of the first European conductors to recognise Price’s exceptional potential and to place her prominently in international projects at a time when her career was still taking shape. Their collaboration in the late 1950s and early 1960s coincided with a moment when Karajan was redefining vocal sound on record, giving the solo voice a central, sculpted presence within a carefully controlled orchestral frame.

The Christmas album they recorded together in 1961 occupies a special place in Karajan’s discography. It remains the only dedicated Christmas album he ever made and stands apart from his usual large-scale choral or symphonic projects. The programme focuses on individual songs and carols — including Ave Maria, Stille Nacht and O Holy Night — shaped around Price’s voice. Rather than treating Christmas music as repertoire, Karajan approached it as a recording project built on colour, balance and intimacy.

Recorded in the Sofiensäle in Vienna, this Ave Maria also connects directly to the Decca sound world discussed in last week’s Weekly SpinOn. As the final track of Christmas Evenings, it brings the focus back to the partnership between conductor, soloist and recording space — closing the playlist not with spectacle, but with a collaboration that defined Karajan’s singular approach to Christmas on record.

—  Pia Bernauer (Karajan Institute, Salzburg)