私は毎年シーズンが訪れると、好んでクリスマスソングを聴いている。 もちろん、毎年発売され続ける新曲も楽しみにしているけれども、このアルバムは毎年欠かさず聴くのを楽しみにしています。 発売当時は何回も聴いたけれど、今は1年のうちにたった1度だけ、それも真剣に聴くことにしていて、毎年新たな感動を与えてくれます。 小さい頃から何度も耳にしていた「Silent Night」、「Santa Claus Is Coming to Town」をはじめとするメージャーなナンバーから、日本でも大ヒットした「All I Want for Christmas Is You」など、クリスマスソングならではの心地よさが嬉しいです。
Music: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102: Movement II (Andante) Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) Performers: Angela Cheng (piano) & CBC Radio Orchestra Conductor: Mario Bernardi Starring Peter Anderson as Akaky Akakyevich Directed by Morris Panych From the original Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company Stage Production, based on the story by Nikolai Gogol. The Overcoat, a performing arts masterwork inspired by the short story by Nikolai Gogol, the nineteenth century absurdist best known for scathing political commentary. At its heart is a simple moral fable of a humble Civil Servant, a lonely and alienated man who is isolated in his own world. The story is set to the music of Dmitri Shostakovich without a single word of dialogue, resulting in a seamless piece that operates on a grand scale. At the heart of the work is the lean figure of the Civil Servant, a social pariah touched with nobility. Like Chaplin, he has a sweet innocence that triumphantly survives the vicious taunts hurled at him by everyone around him. Though a wordless mix of movement, mime and music, the production engages its audiences in the paradox that the realization of material dreams can bring about mans destruction. The same overcoat that proves emancipation also enslaves him in insanity. A Russian composer seemed an obvious choice for the music of The Overcoat. "I love Gogol," declared Shostakovich in Testimony, his memoirs. "I'm not bragging, but I know pages and pages by heart ...