For the past x number of years I have been an enthusiastic adherent of Holiday Pops, the Christmas-only pop-up channel on SiriusXM featuring Christmas carols performed by classical artists. This year at least (I don't know if SiriusXM has done this in years past) it was an Internet-only channel before taking over their Pops channel for Christmas Eve and Day and then being extinguished till next holiday season.
I admire classical music, but I don't listen to Pops or the other Classical channels on SiriusXM. Yet, come the holiday season, I leap at the chance to listen to Holiday Pops once it's back on. There is something beautiful, appropriate and, yeah, holy about listening to these carols performed with such reverence. It is perfect Christmas music; at no other time am I entranced by classical music unless the artist is performing something germane to the holiday, and then I am in near-complete bliss.
Shoot, I even have begun to identify some performing arts groups that I like after listening to them on this channel over the years: The King's Singers, Cantus (these guys are based in Minneapolis?!?!?! Get outta here!), Handel and Haydn Society, the Isthmus Brass (an outfit based in Madison, Wisc., which I am not sure is still together). I might go to their concerts and purchase their music. That's what finding great music can do, and SiriusXM Holiday Pops has done that for me. I'll miss this channel, and this music, once it's gone tomorrow night.
No comments:
Post a Comment