If you’ll recall, this year, I’m pulling in my own favorite seasonal music, because I frankly need a boost. And one of my favorite collections of said music is the 1991 A Carnegie Hall Christmas Concert, which featured operatic sopranos Kathleen Battle and Frederica von Stade (also two of my favorites), trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and the American Boychoir.
Today I’m sharing Battle and von Stade singing “Gesù
Bambino”, magically intertwining their voices in this beautiful piece, rippling
in a swirling pattern, like water bubbling down a hillside.
Pietro Alessandro Yon wrote “Gesù
Bambino” in 1917, one of the darkest years of World War I. At the time, he was
running his music studio (which was located in Carnegie Hall), where he taught
students pursuing liturgical music. The melody was used by Frederick H. Martens
for his own Christmas carol, “When Blossoms Flowered ‘mid the Snows”, which I
confess I have never heard.
I love the refrain:
Osanna, osanna cantaro
Con giubilante cor
I tuoi pastori ed angeli
O re di luce e amor
Your shepherds and angels sang hosanna, hosanna with jubilant heart, O king of light and love.
©2024 Bas Bleu
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