When typical Christmas music is played on the radio for the first time, the Christmas season begins for many people. However, the music that we like to listen to on these days was not always composed especially for the festive season. We associate Christmas in particular with early, highly emotional memories. The music we associate with these deeply imprinted feelings does not therefore necessarily have to be Christmassy: it simply has to reinforce or reflect these feelings.

In its December 2022 festive concert, the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by its principal conductor Pietari Inkinen, performed a mix of “real” Christmas music and music associated with the holiday today. In addition to Hely Hutchinson’s “A Carol Symphony,” excerpts from Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel” and Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” were heard, among others.

Bartok’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1936) enjoyed right from the beginning a roaring success, being praised by critics as a masterpiece. It was also the composer’s last work published by Universal-Edition in Vienna. A fierce opponent of National-Socialism, he stopped co-operating with his main publisher soon after. The Divertimento (1939), though definitely not a “lightweight”, does hardly give any indication of the political circumstances and events at the time it was created. The piano works on the present recording, arranged for percussion ensemble, are in their original form miniatures whose strong rhythms almost predestinate them for percussion arrangements (Bartok himself experimented extensively with percussion instruments and was familiar with them). Pietari Inkinen is one of the noted rising stars on the international conducting scene. His comprehensive experience in both opera and symphonic repertoire enable him to shape various repertoire into powerful, convincing interpretations. As chief conductor of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, he achieved superb performances.