George Winston
December

LA RECENSIONE

Perfect time to review this remarkable album now 40 years after its release, which is practically a musical eternity: just think that it was at the height of the New Age and the label in question, the now forgotten and defunct "Windham Hill" (finally absorbed by SONY Music) was living its brightest period thanks to dozens of high-level artists on its books.

Among them, in addition to the founder Will Ackerman, the most famous and talented was certainly George Winston, an American pianist now seventy-three years old; his is this "commercial" album inspired or rather dedicated to December and more expressly to the Christmas period and the pieces most dear to the author. I have put the term commercial in quotes, so as not to confuse it with the common perception of: "music made to appeal to the masses," a definition given by a fellow reviewer that seems very harsh to me, but accurate; in this case, the commercial move was simply to release the album at exactly the right moment. And indeed, the move proved to be spot on as "December" represents the highest sales success for George Winston and probably also for the label that produced it, exceeding well over 3 million copies sold!

Enough chit-chat, it's time to get into the details, which are quite straightforward since it mainly consists of a formidable collection of Christmas carols or, as they say in America, "carols" which certainly sounds more refined; among these, and just to better direct those who want to approach this album, I point out as my favorites: "Carol of the Bells," a well-known piece now over a century old sometimes even featured in our local choir performances (I just heard it last week in the Christmas concert of the Bologna Music High School, included in the program in homage to its composer: the Ukrainian Leontovich) and the subsequent "Hymn to St. Basil" a traditional Greek song divided by Winston into three parts: "Snow," "Midnight," and the evocative "Minstrels" which close the first part of the album very well, only to start again with a flourish with a variation by Winston of Pachelbel’s "Canon," the most famous piece of the album artfully stretched by the pianist over five minutes of execution. It is followed by another piece of English tradition which translates to "The Holly and the Ivy".....more Christmasy than that!?

The piano interpretation of the next carol "Some Children See Him" of jazzy origin is more complex, while the closure in "Peace" by Winston himself undoubtedly captures the theme perfectly, sending us all happily under the tree to open presents, among which this album or rather its CD version—released shortly thereafter and revisited on the twentieth anniversary with the addition of two notable unpublished pieces: "A Christmas Song" (how imaginative!) and "Sleep Baby Mine"—can easily be included to make this work even more sugary.

Since it is mainly "cover" songs, although not in the strict sense of the word, the judgement is relatively low; nevertheless, I respect the excellent arrangements and flawless execution by Winston who, as an author, should certainly be judged for other works starting from "Autumn" of 1980, and I give "December" a full pass.

Merry Christmas!