This year more than ever, New Yorkers need some joy in our world. These harmonious Hanukkah and colorful Christmas compositions below are both merry and marvelous. Best of all, you can access them for free in our collection of classical music to borrow as well as through the Naxos Music Library database which you can use from home with your library card. Just listening to these compositions can transform even the most catatonic Covid quarantine into a fun, fabulous and frivolous festivity!

"Symphony of Carols" by Victor Hely-Hutchinson (available on Winter's Delights cd and on Naxos Music Library)

When asked what inspired this work, Hely-Hutchinson said it was "the memories of the romance and mystery of the manger." You may recognize many of these melodies as they are woven into this nostalgic composition. Family folklore states that Hely-Hutchinson's first words were musical notes, which may explain his insider understanding of the carols he so easily transforms in what may be one of the first ever Christmas mash-ups in 1927. Another interesting bit of trivia is that the concept of using evolution in music may have been an early concept in the composer's theories, since it was his family's close friend, Charles Darwin, who first suggested he study music.

"Christmas Day" by Gustav Holst (available on A Year at King's cd and on Naxos Music Library)

Most famous for his "Planets," Holst was always an avid follower of Wagner and Strauss's "Go Big or Go Home" style of performance and his approach to bringing to life what he called this "fantasy on old carols" does not disappoint. A great romp for anyone craving those bigger-than-life holiday feelings of fanfare and pomp, especially during this winter of our social distancing discontent. Listeners may notice this piece focuses on embroidering together archaic English carols, since it was written at the height of Holst's daliance into the English Folksong Revival movement.

"Maoz Tzur" by Mordecai (available on A Hanukkah Celebration cd and on Naxos Music Library)

What Hanukkah isn't complete without the family singing this after the lighting of the festival lights? Those partaking in the festivities may know it is a well-worn ancestral song in their communal subconscious...perhaps because it really was written in the 1300s. This beautiful composition not only retells the earlier history of the Jews but includes hidden acrostics and wordplays to warmly reflect Jewish lives, prayers and dreams of the present. In fact, it is only in the last two hundred years that this song has been performed as part of Jewish Hanukkah services, as it was originally intended to be sung only in the home with closest family. NYPL's A Hanukkah Celebration includes an incredible rendition by cantor, composer and Nazi Holocaust survivor Hugo Chaim Adler.

"Troika" by Sergei Prokofiev (available on 125 Years of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra cd and on Naxos Music Library

Prokofiev used his magical arranging skills on this revived Hussar folksong to allow the audience to feel the sleigh ride advancing, accelerating and even slowing to a stop in this sparkling and bristly journey through the steppes of Mother Russia and Finland...not so far from Santa's workshop (which is where you might recognize this theme from so many holiday films... as well as Woody Allen's Love and Death and even Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs).

"A Christmas Greeting" by Edward Elgar (available on 170 Christmas Songs and Carols cd and Naxos Music Library)

What's beautiful about Elgar's sweet song-carol is both its delicacy and how rarely it is performed. This piece was written to accompany a poem which the composer's wife, Alice, wrote during an inspirational Christmas in Italy. Starting with chords that instill the sadness and longing that can accompany the holidays, it then spurts into pure bursts of beautiful, blazing moments of joy as the audience can hear in the sweetness of the chorister's voices and the consonance of the accompanying pianoforte.

"Hark the Herald Angels Sing" by Felix Mendelssohn (available on Christmas by Sean Smith cd and Naxos Music Library)

Had it retained its original 1739 verse "Hark how the welkin sing,"this early church carol may not have become the anthem of Christmas, which it is today. This unlikely combination of Germanic Jewish composer, Mendelssohn's music and the verses of pastor Charles Wesley (brother of the Founder of the Methodist Church)has poet George Whitefield to thank for adapting it to become this perfect and profound piece.

"Elohim Hashivenu" by Salamone Rossi (available on The Songs of Solomon, Vol. II and on Naxos Music Library)

Pretty much the opposite of Adam Sandler's pop-Chanukkah jingle, (though the Maccabeats have been known to create their own Whiffen-goof version), Rossi's "Songs of Solomon" and in particular the "Elohim Hashivenu" helped usher Mantua out of the Renaissance and into the Baroque era. Rossi, a Jewish violinist-composer also made a radical move in writing the entirety of Song of Solomon in Hebrew when he created his exquisite melody. For those seeking a deeper spiritual reaction from the annual lights-on/lights off celebration, this piece would put the Tov in anyone's Mazel.

"Christmas Tide" Waltz by Piotr Tchaikovsky (available on Christmas Songs for Classical Players cd and on Naxos Music Library)

Tchaikovsky's 1892 composition "The Nutcracker" is probably the most iconic music of Christmas (and NYPL has lots and lots of DVDs and CDs for you in the catalog) but 25 years earlier, the composer created this lesser known but still stupendous winter waltz as part of his piano cycle "the Seasons" in 1875. A great little listen for sipping something hot under the tree in the aftermath of presents and parties.

"Fantasia on Christmas Carols" by Vaughan Williams (available on Fantasia on Christmas Carols cd and Naxos Music Library)

Vaughan Williams and Cecil Sharp spent quite a few years collecting English folk carols to create this mystical and ethereal collection. Williams contributes his usual euphoric hymnal style to co-create this silvery spiritual anthology of tunes. Outside of his work with Vaughn Williams,Cecil Sharp was responsible for the collection, preservation and rebirth of many old English tunes, which he collected not only from the United Kingdom and Australia, but also unexpectedly the Southern Appalachians of the United States. His greater claim to fame is being responsible for the popularity of the timeless "Holly and the Ivy,"which he first recorded on file—a piece so old it can not be attributed to any one composer.

Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert (the Library has many years of this concert on cd and many more are available on Naxos Music Library)

First performed in 1838, this annual New Year's tradition has become so popular that it is broadcast globally with the Viennese elite fighting to reserve tickets years in advance. Past conductors of this beloved Strauss-a-thon have included Gustavo Dudamel, Herbert von Karajan, Daniel Barenboim and Zubin Mehta...but thanks to NYPL's collection, you can be clapping along to the Radetzsky march from the comfort of your own holiday home.

"Messiah" by George Frideric Handel (available on cd and on Naxos Music Library)

Handel's "Messiah" has grown into an international sensation with gatherings of sing-a-longs ranging from the Royal Albert Hall in London to St. John's Cathedral in NYC. In fact, it is attributed as the main inspiration for the creation of Carnegie Hall by the Oratorio Society of New York (where it has been performed every year with the exception of 1960 and now). Although we aren't allowed to have crowded gatherings this year, you can experience your own karaoke "Messiah" with a sing-a-long from our wide collection of Messiah concerts, though you might want to take the neighbors into consideration.