Familiarity is built into holiday music, but Oded Essner tackles a beloved tradition with an arrangement that breathes new life into the concert-ready setting. "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, The - Arranged for a string quartet," a brilliant addition to the holiday strings project, A Wintry Piano Wonderland for Strings, takes the familiar holiday tune and turns it into an expressive work for two violins, viola, and cello.

It begins with warm choir-like sonorities, then moves into a more animated middle section with dancing inner lines and lyrical countermelodies. A familiar holiday touch is the addition of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," which fits perfectly within the arrangement's larger musical journey.

The quartet is full of color, clear instrumental lines, jazz-tinged reharmonizations, and expressive divisi, and the instruments sound natural and expressive. It begins warm-blooded and chorale-like but builds to rhythmic energy and a luminous, quietly festive finale.

Very appropriate for holiday concerts, candlelight series, and crossover programming, Essner's arrangement is a fine choice for any occasion. It makes a nice opener or closer, giving audiences a familiar seasonal concept through the lens of a finely tuned, carefully crafted string-quartet view.

|Spotify |