Silent night? Not this holiday season

At King’s College this weekend, singers will compare Jesus Christ to an apple tree laden with fruit, and his mother to a rose.

The Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, meanwhile, will add a “grinchy” tune to its “Twas The Night Before Christmas” performances at the Scranton Cultural and Kirby centers.

And Steven Thomas Ph.D., director of music for Wilkes University and the Robert Dale Chorale, has arranged a piece – in French – to help audience members enjoy a 17th-century type of experience.

This month, holiday concerts seem as numerous as needles on an evergreen bough – and, while they offer a dazzling array of music, their directors share what sounds like a universal plan.

“You want to pick pieces that resonate with strong holiday memories,” said Philharmonic conductor Lawrence Loh. “But you don’t want to recycle the same concert each year.”

“I always throw in a smattering of new things, along with things that say ‘Christmas’ to everyone, and hope the audience will appreciate them,” said Rob Yenkowski, music director at King’s.

So the Cantores Christi Regis at King’s will sing the traditional “Silent Night” and “Jingle Bells” as well as the less-typical Kyrie by Schubert and the “Rosa Mystica,” which Yenkowski describes as “very tender.”

“I like to use the word ethereal for the piece because the harmonies are just gorgeous,” he said.

They’ll also render “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep,” which you’ll recognize if you’re a fan of the 1954 Bing Crosby movie “White Christmas.”

The Philharmonic will add a twist to its concerts this weekend by including a touch of Dr. Seuss’ “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” along with the colorful “Nutcracker” and “March of the Toy Soldiers” sequences.

One especially exquisite offering on the program, Loh said, is “This Christmastide,” which will feature soprano soloist Laura Ayres.

Loh expects the orchestra to be in top form, and added that a sing-along medley of carols will “give any restless children a chance to stretch.”

Active participation is also an option at the 25th “Messiah Singalong,” set for St. Stephen’s Church in Wilkes-Barre on Dec. 21, when the Robert Dale Chorale will lead the Christmas portion and other selections of Handel’s “Messiah.”

“It’s open to anyone who loves the music,” director Steven Thomas said. “The chorale leads the singing, so you have people to lean on. Certainly people who have sung in choirs before might be interested, along with people who don’t even know how good they are.”

This weekend, at St. Luke’s Church in Scranton and St. Nicholas Church in Wilkes-Barre, Thomas will direct the Robert Dale Chorale, Wilkes University Chorus and Wilkes University Chamber Singers in a collaboration called “Joyeux Noel.”

You’ll hear such French tunes (with English lyrics) as “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “Ding Dong Merrily on High” along with French-language songs such as “Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant” (He is born, the Divine Child) and “Joseph Est Bien Marie” (Joseph is Well-Married).

The last number “tells the story of the Virgin Mary and how Joseph discovers his wife-to-be is pregnant and is angry because he had nothing to do with it,” Thomas said. “An angel appears and tells him it’s alright.”

Thomas arranged “Joseph Est Bien Marie” himself, to match a melody that will be repeated later in the concert when the combined choir sings Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s “Midnight Mass for Christmas” in Latin.

“He (Charpentier) lived in the 17th century, when there was a tradition of Christmas Eve Masses where they would sing popular carols of the day. People would hear all these tunes that they’d recognize worked into the fabric of the piece,” Thomas said. “People of the 21st century don’t have the same experience, because those carols have fallen by the wayside.”

“What I wanted to do was take one of those tunes nobody knows anymore and give the audience a chance to know it so they’d recognize it when they hear it again,” said Thomas, who began his study of the French language as a sixth-grader in the Midwest and later spent a year in France.

Soprano Jennifer Smeraldo, a senior at Wilkes, will sing the voice of the angel Gabriel.

For still more angelic music, documentary maker Anthony Mussari Ph.D. recommends the “Let It Be Christmas” concert the Brighter Light Choral Ensemble will present – and he plans to film – on Saturday at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Berwick.

“Their music is about as beautiful, as soothing, as peaceful and spiritual as any music I’ve ever heard,” Mussari said, “and the huge church is always packed.”

Finally, for sheer jubilation, Cheryl Boga invites you to the University of Scranton, where she is director of performance music. The highlight of Saturday’s “Noel Night” concert on campus is “Estampie Natalis,” written in Latin, for eight-part harmony, by Vaclav Nelhybel, a former artist-in-residence at the university.

“It’s actually a wild piece and the piccolo makes it wilder,” Boga said. “It builds celebratory ecstasy. By the end, bells are ringing, chimes are clanging and the choir is singing at the top of their voices.”

And that’s just a small sample of this weekend’s offerings, which also include Celtic, jazz, Slovak, polka and brass holiday concerts. For performance details, see the concert list that begins on page 5.

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