Christmas Album
This mix-and-match compilation of mostly solo piano material from David Lanz is a modest but pleasant package, a commercially minded collection of older material assembled by Lanz's former record label without his input. Those who favor Lanz's gentle, overtly romantic, glissando-heavy style should enjoy this 12-track disc as it delivers a reliably quiet audio backdrop that ranges somewhere between reverential and sentimental. In addition to tracks lifted from existing recordings (Lanz's sugaryBeloved, his attractiveChristmas Eve, and contributions he made to past Narada holiday compilations), this disc includes three selections from a 1989 concert performance. Two of those pieces, the solo "What Child Is This?" and the ensemble-based "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" (with a radiant contribution on oboe byNancy Rumbel), are the album's standouts.--Terry Wood