Movies, Music and Books for Christmas… and Beyond

So it’s December again. For quite a few years now I’ve posted recommendations for recent BluRay/DVD releases, CDs and books that might prove useful for anyone wondering what to buy as gifts for Christmas; they appear to have been popular, so here we go again. (I myself find choosing presents enormously difficult, so I’m always on the lookout for ideas from friends.) I hope some of the suggestions below might be helpful, even if you simply end up treating yourself. Even if some of the films and music releases here are not exactly mainstream, they should, I think, be ‘accessible’ for anyone with an interest in the arts. 

(Please note that this is not my best-of-2024 list, which will come at the end of the year and may quite probably list rather more ‘niche’ material.)

MOVIES ON BLURAY/DVD

Love Me Tonight (Indicator)

Rouben Mamoulian’s wonderfully witty, inventive pre-Code fairy-tale romance boasts terrific songs by Rodgers and Hart and a great Paramount cast while reinventing the musical as it proceeds along its merry, innuendo-peppered way. (The disc includes a filmed introduction by yours truly, but rest assured I will receive no royalties from sales!)

Louis Feuillade: The Complete Crime Serials (1913-1918) (Eureka Masters of Cinema)

Four monumental serials by a great filmmaker who deserved to be better known. You can read more here.

The Village Detective (Second Run)

Bill Morrison’s idiosyncratic and fascinating blend of old and new, mainstream and experimental; you can read more here.

MUSIC ALBUMS

‘Classical’

Igor Levit: Mendelssohn, Alkan – Lieder Ohne Worte (Sony)

Lovely, limpid, unshowy pianism from Levit; proceeds from sales go to good causes. Here is a brief clip.

Anja Lechner: Bach/Abel/Hume (ECM)

The German cellist bookends Bach’s first two suites for the instrument with pieces composed for the viola da gamba by Tobias Hume and Carl Friedrich Abel; beautifully sensitive playing throughout. Catch a short piece by Abel here.

James Ehnes, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner: Sibelius – Works for Violin and Orchestra (Chandos)

A superb rendition of the violin concerto followed by a feast of less famous but still captivating Sibelius compositions for soloist and small orchestra. The finale of the concerto can be heard here.

‘New music’

George Benjamin: Picture a day like this (Nimbus)

Benjamin and Martin Crimp’s brief but dazzlingly erffrective chamber opera performed by its original cast, with the composer conducting the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

Freya Waley-Cohen: Spell Book (NMC)

Four pieces (three of them performed by the Manchester Collective) by the upcoming British-American composer, including the titular song cycle, a celebration (of sorts) of different forms of witchcraft.

Tom Coult: Pieces That Disappear (NMC)

Four orchestral works (courtesy of the BBC Philharmonic) from another young British composer, imbued with a strong and welcome sense of musical history.

(You can sample music from the above three discs by visiting https://www.prestomusic.com)

‘Jazz or whatever’

Arve Henriksen, Harmen Fraanje: Touch of Time (ECM)

I wrote about this here.

Mike Westbrook: Band of Bands (Westbrook Records)

I wrote about this here.

Trygve Seim, Frode Haltli: Our Time (ECM)

I wrote about this here.

Ohad Talmor: Back to the Land (Intakt)

And I wrote about this here.

NEW BOOKS by two supreme novelists (sadly, I couldn’t find a weird image for these!).

Colm Tóibín: Long Island

If you liked Brooklyn, you will surely enjoy this, a sequel (though you don’t need to have read the earlier book).

Elizabeth Strout: Tell Me Everything

And if you enjoyed any of Strout’s books about Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge and the Burgess brothers, you will surely enjoy this one (though you don’t need to have read any of those earlier books, either).

And if you still haven’t checked out Laura Cumming’s Thunderclap – my number-one recommendation last year – you probably should; it just won another award.

Happy present-buying!