Highlights of this special Christmas Eve edition of Classical Music with Foley Schuler include suites from the opera Christmas Eve by Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov and also from Dmitri Tiomkin's score to the beloved classic holiday film, It's a Wonderful Life. We'll take you back to and let you experience Old English Christmas with "Christmas Revels in the Time of Charles II" from Arthur Sullivan's ballet Victoria and Merrie England—and an even older English Christmas as we hear medieval carols and motets from Anonymous 4's acclaimed recording On Yoolis Night. The program will also feature one of the very first symphonies based on holiday themes (and one of the very first to incorporate the newly-invented saxophone), the Santa Claus Symphony from 1853 by the Philadelphia-born composer, William Fry—and much more. To complement that, we offer the image above (and following related links)—one of the many classic renderings of the "Coca-Cola Santa," created by the legendary illustrator, Haddon Sundblom, who was born right here in Muskegon, Michigan in 1899, and whose work over decades on the iconic ad campaign did more than just about any other single individual to help create out modern conception of Santa Claus.
You can hear Foley Schuler's musical selections—and stories behind the music—every weekday afternoon from 1 until 4 on Blue Lake Public Radio.
