Percy Pickwick (gct 2015)

Having released no less than six charting Christmas albums during his career including one of the Top Ten selling Christmas albums of all time (1958 s Merry Christmas, which hit the Christmas charts 16 times!), Johnny Mathis has probably sold more Christmas records than any other artist in pop music history. And, with a half dozen releases to date on our Real Gone Music label, he is also by far our biggest selling pop vocalist. Add to that the fact that Christmas music is such a big part of what we do here at Real Gone and you can see why the chance to do a truly comprehensive collection of his Christmas music has been a glimmer in our eye ever since we started the label back in 2011. Now, after years of preparation, we are finally ready to release such a collection…and it s turned out even better than we d hoped!

David Baskeyfield so impressed a presitigous jury of nine promimnent organists at the Canadian International Organ Competition in 2014 that he was awarded first prize overall, as well as the prize for best performance of a Canadian work. As the winner of the competition, Baskeyfield was invited to record a solo album with ATMA Classique.

Grainger’s mastery of choral textures shines out of this wide-ranging collection of folk-song arrangements, each highly individual and memorable. Plus his friend Grieg’s finely scored religious settings. Superior performances by Stephen Layton and Polyphony.