Swinging Christmas

‘The Velvet Frog’, ‘der samtene Frosch’: that is what Mel Tormé, the incomparable American jazz singer, was called. His ‘Christmas Song’, in which chestnuts roast on an open fire, can be interpreted with suitably cosy warmth by more than just him. The North Rhine-Westphalia State Youth Choir does so too, with its own enthusiasm for music and singing.