Christmas Whisperings is a collection of sixteen Christmas favorites arranged for solo piano and performed by sixteen pianists from the Whisperings Solo Piano Radio group. All of the tracks were recorded at Joe Bongiorno’s Piano Haven Studio on his wonderful Kawai RX-7 grand piano and Bongiorno also did the engineering and mastering. Ten of the tracks are new recordings of pieces that were originally recorded in other studios, so even if you have Christmas albums by many of these artists, the recordings might not be the same. Despite the fact that there are so many different artists, that they are all playing the same piano gives the sound a consistency that would be missing if all of the pianos were different. Joe Bongiorno and Joe Yamada produced the album for their SoloPianoChristmas.com site (a “sister” site of Whisperings), which features Christmas music year-round. These tracks were recorded over the past couple of years when various pianists were visiting Piano Haven to record or to perform (or both), so I’m sure choosing the best of the selections for this album was a daunting task. The album flows seamlessly and the sound quality is superb, so it’s a job beautifully done and certain to be a holiday favorite for many years to come!

There isn’t a weak track on this whole album, so it doesn’t seem fair to mention a few of the songs but not the others. The overall mood of the album is warm, reflective, and very peaceful. There are several pieces that are more joyous and lively, but they provide a vibrant contrast to the quieter songs without disturbing the tranquil mood. The featured artists (in the order they appear on the album) are Michael Dulin, Gary Girouard, Chad Lawson, Whisperings founder David Nevue, Joe Bongiorno, Joe Yamada, Christine Brown, Doug Hammer, Joseph Akins, Tim Neumark, Michele McLaughlin, Brad Jacobsen, Wayne Gratz, Greg Maroney, Louis Landon, and Philip Wesley. I also want to mention the gorgeous album artwork by Matt Strieby of New Leaf Design - another masterpiece, Matt!

If you love solo piano and you love Christmas music, this is a match made in heaven - or, in this case, Haven! I give Christmas Whisperings my highest recommendation. It is available from solopianochristmas.com, Amazon, iTunes, CD Baby, and most of the artists’ websites.