The Beatles were not only hugely influential on the world of popular music. The creative genius of John Lennon and Paul McCartney inspired many classical musicians to create their own arrangements of these iconic songs. This 2-CD set is the ultimate classical Beatles collection, featuring a selection of arrangements. The first CD consists of arrangements for classical guitar (surely the most appropriate of all classical instruments!) including Cuban composer Leo Brouwer’s suite for guitar and strings From Yesterday to Penny Lane. The second CD, Fron Male Voice Choir newly-recorded performance of Yesterday and Hey Jude, and a rousing finale of Let It Be by Arthur Fiedler and The Boston Pops. One of the highlights of the set is The Beatles Concerto, an arrangement for two pianos and orchestra featuring eight Beatles songs, by the celebrated English composer John Rutter. Also included is Beatlecracker Suite, a fascinating arrangement of Lennon and McCartney songs in the style of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite – a true lost classic composed in 1965 at the very height of ‘Beatlemania’.

One of Germany’s best-loved classical performers joins forces with a legendary close- harmony group for a winter-themed album to bring warmth to the dark months of the year: Albrecht Mayer & The King’s Singers. The pairing of probably the world’s most famous and accomplished oboist, Albrecht Mayer with the UK’s celebrated vocal ensemble is a heavenly musical partnership, and the interplay of colours, melodies and harmonies between these performers enchant and delight with Baroque, classical and seasonal favourites. The album has a Yuletide theme with tracks such as ‘Let It Snow’, ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’.

John Rutter’s glorious stream of Christmas miniatures has made him, for many, an essential ingredient in the festive season. The composer and conductor wrote what is probably his most popular piece, “Shepherd’s Pipe Carol,” while still an 18-year-old undergraduate at Cambridge—and he has never looked back. “Once I started writing carols, somehow it seemed difficult to stop,” Rutter tells Apple Music. “I’ve been doing it ever since.” Realizing that he had a “backlog” of them led him to I Sing of a Maiden, an EP of five new pieces recorded in July 2021. “I’m asked, ‘Do you still enjoy Christmas?’ And actually, I sincerely do,” says Rutter. “Christmas carols are a resilient form of art—folk art, as I’ve often suggested—that have attracted some extraordinarily fine composers. They were adding their little tile to a centuries-old mosaic of devotion, praise, joy, prayer, and celebration. It all makes up that extraordinary season of the year that we call Christmas.”