The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra starts begins its holiday concert season this Friday, December 12 at 10:30am, and Saturday, December 13 at 8pm, when music director JoAnn Falletta conducts a M&T Bank Classic Series concert called A Classical Christmas. In recent years, the BPO has offered Western New York audiences a nice variety of holiday musical programming, featuring something for everyone. On Sunday, December 13 at 2:30pm, the Wendy’s Family Series presents A Visit from St. Nick—A Holiday Fantasy, featuring the Greater Buffalo Youth Ballet and the Magic Belles of Mount Mercy Academy under the baton of conductor Paul Ferington, and includes a sing-along led by St. Nick himself. Next weekend, BPO resident conductor Robert Franz takes to the podium for three performances of the HSBC Holiday Pops on Friday, December 19 and Saturday, December 20 at 8pm, and Sunday, December 21 at 2:30pm. The pops concerts feature the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus, special guest Jodi Benson (voice of Ariel in Disney’s The Little Mermaid), and guest Mary Kate O’Connell as Mrs. Claus in a program that ends with the traditionally favorite audience sing-along.

New York Polyphony

One benefit of having separate Christmas programs for the classical and for the pops series is that audiences at the classical series programs get to hear some of the more rarely performed Christmas music. While A Classical Christmas includes often played favorites such as the Farandole movement from Bizet’s L’Arlésienne Suite No. 2 and three movements from the suite to Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, Opus 71a, it also includes the Polonaise from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Christmas Eve and the expansively romantic Winter movement from Alexander Glazunov’s music for the ballet The Seasons. BPO concertmaster Michael Ludwig and BPO principal second violin Antoine Lefebvre are the soloists in baroque composer Manfredini’s delightful Concerto Gross Op. 3, no. 12, in C major (Christmas Concerto). The Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus, under their music director Doreen Rao, offers a movement from J.S. Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium, BWV 248 (Christmas Oratorio). Bass Brian Zunner, singing the expressive Arioso movement, joins the BPO Chorus in three movements from Mendelssohn’s richly melodic Christmas cantata Von Himmel Hoch (From Heaven Above), based on the same hymn by Martin Luther that had earlier inspired Bach.

For more information, visit www.bpo.org or call 885-5000.

A Cappella Magic at St. Paul’s

This Friday evening, December 12, at 7:30pm, one of the hottest new classical music ensembles makes its area debut at St. Paul’s Cathedral at Church and Pearl streets in downtown Buffalo. New York Polyphony is an a cappella vocal quartet whose repertoire spans the history of music from medieval chant to 21st-century liturgical compositions. The four singers of New York Polyphony, Geoffrey Williams (counter-tenor), Geoffrey Silver (tenor), Scott Dispensa (baritone), and Craig Phillips (bass-baritone) have managed in the groups’ short history to create a distinct, unified sound, that sets it apart from the other quartets on today’s classical vocal scene. The expressiveness and timbre of the four blended voices, evident on their debut CD release last year, I Sing the Birth, made them the surprise classical hit of last years’ holiday season. The prestigious British magazine Gramophone praised the group’s “expert musicianship and fine vocal resource,” citing the CD as “one of the season’s best.” The BBC Music magazine noted that the members of the group “sing most alluringly, superior technique a given but never flaunted, the focus squarely on communicating the deeply emotional wellsprings of much of this music,” with the reviewer remaking that “this is my Christmas CD of 2007.”

General admission is $20; Friends of Music and students pay $10; children under 15 are free when accompanied by an adult admission. For tickets, visit www.ticketmaster.com or call 855-0900 x242.