''Christmas Portraits'' is a studio album by English keyboardist

Rick Wakeman Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboardist best known as a former member of the progressive rock band Yes across five tenures between 1971 and 2004, and for his solo albums released in the 1970s. Born and raised ...

. It was released on 29 November 2019 by Sony Classical Records as the third of a series of piano-oriented albums, following '' Piano Portraits'' (2017) and ''

Piano Odyssey ''Piano Odyssey'' is a studio album by English keyboardist Rick Wakeman, released on 12 October 2018 by Sony Classical Records. After the positive response to his previous album ''Piano Portraits'' (2017), Wakeman decided to record a follow-up in ...

'' (2018).

Background

Following the release of his piano album '' Piano Portraits'' in 2017, management at Sony Classical Records suggested to Wakeman that he record a follow-up with piano variations of Christmas songs. Wakeman thought it could work at first, but wanted to spend some time thinking about whether such a concept would work. He ultimately agreed to do it, but felt its release needed a gap after ''Piano Portraits'' and that a string section was needed to complement the arrangements. Instead, he recorded and released ''

'' in 2018. In March 2019, Wakeman announced upcoming meetings about the possibility of recording a new piano album, with its theme yet to be determined. In the following months Sony gave the green-light for a Christmas themed piano album featuring variations of Christmas songs and carols. Wakeman started work on ''Christmas Portraits'' by listing 42 Christmas pieces that he was interested to record for the album. After a period of playing the pieces on the piano, he realised that some did not work as a piano arrangement and the list was reduced to 23 potential tracks. From here, Wakeman entered the studio with his longtime engineer Erik Jordan. However, he found that some of the songs were too short in length as standalone tracks. To solve this issue, pieces were combined to form a single track. Wakeman recorded the album at The Old Granary Studio near Beccles in

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

because it houses one of his favourite instruments, a Steinway Model D grand piano. Wakeman dedicated August 2019 to record ''Christmas Portraits''. Wakeman arrived at the studio on the first day of recording to find it decorated with "a moth-eaten Christmas tree" with presents and tinsel. The album was recorded with Wakeman's longtime engineer Erik Jordan, who is also credited as a co-producer. In September 2019, Wakeman revealed that the album was finished and it had been delivered to Sony.

Release

The album was released on 29 November 2019. Wakeman supported it with The Grumpy Old Christmas Show piano tour across England in December, featuring live performances tracks from ''Christmas Portraits''.

Track listing

Personnel

– Steinway Model D grand piano, producer *Erik Jordan – engineer, co-producer

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2019 albums Rick Wakeman albums Sony Classical Records albums