Christmas Music and Carols

You’ll soon be awash with (albeit lovely) traditional Christmas music, so this wonderful concert is your chance to vary your musical festive menu. We may be a little premature with five settings of ‘Hodie Christus natus est’, but they are all spectacular, ranging from 10th-century Gregorian plainchant to a piece written by Lorenzo Donati in the 21st century. At the less extreme ends of that millennium come seasonal motets by Philips, Byrd and Bruckner.

Where are the carols? Don’t worry, there are plenty to enjoy, though ’Little Donkey’ is nowhere to be seen. Instead, Walton’s ‘All this time this song is best’ and Vaughan Williams’ ‘The blessed Son of God’ are joined by first performances of Sherwood’s ‘Carol for Advent’ and ‘Balulalow’. And we could not leave out carols from our long-ago founder member, Robert Lucas Pearsall: ‘The first good joy that Mary had’ may be new to you, but our final offering, his heart-lifting eight-part ‘In dulci jubilo’, is now a dearly loved carol, and rightly so.  We do hope you will join us in our very different and definitely delectable Christmas celebration.