- The best Christmas ballets of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
- The best Christmas classical music albums and recordings<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
- The 25 greatest Christmas carols of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
<\/p><\/div> <\/section>
The best Christmas classical concerts 2021<\/h2>\n
York Early Music Christmas Festival<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
York, 3-11 December<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
For nearly a quarter of a century, York\u2019s seasonal festival has signalled the countdown to Christmas. Prisma dive into the world of the seicento, Siglo de Oro heads to Mexico, cornetto and violin are challenged to a pan-European duel, and 2021 ends in a blaze of Bachian glory with the B minor Mass<\/em> performed by The Yorkshire Bach Choir and Baroque Soloists.<\/span><\/p>\n
Gothic Voices<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
Stoller Hall, Manchester, 3 December<\/a>
Sharing its yuletide bounty between Manchester and London\u2019s Wigmore Hall, the vocal quartet observes a medieval Christmas. Gregorian chant is threaded through a programme featuring Mass<\/em> movements by Queldryk and Leonel Power, motets by Dunstable and Walter Frye and a generous helping of\u00a0\u2018Anon\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n
London Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
Royal Festival Hall, London, 4 December<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
As his St John <\/i>and St Luke<\/i> Passions suggest, James MacMillan isn\u2019t daunted by the shadow of JS Bach. Now comes a Christmas Oratorio<\/i> (drawing on Latin liturgical texts, 16th- and 17th-century poetry and a Scottish lullaby) to extend the overlap. The UK premiere is conducted by Mark Elder, with soloists soprano Lucy Crowe and baritone Roderick Williams.<\/span><\/p>\n
Royal Scottish National Orchestra<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, 4 December<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
From Howard Blake\u2019s The Snowman<\/i> to Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/i><\/a><\/strong> conducted by Christian Curnyn, the orchestra is awash with Christmas spirit. And it all starts early in the month with conductor Elim Chan, who unwraps some choice delights from Tchaikovsky\u2019s The Nutcracker<\/i> alongside glittering Ravel.<\/span><\/p>\n
The Sixteen<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
St David\u2019s Hall, Cardiff, 5 December<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
Bob Chilcott\u2019s sequence of seven Advent Antiphons<\/i> supplies the focus for the choir\u2019s mini-pilgrimage to five venues. Traditional fare rubs shoulders with Advent music by Victoria and Guerrero, and Magnificat settings by Arvo P\u00e4rt and, again, Victoria.<\/span><\/p>\n
Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
Dome Concert Hall, Brighton, 5 December<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
Pianist Joanna MacGregor, the orchestra\u2019s incoming music director, has already put her own stamp on it. \u2018A Celtic Christmas\u2019 invites accordionist and clog dancer Amy Thatcher plus piper Kathryn Tickell (see right) for a seasonal bran tub containing folk-inspired works by James MacMillan and Vaughan Williams.<\/span><\/p>\n
Ex Cathedra<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
Town Hall, Birmingham, 5 December<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
Among a dozen concerts in its \u2018Christmas Music by Candlelight\u2019 series, Jeffrey Skidmore\u2019s choir side-steps into Advent Bach: the cantatas Wachet auf<\/i> and Nun komm der Heiden Heiland<\/i>. Setting texts by Kurt Masur and Greta Thunberg, there\u2019s also Liz Dilnot Johnson\u2019s 2019 cantata I\u00a0stand at the door<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n
Orchestra of the Swan<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
Playhouse, Stratford-upon-Avon, 7 December<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
Directed by violinist David Le Page, the orchestra teams up with female vocal quintet Papagena and narrator David Acton for \u2018The Twelve Tales of Christmas\u2019, a seasonal selection box of words and music including excerpts from Dickens, TS Eliot, CS\u00a0Lewis and Dylan Thomas.<\/span><\/p>\n
Joglaresa<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
Christ Church, Grantham, 8 December<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
The early music ensemble brings its voices, fidel, harp, bells and bagpipes to bear on \u2018Lullay Myn Lykynge\u2019 \u2013 a festive adventure on the Celtic fringes of Europe including a silvery take on In Dulci Jubilo<\/i> and the plaintive Irish carol Don O\u00edche \u00dad im Beithil<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n
Christmas at Glyndebourne<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
Lewes, 8-12 December<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
The Autumn tour behind them, the chorus and tour orchestra take centre stage with a four-concert cornucopia of opera highlights and yuletide classics. They\u2019re wrapped around a single performance (on 10 December) of Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/i>, conducted by Aidan Oliver.<\/span><\/p>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nSt John\u2019s Smith Square Christmas Festival<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
St John\u2019s Smith Square, London, 10-23 December<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
Christmas isn\u2019t a time for tinkering with the tried and tested. In its 36th incarnation, the Christmas Festival at St\u00a0John\u2019s ends with artistic director Stephen Layton conducting his choir Polyphony in a performance of Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/i>. The night before, he tackles four cantatas from Bach\u2019s Christmas Oratorio<\/i> with the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge. And in a Marian slant, the Tallis Scholars splice Stravinsky and Arvo P\u00e4rt with Guerrero and Isaac.<\/span><\/p>\n
Monteverdi Choir<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, 11 December<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
John Eliot Gardiner\u2019s Monteverdi forces settle into their first ever UK home with a performance of Berlioz\u2019s L\u2019enfance du Christ<\/i>. The period instruments of the Orchestre R\u00e9volutionnaire et Romantique are in attendance.<\/span><\/p>\n
Orchestra of St John\u2019s<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
Dorchester Abbey, 11 December<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
The orchestra will bring Viennoiserie to the Oxfordshire Abbey Church on New Year\u2019s Eve, but before that, on 18 December, the annual performance of Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/i>. Launching the festivities here is Britten\u2019s A Ceremony of Carols<\/i>, with harpist Elizabeth Bass and the OSJ Oxford Voices.<\/span><\/p>\n
The Gesualdo Six<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
Kings Place, London, 12 December<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
\u2018In Winter\u2019s House\u2019 is a concert that includes Joanna Marsh\u2019s eponymous work originally written for the vocal group Tenebrae. Owain Park directs a programme with \u2018ancient and modern\u2019 as its watchword. Michael Praetorius complements Jonathan Harvey, and Tallis\u2019s Videte miraculum<\/i> prefaces a serene miniature by Cheryl Frances-Hoad.<\/span><\/p>\n
Sestina<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
Ulster Museum, Belfast, 16, 17 December<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
Sestina might be associated with the music of the Baroque and earlier, but not exclusively so. Christmas means \u2018Carols at the Museum\u2019, and alongside music by Johann Hermann Schein and Francis Poulenc, there\u2019s also the premiere of a new commission from Eoghan Desmond.<\/span><\/p>\n
Stile Antico<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
Colyer-Fergusson Hall, Canterbury, 17 December<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
The 12-voice early music ensemble navigates a musical retelling of the nativity story through the lens of Renaissance composers such as Byrd and Tallis, Victoria and Josquin. They sign off with John Sheppard\u2019s great Christmas respond, Verbum caro factum est.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n
Christmas Weekend at Snape Maltings<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
Snape Maltings, 17-19 December<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
Music is at the heart of Snape\u2019s festive weekend, with stars in the East ranging from Tenebrae\u2019s account of Messiah<\/i> with the Academy of Ancient Music to an evening of songs and carols with Bryn Terfel and friends.<\/span><\/p>\n
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n
St George\u2019s Bristol, 19 December<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
There are excerpts from Messiah<\/i> and Corelli\u2019s evergreen Christmas<\/i> Concerto<\/i>, plus JS Bach too. But the OAE\u2019s Baroque Christmas, directed by Steven Devine, also strikes out on the road less travelled with music by Buxtehude, Sch\u00fctz, Charpentier and Praetorius.<\/span><\/p>\n
Hall\u00e9 Orchestra<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
- The best Christmas classical music albums and recordings<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
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