Christmas 2008 Queens Hall Edinburgh, Dec 5
Purists might flinch at the very suggestion, but many will welcome this jazz-inspired alternative to traditional Christmas carols. Claire Martin and Ian Shaw, London Jazz Festival regulars and BBC award-winners, appear at the Queens Hall, Edinburgh to present a programme of creative duets. As well as covering songs by such as Nat King Cole and Shirley Horn, they will also put their own spin on hits by Joni Mitchell and Elvis Costello.
Barbican, Dec 6
Britten’s Saint Nicolas cantata, his first major work for children’s voices, was intended to be performed by a mixture of amateurs and professionals. On this, the feast-day of Saint Nicolas, Laurence Cummings directs the Handel Orchestra and Singers and singers from community choirs, and the ensemble is joined by three distinguished soloists: Ian Bostridge, Carolyn Sampson and Roderick Williams. Bach cantatas BWV61 and BWV36 also feature on the programme.
St Paul’s Cathedral, Dec 7
Messiaen’s 1935 organ meditation La Nativité du Seigneur is traditionally performed during the Advent season but this year, the centenary of the composer’s birth, it takes on added significance. The hour-long masterpiece is characterised by a heady sense of mysticism, and is now one of Messiaen’s best-known works. A number of cathedrals across the UK have scheduled the piece, including St Paul’s, where a performance by organist Huw Williams will be interspersed by prayers and liturgical readings.
Royal Opera, Dec 9 – Jan 1
You wait years for a production of Hansel und Gretel and then four come at once. Humperdink’s festive opera has enjoyed recent fresh-airings by three different companies around the UK and now appears at Royal Opera in a new staging from Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier, the directorial double-act behind last year’s La Cenerentola. Colin Davis conducts and the main cast list features Angelika Kirchschlager and Diana Damrau in the title roles.
Carols from the 15th and 16th centuries
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Dec 12
Amidst the seasonal flurry of carol concerts Harry Christophers and The Sixteen’s unusual programme stands out from all the rest. The esteemed ensemble will present a mixture of sacred and secular carols from the 15th and 16th centuries, including works by Thomas Tallis, William Byrd and a host of anonymous contemporaries. Vocalists will be accompanied by a trio of instruments associated with the angelic chorus: the lute, harp and rebec.
Christmas Wishes with Alfie Boe
Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Dec 13, 14
Housewives favourite Alfie Boe is the main draw in this Christmas celebration. The talented and successful tenor will sing popular classical songs, including “In the Bleak Midwinter”, “Addio Fiorito Asil” from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly and Ave Maria, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra will perform instrumental excerpts from The Tales of Hoffmann and The Nutcracker.
Christ Church, Dec 15, 17, 19, Jan 5, 7, 8
In 2000 John Eliot Gardiner embarked on an exhaustive world-wide Bach Cantata Pilgrimage. His contribution to this year’s Spitalfields Festival is rather less ambitious but interesting nonetheless. Throughout the Christmas period Gardiner conducts the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists through Bach’s Christmas Oratorio Cantatas and Brandenburg Concertos. The elegant Baroque interior of Christ Church Spitalfields provides a fitting aesthetic backdrop.
The Kings Place, Dec 20
The Kings Place theme of the week – Roald Dahl Plus – has been specifically designed for children and in this final concert it takes on an additional Christmas flavour. Paul Patterson’s musical dramatisation of Roald Dahl’s Little Red Riding Hood, from the Revolting Rhymes series, will be followed by Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols. Peter Ash conducts the Taliesin Ensemble in the former, and Ralph Allwood’s Rodolfus Choir perform the latter.
Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, Dec 20, 21, 23
These Hallé Carol Concerts have now become an annual fixture. This year’s events will be presented by Radio 3’s Petroc Trelawny and feature a mixed programme of professional performance and audience participation. Manchester’s eminent orchestra, together with the combined forces of the Hallé Choir and the Hallé Youth Choir, will be conducted by James Burton.
Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Jan 2
It’s only recently that the Messiah has become so closely associated with Christmas. Handel wrote the work for Eastertide and the narrative therefore gives greater focus to Christ’s death and resurrection, than His birth, but it is now an established tradition. This New Year performance at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall is performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and soloists Amy Freston, Diana Moore, James Gilchrist and Roderick Williams.
