C O U R T E S Y

M A R Í

AG U I

N A N D

28

A S H

M I L L S

CONTENTS

R O B E R T

H A R D I

N G /

A D O B E S T O C K

STOCK/BCHYLA

ADOBE

PHOTOGRAPH

COVER

7

24

7 CHRISTMAS CAROLS

Jeremy Summerly travels through 600 years of the carol in England.

10 JOHN RUTTER

For this master craftsman of the carol, Christmas remains a special time of year, as he explains to Adrian Horsewood.

13 CAROLS FOR CHOIRS

The Oxford University Press carol books, which serve choirs throughout the globe, are heading for their 60th anniversary. What is their enduring appeal, asks Ed Newton-Rex?

16 MESSIAH REIMAGINED

How Samir Savant and the London Handel Festival overcame the obstacles of Covid to present Handel’s masterpiece to more than a quarter of a million people worldwide.

20 PLANNING A CHRISTMAS

CONCERT How to choose between the old and the new, the simple and the challenging – and in what order? The Bach Choir director of music David Hill is a past master of the art.

24 KING’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

For many, their famous Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols marks the real start of Christmas – and each year brings a newly commissioned carol. In 2014, Stephen Cleobury talked to David Blackwell; and Daniel Hyde brings us up to date.

28 VENEZUELA

Choral director María Guinand reminisces to Matthew Berry about Christmas traditions in Caracas, and seasonal music she has experienced on her travels.

32 FANTASIA ON CHRISTMAS

CAROLS Ralph Vaughan Williams’s seasonal work for choir and orchestra is a popular item in Christmas concerts. David Hill steers choirs and their conductors through some of the common issues in performing it .

35 NEW WORKS FOR CHRISTMAS

Five pages of seasonal repertoire published during the last 20 months, for all voice combinations, with links through to publishers’ websites, to help you plan your services and concerts.

41 REVIEWS

Joy Hill and Jeremy Jackman take their pick of recently published Christmas music, including a new anthology of carols arranged by Louis Halsey.

‘Christmas is the golden thread throughout my musical life … I’ve never lost the feeling of wonder that I had as a boy’

choirandorgan.com

10

C O U R T E S Y J

O H N

R U T T E R

CHRISTMAS 2021 CHORAL DIRECTIONS 5