Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols (King's College, Cambridge)

It's Boxing Day, so as usual on 5:4 here's yesterday's complete broadcast of the Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols from King's College, Cambridge •

There's the expected mix of ancient & modern; of the former, the Spanish villancico Ríu, ríu, chíu is always good to hear, given a dramatic performance on this occasion (although the version with tambourine accompaniment is even more exciting) & Thomas Ravencroft's Remember, O thou man is a splendid but challenging inclusion, the music projecting a surprisingly solemn exhortation • Best of all the early pieces, though, is the mediæval delight Nowell sing we now all and some (one of my personal favourites), which Stephen Cleobury treats to a lovely, unhurried performance, instantly transporting one back to the 15th century •

As to the modern, this year's service featured an impressive number of contemporary pieces • There's an inevitable bout of Rutter to get through, & David Willcocks' usually harmless arrangement of the Sussex Carol sounded a touch saccharine this time (probably because it came immediately after Nowell sing we) • But much of the rest was excellent, including the jaunty syncopations of Carl Rütti's I wonder as I wander, Bob Chilcott's rich but pretty The Shepherd's Carol , & Philip Ledger's sensitive setting of A spotless rose, with its nice interaction between upper & lower voices • It's a relief to hear something by Arvo Pärt that doesn't resort to 'tintinnabuli' (although one could argue Bogoróditse Dyévo, lacking Pärt's distinctive style, sounds rather generically Orthodox), & hearing John Tavener's The Lamb again—a work that's benefitted from dropping off the radar of late—it still sounds utterly sublime; composed in 1982, it's a rare example of a piece that's rightly famous • Having written about Judith Weir's Illuminare, Jerusalem just a few days ago, it was interesting to hear it again, although on this occasion the trebles struggled & the organ sounded too distant •

But the highlight was this year's commissioned carol, composed by Tansy Davies, setting Christina Rossetti's poem Christmas Eve • Considering Tansy's previous output, which consists largely of hard-edged, punchy instrumental works, it was hard to know quite what to expect • On the one hand, Christmas Eve is a definite stylistic departure, but on the other, it's a seriously beguiling one • In parallel with the text, the piece blows hot & cold through the opening stanza, exploring some intriguing & paradoxical contrasts: "Christmas hath a darkness/Brighter than the blazing noon" • In the first line of each phrase, Tansy establishes a series of winding, independent strands, lingering over the words (finally - a composer unafraid to repeat whole lines of text!); these strands are then pulled together, creating some marvellous chords, before the choir erupts with the answering line • It's a masterly approach, one that bears repetition, but thankfully is modified in the second verse, where the text veers off into a more celebratory tone • Both verses conclude with an exciting fanfare-like response to the line "Christmas bringeth Jesus", followed by a strange & faintly tragic ending—"brought for us so low"—where trailing lines slowly drag downward (a moment that bears some stylistic comparison to Thomas Adès) • Overall, it's an imaginative & thoughtful response to Rossetti's text (at last providing choirs with an alternative to In the Bleak Midwinter), one that places the entire focus on the words & forces the listener—as the best choral pieces do—to reflect hard on them •

Below is a summary of all the music—& let me wish you all again a very MERRY CHRISTMAS! •

• Once in royal David's city (descant Cleobury)
• I wonder as I wander (Rütti)
• Remember, O thou man (Ravenscroft)
• Adam lay ybounden (Ord)
• Angels from the realms of glory (arr Jacques)
• Riu, riu, chiu (Flecha)
• Nowell sing we now all and some (medieval)
• Sussex Carol (arr Willcocks)
• It came upon the midnight clear (descant Cleobury)
• A spotless rose (arr Ledger)
• The Lamb (Tavener)
• Blessed be that maid Mary (arr Cleobury)
• Bogoróditse Dyévo (Pärt)
• Christmas Eve (World Première) (Tansy Davies)
• Sans Day Carol (arr Rutter)
• The Shepherd's Carol (Chilcott)
• While shepherds watched (descant Cleobury)
• The Three Kings (Cornelius arr Atkins)
• Illuminare, Jerusalem (Weir)
• O come, all ye faithful (arr Willcocks)
• Hark! the herald angels sing (descant Willcocks)
• In dulci jubilo BWV 729 (Bach)
• Toccata, Op 104 (Jongen)

[93:21]
FLAC [341Mb] part 1 | part 2 | part 3
MP3 [v0 vbr | 150Mb]
Order of Service [PDF]