A Choral Christmas on Radio 3

Christmas is coming, and prepare ye the way for a sledge-load of new music. It’s probably not just Stephen Cleobury’s annual commissioning of new carols for the King’s College Service of Nine Lessons and Carols that does it (though he must be partly responsible), but come Christmas every year there is a positive avalanche of new carols rumbling into the choral world. Whether broadcast to millions or sung to an audience of 37 in a tiny church carol service, Christmastide certainly gets the creative juices flowing among our composers.

And alleluia, what a glorious thing it is too. Radio 3 has jumped on the bandwagon this year and is broadcasting 15 new(ish) carols – one every day from 18 December to New Year’s Day, at 7.50am. Truth be told, it’s a bit of a mixed stocking: I’m not quite sure what Peter Cornelius’s "The Three Kings" or David Willcocks’s "I Saw Three Ships" are doing on the list, other than that the BBC Singers (who have recorded all the works under composer and conductor Bob Chilcott) have them in the can with a group of amateurs (terribly Christmassy that: singing with amateurs).

But there are some really interesting offerings here from the past few years: there’s a bit of tinsel courtesy of Chilcott’s irrepressibly cheerful "Sussex Carol"; carols from younger composers including Kristina Arakelyan, winner of the 2010 Proms Inspire Competition, and Alexander Campkin, winner of the 2010 National Centre for Early Music Composer’s Award; and works from more established choral composers, Carl Rutti’s "O patri unigentis" and Francis Pott’s beautiful "Balulalow" among them.

It’s good to hear these pieces broadcast to an awaking nation, but one of the really wonderful things about most of them is that they are easily – or reasonably easily – performable by your average choir. Ease doesn’t necessarily equal lack of musicality here (though some of the works in the list undoubtedly achieve a greater depth of feeling than others); rather it gives the listener/singer the opportunity to get to know a new work much better than they could ever do just by listening. What would be really good is if next year we hear some of these pieces taken on by more choirs around the country – or better still, new commissions ordered from these and other composers.

One of the more interesting offerings is a new carol by John Tavener, "A Cradle Song", written for the splendidly named DeChorum. Like many of the pieces, it actually receives its premiere before the broadcast, but it’s a rare new work from Tavener, who has recently been battling ill health. Say what you will about Tavener (and we all have, from time to time), this is worth a listen. You won’t mistake it for anyone else’s work, but his choice of chords has got distinctly more interesting over the past few years. This carol has the usual feeling of inner calm that so many of his choral works have, but there's a little more spice here that is most welcome. It looks a total nightmare to sing, however: the sopranos are screechingly high throughout, and it will be interesting to see how wobble-free the BBC Singers (pictured right) manage to make this recording.

Let’s have more of this Radio 3, please – but next year, why not have a list of entirely new carols? It seems the obvious move, and there’s so much of worth out there.

My own hot tip for carol premiere of the year is by a composer not on the Radio 3 list this year. Matthew Martin’s "Novo profusi gaudio" will be performed by the Choir of Westminster Abbey at its Service of Lessons and Carols at 6pm on Thursday, 23 December. It’s an absolute cracker.

The carols will be broadcast at approximately 7:50am each morning on BBC Radio 3, from 18 December to 1 January.

Carols to be broadcast:
18 Dec David Briggs "Adam lay y-bounden" (broadcast premiere)
19 Dec Carl Rutti "O patri unigenitas" (performance and broadcast premiere)
20 Dec Hermione Ruff "The Virgin's Song"
21 Dec Andrew Simpson "I Saw Three Ships" (broadcast premiere)
22 Dec arr Malcolm Archer "Angels from the Realms of Glory" (broadcast premiere)
23 Dec Richard Rodney Bennett "The Holly and the Ivy" (broadcast premiere)
24 Dec John Tavener "A Cradle Song" (broadcast premiere)
25 Dec arr. David Willcocks "I Saw Three Ships" (BBC Singers and amateur choir-members)
26 Dec arr. Bob Chilcott "Sussex Carol" (broadcast premiere)
27 Dec Richard Lloyd "St Joseph’s Carol" 
28 Dec Francis Pott "Balulalow" (broadcast premiere)
29 Dec Alexander Campkin "Sleep, holy babe" (broadcast premiere)
30 Dec Bernard Hughes "I am Christmas" (performance and broadcast premiere)
31 Dec Peter Cornelius "The Three Kings" (BBC Singers and amateur choir-members)
1 Jan Kristina Arakelyan "New Year" (performance and broadcast premiere)