Advertisement
Music

Have a note perfect Christmas Day with these six handy listening tips

Forget Salvation Army Bands, Slade and the din of siblings squabbling – here’s how Christmas should really sound, if you ask our music expert Claire Jackson

Whether it’s listening to the Salvation Army band on a chilly high street or catching perennial favourites such as Handel’s Messiah in concert, Christmas has an inextricable soundworld. Obviously, lots of the music is religious in origin, but you don’t have to be an ardent churchgoer to enjoy listening to carols or appreciate a nativity play (particularly as many of them are now secular in style).

‘Tis also the season for ballet, namely Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker (Royal Ballet perform the work at the Royal Opera House until January 10; English National Ballet at the London Coliseum until January 6 and Birmingham Royal Ballet at the Royal Albert Hall December 28-31). Pianist Alexandra Dariescu has given the work a 21st-century makeover and presents the premiere of The Nutcracker and I, a multimedia performance piece for piano, ballerina and visuals at Milton Court Barbican on December 19, as part of the Guildhall School Alumni Recital Series.

But what to listen to on The Big Day?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubeVUnGQOIk

  1. Christmas morning

Start the day – gently – with Howard Blake’s Walking in the Air, from the seminal animation The Snowman. The legendary pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy, who celebrated his 80th birthday this year, has recorded the track – and the rest of Blake’s piano music – for Decca. Follow up with Marco Galvani’s new work On Christmas Morn, co-commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society and Classic FM, and premiered by The Sixteen earlier this winter.

  1. Cooking lunch

Listen via iPlayer to the The Marriage of Figaro Live from the Met, which will be broadcast on December 23 at 6.30pm on Radio 3. It’s the last of the broadcasts of the seven operas featured in the V&A’s exhibition Opera: Passion, Power and Politics (reviewed in these pages Oct 30-Nov 5) and will keep you amused through the tedium of peeling potatoes and turkey/nut roast management.

Advertisement
Advertisement

  1. Eating

Try Winter Songs (also Decca, released this month), featuring the choir of Royal Holloway, pianist Ola Gjeilo and 12 ensemble, conducted by Rupert Gough. The collection of carols and contemporary pieces will cater for a variety of tastes.

  1. Afternoon

Crack open the selection box while enjoying Simon Callow’s Dickensian Christmas on Radio 3 at 5pm. Callow and the BBC Singers pair readings with carols from the era.

  1. Board game time

Break the tension with the slick YouTube video of the Piano Guys performing Angels We Have Heard on High, which features four people playing the same instrument – using some unconventional techniques!

  1. Evening

The rise of the ‘CD and sheet music’ format has given way to a number of sing-a-long Christmas song books, so that everyone can gather round the guitar/piano/CD player, no matter what their musical background. Research suggests that singing is good for our wellbeing, as well as being a nice activity – no matter whether you can sing the descant to Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. Who knows, you may find it leads to future carolling – or at least a new festive tradition.

Advertisement

Change a vendor's life this Christmas

This Christmas, 3.8 million people across the UK will be facing extreme poverty. Thousands of those struggling will turn to selling the Big Issue as a vital source of income - they need your support to earn and lift themselves out of poverty.

Recommended for you

Read All
The Selecter's Pauline Black: 'I had an uncle who thought Enoch Powell was the way to go'
Pauline Black in 1984 as a TV presenter on Hold Tight!
Letter to my Younger Self

The Selecter's Pauline Black: 'I had an uncle who thought Enoch Powell was the way to go'

This jazz festival born in the wake of the pandemic captures the heart of the Big Easy
The Rumble at NOLAxNOLA
Music

This jazz festival born in the wake of the pandemic captures the heart of the Big Easy

The Lightning Seeds' Ian Broudie: 'I'd rather not be remembered for Three Lions'
Letter To My Younger Self

The Lightning Seeds' Ian Broudie: 'I'd rather not be remembered for Three Lions'

I composed a piece of music made from the dying beats of my father's heart
Music

I composed a piece of music made from the dying beats of my father's heart

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue