Did you know that this month marks 50 years since Slade released 'Merry Christmas Everybody', instantly carving their own little place in our collective festive psyches? Half a century on, the song that singer Noddy Holder has referred to as his 'pension scheme' remains a mainstay on the radio and in shops, pubs and parties from the beginning of December onwards - so much so that some say Christmas wouldn't be Christmas if it wasn't there. However, much as we at BBC Music enjoy joining Noddy and crew in a raucous sing-along about hanging stockings on the wall and fairies keeping Santa sober for a day, we crave more musical satisfaction at Christmas than just that. A lot more. So, what ear-tickling treats could we as classical music lovers not imagine the festive season without? Here are our 15 Christmas Music Essentials...
1 O come now...
Though the Advent season runs for around four weeks up to Christmas Eve, Advent music's moment in the limelight tends to get squeezed into the space of just a few days. A shame, as the themes of darkness to light and the coming of Christ and have inspired some gems over the centuries from the likes of Byrd's Ecce virgo concipiet (1605) to James MacMillan's contemporary Advent Antiphon - while big-boned hymns such as O come, O come, Emmanuel and Lo! He comes with clouds descending stir the soul like few others. So, set the season in motion by heading to an Advent carol service near you or, alternatively, tune into the annual Radio 3 broadcast from St John's College, Cambridge on 3 December.
2 Get a Handel on it
This story is from the Christmas 2023 edition of BBC Music Magazine.
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This story is from the Christmas 2023 edition of BBC Music Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Discovering Donizetti - Thanks to a two-year lockdown project, nearly 200 previously lost Donizetti songs will now see the light of day
Thanks to a two-year lockdown project, nearly 200 previously lost Donizetti songs will now see the light of day. For most people, undertaking a lockdown project meant learning to bake sourdough bread, getting fit with Joe Wicks, or taking up a language. But Professor Roger Parker, the eminent historian of Italian opera and emeritus professor at King's College London, had something far more ambitious in mind. He set about unearthing songs by Gaetano Donizetti - many of which had been lost since the composer's lifetime - and the enterprise turned into a two-year labour of love.
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The youngest of six, Bohuslav was a sickly child, and his father or older sister often had to carry him the 193 steps up to the tower. He was shy at school, too, though showed an early talent for the violin and gave his first concert at 14. By the following year, the future composer was off to the Prague Conservatoire to take the first, if faltering, steps towards a career in music.
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Richard Morrison- Do Classical Works About Mortality Reveal More To Us As We Get Older? Is it inevitably true that, as we journey through the decades, we are better able to interpret or empathise with a profoundly death-obsessed masterpiece such as Schubert's Winterreise?
As we get older do we respond differently to that vast canon of music dealing with mortality? Is it inevitably true that, as we journey through the decades, we are better able to interpret or empathise with a profoundly death-obsessed masterpiece such as Schubert's Winterreise? Or do human beings possess such a flexible sense of empathy that we can relate to virtually any state of mind if it is evoked convincingly enough by a composer?
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