BBC Orchestras and Choirs
The BBC Orchestras and Choirs celebrate Christmas this year with a number of innovative concert broadcasts across BBC Radio. Joined by a range of special guests from Trevor Nelson and Clare Teal to Reverend Richard Coles, audiences nationwide can enjoy a feast of festive classics, plaintive carols and best-loved works from some of the world’s greatest composers.
Published: 25 November 2019
The BBC Orchestras and Choirs celebrate Christmas this year with a number of innovative concert broadcasts across BBC Radio. Joined by a range of special guests from Trevor Nelson and Clare Teal to Reverend Richard Coles, audiences nationwide can enjoy a feast of festive classics, plaintive carols and best-loved works from some of the world’s greatest composers.
Surely a highlight of the season, much-loved author Neil Gaiman joins the BBC Symphony Orchestra to read from his best-selling works alongside music. With special guests, David Tennant performing a sketch from hit show Good Omens and Amanda Palmer giving a haunting rendition of A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square this will be a dystopian treat from BBC Radio 3 and 4 this Christmas.
Pictured: Playing In The Dark - Neil Gaiman and the BBC Symphony Orchestra
Playing In The Dark with Neil Gaiman, David Tennant and Amanda Palmer
Asian Network
Monday 23 December, 7.30pm-10pm on BBC Radio 3, Wednesday 25 December, 6am-7am on BBC Radio 4
Pre-recorded concert at the Barbican Hall, London
Recorded at the Barbican in November, much-loved author Neil Gaiman joined the BBC Symphony Orchestra to read from his best-selling works alongside music. As part of the show, Neil was joined by David Tennant for a surprise guest performance of an iconic scene from hit show Good Omens (the BBC adaptation of which will be broadcast in February 2020).
Amanda Palmer also gave an enchanting performance of A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square, as well as a haunting account of Gaiman’s The Mushroom Hunters. Audiences can re-live the magic on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4 this Christmas. Further information here.
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Neil Gaiman author
Simon Butteriss baritone
Amanda Palmer singer
David Tennant actor
Mihhail Gerts conductor
Handel’s Messiah
11 December, 7.30pm - St David’s Hall, Cardiff
Following a hugely successful collaboration in 2016, BBC National Chorus of Wales and WNO Orchestra join together again for the quintessential Christmas concert, and a work firmly established as a Christmas tradition for audiences across the globe - Handel’s Messiah.
One of the best-known and most-loved choral works in Western music, it is a true celebration of the nativity; exhilarating, yet deeply emotional and resonant.
BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales
WNO Orchestra
Soraya Mafi soprano
Madeleine Shaw mezzo-soprano
Trystan Llyr Griffiths tenor
James Platt bass
Christoph Poppen conductor
AH
A Big Band Christmas with the BBC Singers and Clare Teal
Cillian Murphy
13 December, 7.30pm - Milton Court Concert Hall, London
Legendary performer Clare Teal and the BBC Singers present an evening celebrating the very best of the golden age of festive jazz. In a concert showcasing the dazzling versatility of the BBC Singers, the group is joined by the young and hugely talented musicians from the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and conductor Ben Palmer.
The programme, curated by jazz musician and composer Alexander L’Estrange, promises Christmas favourites, including songs from yesteryear such as Sleigh Ride, O holy night, I wonder As I Wander’, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas and Walking In A Winter Wonderland.
BBC Singers
National Youth Jazz Orchestra
Clare Teal singer
Ben Palmer conductor
AH
Radio 3 In Concert - Playing in the Dark: Neil Gaiman and the BBC Symphony Orchestra
Carols For Christmas
14 December, 3pm - St David’s Hall, Cardiff
BBC Radio Wales
BBC Wales’ annual festive concert returns with a selection of popular carols, readings by BBC Wales presenters and a massed choir of primary school pupils.
BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales
Massed School’s Choir
Jeffrey Howard organ
Julie Doyle BSL interpreter
Adrian Partington conductor
AH
Martin Freeman
Christmas At The Movies
BBC Radio Scotland, Wednesday 25 December, TBC
15 December, 3pm - Glasgow City Halls
The BBC SSO’s annual big screen concert featuring music from the Golden Age Of Hollywood, through to blockbusters by John Williams and Disney favourites, returns this Christmas.
Presented by singer Jamie MacDougall, the 80-piece BBC SSO offers a magical afternoon full of music from popular films and cherished Christmas classics.
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Jamie MacDougall presenter
Roderick Dunk conductor
AH
Trevor Nelson’s Soul Christmas
BBC Radio 2, Tuesday 24 December, 10pm-12am
16 December, 7.30pm - Royal Albert Hall, London
The award-winning BBC Radio 2 and Radio 1Xtra DJ is a household name across the UK and is a champion for RnB music worldwide. For the first time, Trevor will bring together a host of special guest vocalists to perform iconic Soul and RnB tracks, re-imagined and re-scored with a Christmas twist, all backed by the incomparable BBC Concert Orchestra.
- BBC Concert Orchestra
- Trevor Nelson singer and presenter
- A BBC production
AH
Headliners - The Comedians
Rumon Gamba Conducts Malcolm Arnold’s Commonwealth Christmas Overture
BBC Radio 3, Wednesday 18 December, 1.55pm
18 December, 1.55pm - MediaCity, Salford
In one of the BBC Philharmonic’s final concerts before Christmas, the Manchester-based orchestra presents Arnold’s Commonwealth Christmas Overture.
Typically upbeat and full of the composer’s rhythmic joviality, this piece was commissioned by the BBC in 1957 to mark the 25th anniversary of King George V's first Christmas broadcast. An homage to the British Commonwealth, the piece conjures up warmer climates as guitars and percussion bring a Caribbean flavour to a wintry December afternoon at MediaCity Salford. The concert also introduces Elisabeth Brauss, a BBC New Generation Artist, in Beethoven’s ground-breaking Third Piano Concerto.
BBC Philharmonic
Elisabeth Brauss piano
Rumon Gamba conductor
AH
A Very Merry Christmas
BBC Radio Scotland, Tuesday 24 December, TBC
18 December, 7.30pm - Glasgow City Halls
The BBC SSO and arranger, composer and conductor Andrew Cottee is joined by award-winning West End star Anna-Jane Casey and leading big-band vocalist Matt Ford to perform Christmas classics made famous by the likes of Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra, including Let it Snow, Winter Wonderland, The Christmas Song
and White Christmas.
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Anna-Jane Casey singer
Matt Ford singer
Andrew Cottee conductor
AH
Reverend Richard Coles and Sofi Jeannin: Contemporary Christmas Carols
BBC Radio 3, Friday 20 December, 2pm
Temple Church, London
Rev. Richard Coles leads the BBC Singers in a concert of contemporary Christmas Carols as they round off their 2019 concerts in the splendour of London’s Temple Church, with Chief Conductor Sofi Jeannin.
As part of the programme, the BBC Singers and organist Ashley Grote give the world premiere of the Lebanese-French composer Naji Hakim’s spectacular setting of Veni, veni, Emmanuel.
BBC Singers
Rev. Richard Coles presenter
Sofi Jeannin conductor
AH
BBC Philharmonic Christmas Concert
BBC Radio Manchester, Tuesday 24 & Wednesday 25 December, TBC
20 December, 5pm - MediaCity, Salford
BBC Radio Manchester invites audiences to their annual Christmas Concert with the BBC Philharmonic and presenters Mike Sweeney and Becky Want. Alongside special guests, the orchestra get into the festive spirit with seasonal music and classic festive favourites, full of sparkle and Christmas cheer.
BBC Philharmonic
Mike Sweeney presenter
Becky Want presenter
Keren Kagarlitsky conductor
AH
The Nutcracker At Snape Maltings
BBC Radio 3, Tuesday 24 December, 2pm
21 December, 7.30pm - Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk
The BBC Concert Orchestra heads to the idyllic Snape Maltings for a feast of popular classics, heralding in the final few days of advent. From Delius’s Sleigh Ride, to Arnold’s Fantasy on The Holly And The Ivy, the concert will take audiences through a journey of fantasy and mysticism, concluding with Tchaikovsky’s enduring The Nutcracker.
BBC Concert Orchestra
Barry Wordsworth conductor
AH
BBC Proms
From 23 December through to the 3 January, audiences can re-live the magic of the BBC Proms 2019 on BBC Radio 3 as the sound of summer brightens those dark winter days.
Duke Ellington’s Sacred Music and Bach’s four Orchestral Suites flood the airwaves on Christmas Day; Yuja Wang gives an electric performance of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto, and Jamie Barton raises the roof of the Royal Albert Hall at the Last Night Of The Proms (New Year’s Eve), while Sir John Eliot Gardiner completes his five-season Berlioz series with the composer’s rarely-performed opera Benvenuto Cellini on New Year’s Day.
A stand-out moment for the 2019 season was surely Bernard Haitink’s last UK performance - this can be heard on BBC Radio 3 on Christmas Eve.
Other highlights include: Angelique Kidjo’s Late Night Prom (23 December); Late-Night Mixtape (24 December); The Warner Brothers Story (26 December); Jonny Greenwood’s Late Night (27 December); and A Homage To Nina Simone (30 December).
Full details will be released on the BBC Proms website soon.