Available to buy until Wednesday 24 January
Available to watch on demand from Friday 15 December 2.00pm – Wednesday 31 January

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A link to watch the videos will be emailed to you on the 15th December ready for viewing from 2.00pm.

Philippa Hyde soprano Ciara Hendrick alto Nicholas Mulroy tenor Edward Grint bass

Tassilo Erhardt, Ben Samson violins Joanne Miller viola Kinga Gaborjáni cello
Robert Rawson double bass Will Russell trumpet Eva Caballero, Lisete da Silva flutes
Mark Baigent oboe David Wright organ, harpsichord

A Christmas Song – The “original” Messiah

This concert presents the only surviving Nativity story set to music in England in the baroque era—the anonymous ‘Messiah—a Christmas song’ (c.1720). Complete with tuneful shepherd’s dialogues, the joyful song of the Virgin Mary, ear-tickling arias of the Three Wise Men and even a ‘halleluia’ chorus. Not only is it ‘the original Messiah’, but possibly the first oratorio in English. The programme will also feature a remarkable offertory by the Prague-based composer Šimon Brixi (d.1735), which concludes with the popular Czech Christmas song ‘Narodil se Kristus Pán’ [Christ the Lord was born] and Purcell’s Christmas anthem, ‘Behold I bring you glad tidings’.

‘Purveyors of uplifting and exhilarating music’ BBC Radio 3

‘Among the world’s finest’ BachTrack