The month in classics: December
Our guest classical music picker, Huw Lewis selects some highlights for next month
Christmas means family, food and music most of all – and that’s true whether it is Mariah or the Messiah which gives you that tingly seasonal feeling.
But tradition is what counts. The writer Caitlin Moran once pointed out that celebrity chefs who fill newspapers with exciting new ways to make roast potatoes, stuff the bird or bling the Brussels are missing the point: What we really yearn for are familiar home comforts with us since childhood.
That could be your mam’s unique take on Christmas Cake, The Customs House panto or the Hallelujah chorus for the 100th time (it never gets any less life-affirming and exuberant).
Thankfully for us, the classical and choral stars of the North East more than step up to the music stand.
We could have written an entire advent calendar of Christmas music on this page, with a new door to open every day from the Royal Northern Sinfonia’s winter tour (at The Fire Station in Sunderland on December 1, since you ask) through to midnight mass in the grandeur of Durham Cathedral leading you into the early hours of Christmas morning.
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Here, though, we have whittled the list down to an appropriate 12 days of Christmas that would delight the whole family.
December 1: The advent procession and service at Durham Cathedral (actually November 30 and December 1) is a timeless and magical way to begin Christmas which begins in complete darkness, the light growing as the choir moves slowly through the vast nave.
December 4: The Northern Sinfonia winter tour reaches St Michael’s Church in Alnwick , although you can catch it at venues around the region between November 28 and December 5. The programme varies by venue but wintry Sibelius, vibrant Vivaldi and Corelli’s Christmas Concerto feature on every bill.
December 7: Home Alone in Concert takes over The Glasshouse with four concerts across the whole weekend. There are still some tickets left … but be quick or you will miss them.
December 12: Jess Gillam is an electrifying saxophonist and musical personality – her Christmas concert at the Glasshouse is one for the whole family taking Silent Night and the Nutcracker as a starting point but sure to range wide across the musical multiverse.
December 14: Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols arcs across the centuries connecting medieval plainsong with one of last century’s great composers for voice. Durham Cathedral provides the perfect setting.
December 15: For Unto Us a Child is Born! Do we need to say anything more? Handel’s great masterpiece Messiah is worth hearing any time of the year. But most of all now. Hear it in massed splendour at The Glasshouse or in a very different format at Hexham Abbey on 10 December when performance group Wild Arts Ensemble bring the story to life beside period instruments.
December 16: Sankta Lucia is a Swedish Christmas tradition brought to Hexham Abbey, which will be cast into shadow as Lucia parades through the building, candles mounted in a crown on her head, while the choir behind her singing seasonal Nordic songs.
December 22-24: Fenwick’s Window. Black-eyed Friday. The Snowman at The Glasshouse. The iconic elements of the final countdown to the big day.
December 22-24: The lump will rise in your throat as a single chorister sends the opening lines of Once in Royal David’s City coursing through the veins of Durham Cathedral. That marks the start of the heart-warming service of familiar carols and readings.
December 27: Bradley Creswick is the star soloist for Vivaldi Four Seasons at Christmas by Candlelight at Durham, in a concert packed with baroque and classical string favourites.
December 29: There have been a thousand new takes on The Nutcracker ballet score down the years but this one at The Glasshouse looks fascinating: A solo piano and solo ballerina are swept up in ground-breaking multimedia animations.
January 1: There is only one way a classical Christmas should end. We’re not sure who thought lively waltzes the best New Year’s day hangover cure – but we’re not going to argue with tradition!