Thursday 17th December 2020

Our Online recommendations for Christmas 2020

As most of us are looking at a rather different Christmas to our normal family- and friend-filled affairs, we want to help make sure it’s still full of sublime music and moments of joy. We have chosen the online events taking place over the festive period that we believe will help keep the spirit of Christmas alive. Most of the events are ticketed; if you can afford it, please consider buying a ticket to help support the arts at this difficult time.

St Paul’s Cathedral – A Celebration of Christmas

17^th December, 7pm

St Paul’s Cathedral are also going online on 17th December with their annual festive concert. Join the choir for carols and other seasonal favourites, including the ever popular Sleigh Ride performed by the City of London Sinfonia who join the choir for the evening. The concert is in partnership with Lloyds Bank and is free, however, you must register in order to receive a link to watch the concert.

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Birmingham Royal Ballet – The Nutcracker

18^th-19^th December, 7.30pm

Although this is branching away from our field of expertise slightly, we wanted to bring your attention to the Birmingham Royal Ballet’s new 90-minute magic-filled production of this festive favourite, The Nutcracker. It includes everyone’s favourite moments: the Snowflakes, Drosselmeyer, Fritz and Clara’s Christmas Eve party, King Rat’s battle, the Kingdom of Sweets dances from around the world, the iconic Sugar Plum Fairy and, of course, the Nutcracker Prince. It will also feature the Royal Ballet Sinfonia playing Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece live. 

TicketCo will broadcast the online performance; look out for instructions on how to watch when you buy your tickets.

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Handel and Haydn Society – Messiah

20^th December, 7pm EST (Midnight BST, 21^st December)

Although the premiere of this isn’t a great time for those of us in the UK, this free concert from the Handel and Haydn Society (H+H) in Boston, USA, will be available to watch on demand throughout the holiday season. The ‘Handel’s Messiah for Our Time’ concert will be H+H’s 167^th consecutive year performing Handel’s masterpiece. It will be available to watch on H+H’s Facebook, YouTube and Vimeo channels and will feature Handel’s Messiah Part 1 and the “Hallelujah” Chorus.

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Christmas with The King’s Singers

22^nd December 2020, 6pm

Christmas with The King’s Singers promises to be a real celebration of the joy of Christmas. Join them online as they sing festive favourites from White Christmas to music by Palestrina and Pretorius, Howell’s A Spotless Rose and Christmas carols such as Stille Nacht. Brought to you from John Rutter’s church, All Saints in Chrishall, this concert will be one to share with all the family. The concert is on the IDAGIO platform meaning you will need to set up an account to buy your ticket. View the concert on demand until 31^st December.

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The Sixteen at Christmas

23^rd December, 7.30pm

The Sixteen culminates its online series, A Choral Oddyssey, with The Sixteen at Christmas, a concert broadcast ‘As Live’ from one of their usual Christmas haunts, Cadogan Hall in London. If you haven’t seen any of their Choral Oddyssey episodes yet, we fully recommend that you consider buying a series ticket which will enable you to watch the Christmas concert and the previous five episodes.

Rather than producing straight forward online concerts, The Sixteen opted to produce programmes that explore choral music and the history behind it via a mix of conversation, music demonstration and performance. Simon Russell Beale presents and each episode takes place in a relevant location e.g. Byrd in Elizabeth I’s childhood home of Hatfield House, Purcell at The Globe. For the Christams finale, The Sixteen present a concert narrated by Simon Callow featuring festive music from six centuries and includes music by Byrd, Palestrina, Will Todd and Celia McDowall. Tickets are available from InPlayer and all episodes are available to watch until 31st January.

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Carols from King’s

24_^th December, 7.30pm

This year, BBC Two will broadcast Carols from King’s at 7.30pm on Christmas Eve. It will also be available to download for free and watch on demand from the King’s College website and the BBC’s iPlayer. No Christmas is complete without this seasonal celebration from what is arguably, the best college choir in the country.

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Gabrieli Consort & Players – Bach for Christmas

25^th December – 6^th January, 7pm

As part of the VOCES8 Live from London Christmas series, the Gabrieli Consort & Players bring you ‘Bach for Christmas‘, a celebration of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio presented how it was meant to be heard. One cantata from the Oratorio was originally performed on each of the six most important feast days of Christmas, between 25th December and 6th January. Each concert is further illuminated by carols and chorales woven around the cantata. Visit the Live from London website for a full list of the performance days and further information on how to watch.

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London Concertante – Viennese Christmas Spectacular

27^th December, 7pm – CANCELLED

The London Concertante invite you to come and celebrate Christmas with them, Viennese style! Enjoy a programme filled with famous waltzes by Johanne Strauss II, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite and the Waltz from Sleeping Beauty and much, much more. The concert is livestreamed only so please be aware there is no on demand facility to watch the concert after the event.