Sing Joy the Day

London Concord Singers' Christmas programme centre's on Britten's Christmas suite for chorus, Christ's Nativity, a remarkable work written in 1931 when he was still a student and testament both to the young composer's fertile imagination in his writing for unaccompanied chorus and to the way the Christmas story fired his imagination. Also in the concert are carols by Richard Rodney Bennett, and contemporary carols by Julian Merson and Thomas Hewitt-Jones, plus Sweelinck's infectious Hodie Christus natus est.

The programme is completed with a group of secular pieces that reflect the Winter season, with Ola Gjeilo's evocative Northern Lights, Samuel Barber's Incarnations and Elgar's stunning Part Songs, Opus 53

Edward Elgar - Part Songs, Opus 53 (Deep in my soul, O wild west wind, Owls, There is sweet music)
Ola Gjeilo - Northern Lights
Julian Merson - There is no rose
Sweelinck - Hodie Christus Natus Est
Richard Rodney Bennett - Five Carols (There is no rose, Out of your sleep, That younge childe, Sweet was the song, Susanni)
Benjamin Britten - Christ's Nativity
Thomas Hewitt-Jones - Lullaby My Liking