The Classical Christmas Playlist - Part 2
An hour of calm for the final stretch to Christmas.
After last week’s festive playlist, I’m ready for something calmer. On the scale from fun to melancholy I’m usually sitting somewhere in the serene corner, and this week that felt exactly right. This is a one hour playlist for anyone who is a bit worn out by the run up to Christmas. I know I am. Work has finally eased off and the frantic part of December has faded a little, so getting to the end of this week feels like an actual relief. At least until Christmas planning starts again in January. Sigh.
So if you are tired or overstretched with gifting, shopping or end of year bits, this one is for you. It is my version of a festive playlist that brings a bit of calm and light into the weekend. A mix of proper Christmas pieces and music that simply feels wintery or reflective.
I’m quietly loving this playlist (even though I try not to have favourites, and I will have it on in the kitchen while I make a batch of cardamom cinnamon buns, using a recipe a very talented colleague passed on to me which is now in its third year. However you choose to unwind, I hope it keeps you company.
Bethlehem Down - Peter Warlock
This might be one of my favourite Christmas carols. The story behind it feels just as Christmasy as the carol itself.
In 1927, the British composer Peter Warlock (real name Philip Arnold Heseltine) and his friend, the poet and journalist Bruce Blunt, were completely broke in the run up to Christmas. They wanted money for what Blunt later called an ‘immortal carouse’ (they basically wanted to get really drunk), so they decided to write a carol and enter it into the Christmas carol competition run by the British newspaper - The Daily Telegraph.
On a night-time walk between pubs, Blunt came up with the title Bethlehem Down and later wrote the poem. Warlock set it for unaccompanied choir within a few days, they sent it off to the competition, and they won. I doubt it covered every drink they had planned, but they did get their prize money and, slightly by accident, ended up with one of the most atmospheric Christmas pieces of the 20th century. He even came back to it a few years later and made a solo version for voice and keyboard.
For this playlist I have gone with The King’s Singers again, from one of my favourite Christmas albums in general. The singing is so clean, and the harmonies sit in a place that somehow feels ancient and completely modern at the same time.
Something about this carol captures Christmas for me. Wintery but warm, candlelit without being sugary.
Intermezzo, Op. 117 No. 1 - Johannes Brahms
This piece by Johannes Brahms, one of the most famous composers of the Romantic period, is probably his best known work for solo piano. It has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas, but stay with me.
An intermezzo is simply a short, lyrical piano piece. Brahms wrote many of them, but the three in Op. 117 were published together and are often thought of as some of his most intimate writing. For anyone not quite sure where the Romantic period fits in the timeline, it’s roughly from the mid 19th century into the early 20th. It is a period full of richer harmonies and big emotions, and includes names like Tchaikovsky, Wagner and Chopin. Brahms sits comfortably in that world, although he is less theatrical than some of his contemporaries.
So why include this in a Christmas playlist. Every time I hear it, the opening sounds like a carol to me. The right hand shimmers with this wintery glow. There is a gentle, almost church-like stillness to it that makes complete sense alongside the choral pieces in this playlist. When Brahms published the set, he placed a short Scottish lullaby above this first piece: ‘Baloo, my babe, lie still and sleep; It grieves me sore to see thee weep.’ It is not quite a carol, but it has the same rocking, comforting shape.
The middle section turns a little darker, but it returns to the same soft sparkle at the end, and in the hands of the late Romanian pianist Radu Lupu it feels almost weightless. It’s tender, glowing and surprisingly fitting for this time of year.
Also, Brahms looked a bit like Father Christmas, which seals the deal for me.
Vidi Speciosam - Will Todd
This one is not strictly a Christmas piece either, but the atmosphere is spot on for this playlist. It is the most recent work here, written in 2012 by the British composer Will Todd, and it is a good reminder that choral music is still very much alive. Modern music often gets treated as something difficult or intimidating, but this is anything but. It is warm, lush and very easy to sink into.
The text is in Latin and comes from the Song of Songs. Whether you are religious or not, it is a beautiful piece of writing. Here is a translation:
I saw my fair one
like a dove rising
above the streams of water
whose fragrance was
woven through her clothing.
And on a spring day
she was surrounded by blooms
of roses and lilies of the valley.
Who is it that rises from the desert
like a plume of smoke
scented with myrrh and incense.
The music matches the text completely. The textures are rich but never heavy. Everything rises and falls in a way that feels natural. It’s calm and serene but there is also a sense of something larger behind it, something shaped by nature.
You cannot ignore the sensuality of the text, and Todd leans into that without it ever becoming over the top. It has that mix of calm and quiet excitement that makes it feel surprisingly festive. Not in a carol kind of way, but in the sense of December stillness when everything feels just a little heightened.
O magnum mysterium - Morten Lauridsen
Another relatively new piece, this time by the American composer Morten Lauridsen. For years I assumed he was Nordic, which I think says something about the atmosphere of his music. In reality he grew up on the West Coast of the US and wrote this in 1994 for a choir in Los Angeles. Since then it has become one of the most loved choral pieces of the last few decades.
Lauridsen said he was inspired by a painting while working on it, a still life by the Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbarán. It is a simple table setting of lemons, oranges and a rose, but the light in the painting is extraordinary. Everything is calm, steady and glowing from within. Once you know that, the music makes complete sense. He is doing the musical version of that same light.
The text, O magnum mysterium, is an ancient Christmas chant. It rests on this idea of awe and quiet wonder, and Lauridsen leans into that feeling without forcing anything. The lines are long, the harmonies open slowly.
What I love most is how carefully he uses dissonance. For the most part the music is smooth and gentle, then suddenly there is a small clash in the harmony and it feels like a tiny ache. It is a very human moment inside something that otherwise feels quite still.
I do not think this is a piece you analyse. You just sit with it. It might be one of the most calming pieces on the playlist.
Mitt hjerte alltid vanker (‘My Heart Always Wanders’) - traditional
This is a pure Christmas carol from Scandinavia and it is enormously popular across the region. What makes it interesting is that there is not just one tune. In Denmark, the version most people know was shaped by the composer Carl Nielsen. In Sweden and Norway the melody is completely different and comes from a Swedish folk song.
The version here is the Norwegian tune, and it has a very different character from the Danish one. The Danish tune feels more like a traditional hymn. The Norwegian one feels closer to a lullaby, or something you might hear at home rather than in a church. There is a simplicity to it that makes the whole carol feel very direct and human.
The recording is by the Norwegian violinist Ragnhild Hemsing. She is an extraordinary player who moves comfortably between the classical world and Norwegian folk music. You can hear that in the sound she draws here. It is not showy. It has a softness at the start of each note and a slight edge to the tone that comes straight out of folk playing. It feels like winter in the best possible way.
I hope this keeps you company over the weekend. If you want to support the newsletter as it grows, subscribing or passing it on to someone who might enjoy it really helps. And if you do listen, let me know which track you keep going back to or what are you listening to right now. I am always curious.
Have a great weekend and happy Christmas to those who celebrate!
x
I’m developing a newfound appreciation for Christmas music. Thank you Mr Figaro ❤️
I love the Brahms piece, makes me feel so relaxed I could sleep.