Your Classical Christmas Playlist – Part 1
Five festive classical pieces to start the season.
After last week’s Classical Christmas gift guide, I felt I could finally lean into Christmas music. I didn’t grow up with Christmas myself, so I came to all of this a bit later in life. My connection to Christmas music doesn’t come from childhood nostalgia. It comes from discovering, as an adult, just how much genuinely great music exists because of this season.
There is plenty of room for Mariah and Kelly Clarkson on any December playlist, but part 1 of this little series is about the festive, joyful side of classical music. I didn’t imagine this as something you sit down and analyse. It’s more for cooking, baking, wrapping, reading and anything else December throws your way. Background music, in the best possible sense. Although, to be fair, plenty masterpieces have crept in.
This week is a taster, with five pieces I think set the tone nicely. The full playlist, which is about ninety minutes of very joyful seasonal music, is waiting at the bottom for anyone who wants the whole thing.
Next week we’ll slow things down a bit with a more serene Christmas playlist, but for now, let’s start with the festive stuff.
Christmas Overture - Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
I thought this would be a fun one to start with. Coleridge-Taylor’s Christmas Overture is a mix of well-known carols and his own ideas, all stitched together into something bright and festive. It is generous, colourful and it gets you into the mood straight away.
If the name Samuel Coleridge-Taylor isn’t familiar, you’re not alone. He was born in London in 1875 to an English mother and a father from Sierra Leone. His father returned to Africa without knowing she was pregnant, so Coleridge-Taylor grew up in Croydon with his mother’s family. His musical ability showed up very early. He began on the violin, was good enough to be taken seriously and eventually studied at the Royal College of Music, where he moved from violin to composition.
He was genuinely impressive. Elgar once called him a genius and for a while his music sold very well. He was becoming part of the musical world in Britain, but he died suddenly at 37. Like many composers who did not fit the expectations of the establishment at the time, and especially those who were not white, his name faded from view for decades.
It has been encouraging to see him appearing more often on concert programmes again. This overture, which he wrote for a play and which was completed after he died, is probably not the best example of what he could do. He wrote symphonies, a violin concerto, chamber works and a lot of shorter pieces that show a much broader voice. But as a December opener it does the job beautifully and if you enjoy it, this might be a good moment to explore more of his music.
Suite Lyric: Waltz - John Rutter
You can’t really make a classical playlist without Mr Christmas himself, John Rutter, who turned 80 in September. I realised while writing this that I didn’t actually know much about him, and then discovered he sang as a boy chorister on the very first recording of Britten’s War Requiem (a very famous powerful piece by fellow British composer). Not a bad childhood memory to have.
Rutter is mostly known for his choral music. He has written so many carols and arrangements that he’s basically part of the British December soundtrack. I also clocked that he has more than two million monthly listeners on Spotify, which is impressive for a classical composer who is still alive and writing.
What I like about this Waltz, from his Suite Lyric, is that it feels festive without trying too hard. The whole suite has six short movements, and this one has a really warm lift to it. It’s scored for strings and harp, and I’m starting to think harp makes anything feel a bit more seasonal. A soft glow on top of everything. I added it because it shows a side of Rutter we don’t usually hear, and it fits this playlist perfectly.
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas -The King’s Singers
This one probably doesn’t need much of an introduction. Most people know it from Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis, which I haven’t watched in years but now feel I need to put on this holiday. It is one of those songs that just works every single time.
What I really wanted to talk about though is The King’s Singers. They are a legendary British a cappella group, which simply means they sing without any instruments. They’ve been around since 1968, so nearly sixty years, and the line-up has always been six men. 2 countertenors, 1 tenor, 2 baritones and 1 bass. If barbershop comes to mind when you hear them, you’re not completely wrong, but they go far beyond that. The group was formed by choral scholars from King’s College, Cambridge, and they’ve become a proper British institution.
Their golden period was probably the seventies and eighties, but they are still incredibly active. They do something like 125 concerts a year, which works out to 2-3 gigs every week. It’s a lot of singing. And their range is huge. They do everything from Renaissance madrigals to The Beatles, and with clever arrangements they somehow make it all feel natural.
Some of my favourite Christmas albums are by them. There is something about the clean blend they produce, the way the individual voices lock together, and the overall smoothness of the sound. It’s so unified and so satisfying to listen to. This is one of their simplest tracks, but it’s perfect on a festive playlist.
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker - P. I. Tchaikovsky
I feel like everything on the list this week is a bit of a must, and The Nutcracker is an absolute must. Nothing says winter to me like this ballet. The story, in short, follows a young girl called Clara who receives a nutcracker doll on Christmas Eve. She falls asleep, the Nutcracker comes to life, battles the Mouse King, turns into a prince and takes her on a journey through a snowy forest to the Land of Sweets. It is pure fantasy, and the whole thing is packed with music we all recognise without even trying.
The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is one of its most famous moments. It is so familiar that you almost forget how strange it actually is. And if you have ever wondered what gives it that magical, delicate sound, it isn’t a xylophone. It is an instrument called a celesta. It looks a bit like a small piano, though it has fewer keys, and instead of hammers hitting strings, the hammers hit metal plates. That is what creates that glassy, bell-like sound that feels a bit otherworldly.
You don’t hear the celesta very often, but this piece gave it a place in music history. Whenever it appears now, you can’t help but think of this scene, this ballet and this time of year.
Overture to Hansel and Gretel - Engelbert Humperdinck
Humperdinck isn’t known for much beyond his opera Hansel and Gretel, and yes, it really is a full opera based on the fairy tale. Two children, lost in the woods, a slightly overwhelmed mother who sends them out to pick berries, a house made of sweets and a witch waiting inside. You probably know the rest.
One fun detail is that the witch can be sung by either a tenor or a mezzo-soprano, so depending on the production you might get a man or a woman cackling their way through the role. I usually prefer it sung by a mezzo, but both versions can be great.
This is often the opera I recommend to complete beginners because there is so much here to enjoy. It is fairly short, under two hours, and the music is full of really strong tunes. Some of them somehow feel familiar even if you have never heard the opera before. The story is simple and you already know it, so the language barrier matters a lot less. And emotionally it goes everywhere. Quiet moments, bigger dramatic ones, a bit of comedy, a bit of danger. It is a very friendly way into the world of opera.
Humperdinck adored Wagner and you can hear it in the orchestration, which is lush and dramatic, although still grounded in that German fairy tale atmosphere. I couldn’t find a full staging online that I would confidently recommend, so the best thing is to listen to a good recording. Put it on in the background, bake something, and enjoy the overture opening everything up. It fits this time of year perfectly.
