Recording of the Week, Bob Chilcott's Christmas Oratorio

A new Christmas Oratorio. When was the last time we had one of those? A quick straw poll of my fellow Presto elves (busily making Christmas) yielded only three well-known examples - Bach in the lead, of course, with his predecessor Schütz and the rather later work by Saint-Saëns. It’s a mighty undertaking to compose a new addition to that select canon, but today’s Recording of the Week from Benjamin Nicholas and Merton College (with soloists Sarah Connolly, Nick Pritchard and Neal Davies) shows Bob Chilcott to be a real contender.

The standalone carol that opens the album, Jesus Christ the apple tree, shows a clear debt to Elizabeth Poston’s popular setting - fresh, clear and not overly sentimental - but it’s also a neat encapsulation of Chilcott the modern choral composer. Sung here by upper voices, it’s adaptable for many different combinations, and for that reason features in the recently-published Carols for Choirs 6 as a Christmas carol aimed at choirs for whom four parts are a luxury.

The Oratorio proper begins with the warm sounds of brass quintet (drawn from the Oxford Contemporary Sinfonia) and organ. I admit that when I saw the track-listing I was wary - it’s always wise for composers to think twice before deciding that the world definitely needs their settings of texts that have been immortalised in someone else’s - but somehow, when those first rich chords came in to set up the opening hymn Lo! How a Rose, e’er blooming (perfectly blended and mellow, as the brass are throughout), I knew it was going to be alright.

Much of Chilcott’s music conveys a sense of comfort and reassurance, that his music is intended (as Bach said of his Goldberg Variations) to “refresh the spirits”. His sweeping new tunes for the hymns remind me a little of Howard Goodall’s Eternal Light: A Requiem; not rousing per se, but gently uplifting. They’re finely-crafted, memorable and perfectly suited to audience participation. Chilcott deploys some distinctive last verse key changes here and there (the kind that choral singers like to smirk about), but it works; the sense of total sincerity permeating his music, and of complete commitment from the musicians, elevates what might otherwise be an eye-roll-inducing cliché.

Each hymn-tune is also dedicated in gratitude to a musical colleague - a generous gesture that those who know or have worked with Chilcott will instantly recognise, but which also honours a long tradition in hymnody. The opening melody Partington, for Adrian Partington of Gloucester Cathedral who conducted the premiere in 2019 (inexplicably in August!), is followed later by Bowen for Hereford Cathedral organist Geraint Bowen, Laura for Chilcott’s OUP Editor Laura Jones, and Paterson for Three Choirs Festival chief executive Alexis Paterson.

Chilcott deftly differentiates the Oratorio’s sections by sonority; the Evangelist is always accompanied by the harp, and Nick Pritchard responds sensitively to the unique spin on recitative. There’s almost something of Macmillan’s Since it was the day of preparation… about it, though without the latter’s astringent urgency. It’s lyrical and melodious - accompagnato throughout rather than secco, as it were, or even arioso, and creates a feeling that the Evangelist is within the story, rather than narrating it from outside.

Elsewhere, the ever-present angels of the Christmas story have their own instrumental signature in the form of the flute; tenor Tim Burton is a youthful, flexible Gabriel. Sarah Connolly as the Virgin Mary - supported by mellifluous plainsong in the choir, a nice touch that grounds this unashamedly new work in millennia of tradition - expertly balances the vulnerability of the bewildered young girl with an exultant response to the angelic annunciation of her mission. The return of Partington to conclude the work, doing dual duty as the melody for A great and mighty wonder, creates a satisfying sense of closure. Personally, I also think this is by far the best of Chilcott’s new hymn-tunes, so I didn’t mind hearing it again.

In a way, the one thing wrong with this album is the choice of cover artwork. A snowy pine-forest is undeniably seasonal (perhaps Mr Tumnus is hiding just out of shot), but the fundamental warmth and wholesomeness of Chilcott’s music is enough to thaw the entire scene from the inside out.

...and if you'd like to know more about the inside story of Bob Chilcott's Christmas Oratorio, you can read our interview with him about the work.