Christmas at the Temple

Temple Church Choir

The Temple Winter Festival, which runs from 12 to 19 December 2016, will be the fourth such at the Temple Church. This year the festival is opened by Roger Sayer, the Temple Church Choir and the Temple Singers in an attractive concert celebrating both the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth and the Queen's 90th birthday. Music includes Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, RVW's Serenade to Music, Britten's Hymn to St Cecilia, Walton's Coronation Te Deum and the trebles from the Temple Church Choir in Britten's A Ceremony of Carols with Catrin Finch (harp). Finch will also be giving a solo recital with music by Debussy, Samuel-Rousseau and Hindemith, in addition to Finch’s own Traditional Christmas Variations.

Not surprisingly, a Christmas theme runs through most of the concerts, with Sansara in music from Hildegard of Bingen to John Tavener, the London Chorus and New London Orchestra in music by Finzi, Whitacre, Corp, Torelli and Corelli, and the Temple Church organist Greg Morris in Bach and Messiaen. Peter Phillips and the Tallis Scholars will be performing Tallis's seven-voice Christmas mass, Missa puer natus, along with other seasonal repertoire. And the festival concludes with a performance of Handel's Messiah from Ian Page and Classical Opera, with Sarah Fox (soprano), Angela Simkin (mezzo-soprano), Stuart Jackson (tenor) and Neal Davies (bass-baritone).

Full details from Temple Music Foundation website.