O Magnum Mysterium: Christmas music old and new from Londinium

If you enjoy concerts which celebrate Christmas but want to avoid the standard carols and the usual Christmas repertoire, then Friday's concert from Londinium and conductor Andrew Griffiths might be for you. The choir is presenting O Magnum Mysterium at St John's Church, Waterloo on 13 December 2019, and it features a nice selection of seasonal music, old and new, with few if any hackneyed favourites.

The new music includes works by Matthew Martin, John McCabe, Morten Lauridsen (his O Magnum Mysterium which is now ubiquitous enough to be a modern classic), Cecilia McDowall, Frances Pott, Cheryl Frances Hoad, Gabriel Jackson and Giles Swayne. Not quite so modern, but certainly deserving of being better known are Kenneth Leighton's Three Carols (from 1948) and his Nativitie. Older composers in the mix include Sweelinck, Hieronymus Praetorius, Richard Dering, Palestrina, Byrd, Rachmaninov, and Lassus.

Full details from the Londinium website.