The Advent Carol Service at St John's College, Cambridge

Christopher Gray and the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge

The Advent Carol Service: Judith Weir, Laura Sheils, Paul Manz, Mendelssohn, Edward Picton-Turbervill, Orlando Gibbons, John Rutter, Herbert Howells, Britten, Errollyn Wallen; Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, Christopher Gray, Pascal Bachmann, Tingshuo Yang; Chapel of St John's College, Cambridge
Reviewed 29 November 2025

The Advent Carol Service at St John's has become a musical highlight of the season. This year with music Judith Weir and Errollyn Wallen, along with works by younger composers, with several pieces having links to the college.

The Advent Carol Service at St John's College Chapel, Cambridge was developed in the mid-twentieth century for the College community and is led by the College Choir. Since the 1980s the service has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and has become one of the musical highlights of the season. This year the service took place in St John's College Chapel on 29 November and 30 November, the latter broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, led by the Dean, The Rev'd Canon Dr Victoria Johnson and the Chaplain, The Rev' Graham Dunn. Christopher Gray, Director of Music, conducted the Choir of St John’s College which consists of around 20 boy and girl treble Choristers from St John’s College School, alongside 18 mixed-gender Choral Scholars and Choral Graduates. Earlier this year, I chatted to Christopher Gray about his first disc with the choir [see my interview, 'A carefully curated programme rather than a disc to dip into']

I was lucky enough to attend the service on Saturday 29 November. This featured music by Judith Weir, Laura Sheils, Paul Manz, Mendelssohn, Edward Picton-Turbervill, Orlando Gibbons, John Rutter, Herbert Howells, Britten, and a new carol by Errollyn Wallen. Several pieces had links to the college, including arrangements by former Directors of Music, George Guest and Christopher Robinson, whilst Laura Sheils has already written for the Choir, John Rutter's There is a flower was composed for the Choir in 1985, the Magnificat came from Howells' Collegium Sancti Johannis Cantabrigiense written for the Choir in 1957, there was a carol by one of the College's graduates, Edward Picton-Turbervill and Errollyn Wallen's new carol, Nolo mortem peccatoris was not only commissioned by the Master and Fellows but sets an anonymous 15th century text from one of St John's College's manuscripts.

Chapel of St John's College, Cambridge
which was built in the 1860s by George Gilbert Scott

The service was divided into four sections, The Message of Advent, The Word of God, The Prophetic Call, and The God Bearer, each featuring liturgical texts, readings and music. Spread through the whole service with the great O Antiphons, sung in chant by the men of the choir. The Introit was Judith Weir's Drop Down, Ye Heavens, from Above, written in 1983 for Trinity College, Cambridge, a short, unassuming piece that created a fabulous effect from Weir's use of a sort of organum.

The carol, Adam lay ybounden by Irish composer Laura Sheils proved to be quiet yet full of vibrant energy and infectious rhythms, whilst the engagingly melodic Zion, at thy shining gates was an arrangement by George Guest based on a 16th century melody by Boehm Bruder. The American composer Paul Manz's carol E'en so, Lord Jesus, quickly come made its mark thanks to its beautiful simplicity.

Mendelssohn's I waited for the Lord, featuring two solo choristers, was used as a motet; the setting originally comes from Mendelssohn's Lobesgesang. A hymn of St Columba by the young British composer Edward Picton-Turbervill, who is a graduate of the College, began with rather haunting chant, over organ drone, sung by the trebles before becoming richer with more complex texture yet always a sense of chant behind the music. The words mixed text from the O Antiphons with words attributed to St Columba.

The anthem was, of course, Gibbon's This is the record of John with a (female) alto soloist who was fine indeed. John Rutter's There is a flower proved to be finely affecting, the music in his familiar style yet elegant in its apparent simplicity along with a fine treble solo. I have to admit that Howells canticles written for St John's College are new to me. The Magnificat proved to have an intriguing fluidity and flexibility in the writing, notably the sense of uneven phrase-lengths in the vocal lines.

A second anthem was Benjamin Britten's masterly A hymn to the Virgin, written when he was still at school, and beautifully sung here. Britten set a text mixing Latin and English, and Errollyn Wallen's new carol was similarly macaronic with the English verses having a Latin refrain, 'Nolo moretm peccatoris'. Haunting at first, Wallen introduced a rich harmonic language and there were some surprisingly intense moments. The penultimate first had jagged edges indeed as it talked of 'thou false fiend' whilst the final verse, 'Now we make both joy and mirth', was all vivid rhythms.

Before the service, the Junior Organ Scholar, Pascal Bachmann and the Herbert Howells Organ Scholar, Tinshuo Yang played music by Durufle, Bach, Brahms, Albert Lebblanc (1941-2024), Buxtehude, Mendelssohn (arranged by William Thomas Best) and Yang played one of his own pieces as well, Prelude on 'Veni Emmanuel'. After the service there was music by Bach and Durufle. 

The service is available on BBC Sounds for 30 days.

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