Entertainment: Joe Fuller

Christmassy choral festive fun

It’s the season for singing, wherein we all love to sing along to things, be it warbling with a CD over dinner or in a local choir. I love it, singing is always spirited and often joyful, plus there’s something particularly special about it near Christmas time (even for the secularist).
Brighton Orpheus Choir present a ‘Music for Christmas’ concert that certainly fits my excitable alliterative headline bill for festive fun, pairing part one of Handel’s hugely popular ‘Messiah’ with Vaughan Williams’ ‘Hodie’ (This Day). It has become a tradition to hear ‘Messiah’ before Christmas, and for good reason, the beloved German’s music is warm, spritely and beautiful. ‘Hodie’ also deals with Jesus’ birth and features songs, hymns, chorales and more, and will be sung by the Orpheus Young Singers, a new choir for 9 to 13 year olds.
A very different sort of Christmas concert comes from the Mediaeval Baebes, who will be singing carols from their Top Ten album ‘Of Kings & Angels’ along with other contemporary and traditional songs. The all-female septet will veer from classics like ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’ to lesser known mediaeval songs like ‘Gaudete’ and there will also be a setting of 15th century English poem ‘Ther is no rose of swych vertu’. That means ‘such virtue’ by the way, if you were curious.
Brighton Festival Chorus are putting on a brilliant looking show at the Dome (along with the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra), which will also include some of Handel’s ‘Messiah’. See how traditional it is? You have to decide which messiah to hear this Saturday evening.
I attended the BFC’s Christmas Concert myself last year and it felt wonderfully communal and lively. You are given song sheets to sing along with (although you could feasibly bow out if that’s not your cup of tea) so it will be a different experience to the Orpheus Choir concert. The programme will include a cover of the Lily Allen cover of Keane’s ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ from the Youth Choir as well as Britten’s solemn ‘Chorale after an Old French Carol’ and Poulenc’s jubilant ‘Hodie Christus natus est’ from the main choir.
We are spoiled for choice this week. I am looking forward to attending one of these three concerts to catch up with chums, so if you go you can play spot the Latest 7 writer! Although it might sound clichéd, these concerts are a great way to get in the spirit of things on a wintry evening with a nice, singing bunch of people. I’m excited.
Brighton Orpheus Choir, St John’s Church, Preston Village, Saturday 12 December, 7.30pm, £15/£12 concs/£7 students/under 17s free
Mediaeval Baebes, St George’s Church, Thursday 10 December, £20
Brighton Festival Chorus, Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, Saturday 12 December, 6pm, £12.50-£25