This was the theme of the Chandos Singers’ Christmas concert, which we put together fairly quickly after the Russian folk-song performances. The first half of the concert was built around Victoria’s mass and motet on this text, both familiar repertoire to me. There were also settings of it by Willaert and the now-popular Lauridsen.
After the interval we performed seasonal music from the choir’s repertoire, though some of it was new to me, including a couple of pieces by members of the choir. Another new piece was Samuel Arnold’s 18th-century setting of Hark the Herald Angels Sing. We ended with some carols for the audience to join in. The organ in the chapel decided to play up, but fortunately only a couple of pieces had to be dropped as a result; the rest could be sung unaccompanied.