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Embrace the Christmas spirit with gentle classical sounds

Peaceful festive classical music to lift your spirits and bring warmth to your Christmas season. Presented by broadcaster, author and counselling psychologist Dr Sian Williams.

Peaceful festive classical music to lift your spirits and bring warmth to your Christmas morning. Presented by broadcaster, author and counselling psychologist Dr Sian Williams.

Featuring cherished carols, glowing choral harmonies and gentle orchestral favourites, this special Christmas edition offers a comforting soundtrack for rest, reflection and togetherness. Across three hours of music, we explore the sense of connection that singing brings, the nostalgia woven into familiar melodies, and the quiet joy that emerges in moments of stillness.

Plus, Professor Catherine Loveday shares insights into how Christmas music can positively shape our mood, strengthen memory and evoke a powerful sense of belonging.

12 days left to listen

3 hours

Music Played

  • Franz Xaver Gruber

    Jouluyo, juhlayo (Silent Night)

    Music Arranger: Atso Almila. Conductor: Osmo Vänskä. Orchestra: Lahti Symphony Orchestra.
    • BIS.
  • Richard Rodney Bennett

    New Year's Carol

    Choir: BBC Singers. Conductor: Paul Brough.
    • Signum.
  • Philip Lane

    3 Christmas Pictures (Starlight Lullaby)

    Conductor: Gavin Sutherland. Orchestra: Royal Ballet Sinfonia.
    • Marco Polo.
  • Victor Hely-Hutchinson

    Carol Symphony (3rd mvt)

    Conductor: Pietari Inkinen. Orchestra: German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.
    • SWR Classic.
  • Ralph Vaughan Williams

    Suite for Viola & Orchestra (2nd mvt, 'Carol')

    Performer: Timothy Ridout. Conductor: Jamie Phillips. Orchestra: Lausanne Chamber Orchestra.
    • Claves.
  • Jean Mouton

    Nesciens Mater

    Choir: VOCES8.
    • Signum.
  • Eunike Tanzil

    See you Again

    Performer: Eunike Tanzil.
    • DG.
  • Richard Allain

    Lullay, myn lyking

    Choir: Choir of Westminster School. Conductor: Timothy Garrard.
    • Signum.
  • Dieterich Buxtehude

    In dulci jubilo, BuxWV 52

    Choir: Capella Figuralis. Ensemble: The Netherlands Bach Society. Conductor: Jos van Veldhoven.
    • Channel Classics.
  • Robert Parsons

    Ave Maria

    Ensemble: Onyx Brass.
    • Resonus.
  • Michael Praetorius

    Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (arr for choir)

    Music Arranger: Jan Sandström. Choir: SWR Vocal Ensemble, Stuttgart. Conductor: Marcus Creed.
    • SWR Classic.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, BWV 106, 'Actus tragicus'

    Conductor: Sébastien Daucé. Ensemble: Ensemble Correspondances.
    • Harmonia Mundi.
  • Ariel Ramírez

    La Peregrinacion

    Choir: Phoenix Chorale. Conductor: Christopher Gabbitas.
    • Signum.
  • Becky McGlade

    In the Bleak Midwinter

    Choir: Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge. Conductor: Christopher Gray.
    • Signum.
  • Jules Massenet

    La vierge (The Last Sleep of the Virgin)

    Conductor: Barry Wordsworth. Orchestra: BBC Concert Orchestra.
    • Naxos.
  • William James Kirkpatrick

    Away in a Manger

    Music Arranger: Nigel Short. Choir: Tenebrae. Conductor: Nigel Short.
    • Signum.
  • Adolphe Adam

    Cantique de Noël [O Holy Night], arr for choir

    Music Arranger: John West. Choir: Vasari Singers.
    • Naxos.
  • Felix Mendelssohn

    6 Kinderstücke, Op 72, 'Christmas Present' (No 4 in D major)

    Performer: Howard Shelley.
    • Hyperion.
  • Percy Grainger

    The Sussex Mummers' Christmas Carol (version for cello & piano)

    Performer: Adrian Bradbury. Performer: Andrew West.
    • SOMM.
  • Trad.

    O Christmas Tree

    Music Arranger: Peter Graham. Ensemble: International Staff Band. Conductor: Stephen Cobb.
    • Universal.
  • Valentin Silvestrov

    Sleep, Jesus, arr for saxophone & ensemble (2 Christmas Lullabies)

    Performer: Jess Gillam. Music Arranger: Natalia Tsupryk. Ensemble: Jess Gillam Ensemble.
    • Decca.
  • Elizabeth Poston

    Jesus Christ the Apple Tree

    Choir: Pembroke College Chapel Choir. Choir: Pembroke College Girls' Choir. Conductor: Anna Lapwood.
    • Signum.
  • John Francis Wade

    Concert Variations on 'Adeste Fideles'

    Performer: Xavier de Maistre. Music Arranger: Carlos Salzedo.
    • Sony.
  • Anon.

    Quelle est cette odeur agréable? [What is that lovely fragrance?]

    Choir: Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chorus. Orchestra: Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Conductor: Neville Marriner.
    • UMG.
  • Richard Pygott

    Quid petis, O fili [What do you want, O son?]

    Choir: Eton College Chapel Choir. Conductor: Ralph Allwood.
    • ASV.
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    The Nutcracker, Op 71 (Act 2: No 12b, 'Coffee, Arabian Dance')

    Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle. Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker.
    • Warner.
  • Kristina Arakelyan

    Christmas Offering (3rd mvt, 'There Is No Rose')

    Performer: Esther Beyer. Singer: Lucca Kelf. Choir: Choir of King’s College, London. Conductor: Joseph Fort.
    • Signum.
  • Philip Stopford

    A Christmas Blessing

    Choir: Truro Cathedral Choir. Orchestra: BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Conductor: Christopher Gray.
    • Regent.
  • Marc‐Antoine Charpentier

    Noël sur les instruments, H 534 (4th mvt, 'Or nous dites Marie')

    Conductor: Christophe Rousset. Orchestra: English Baroque Soloists.
    • SDG.
  • Bob Chilcott

    The Shepherd's Carol

    Choir: BBC Singers. Conductor: Bob Chilcott.
    • Signum.
  • Trad.

    God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

    Music Arranger: Peter Breiner. Conductor: Peter Breiner. Orchestra: Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra.
    • Naxos.
  • Erno Dohnanyi

    Pastorale (Hungarian Christmas Song)

    Performer: Stephanie McCallum.
    • ABC Classics.
  • José Feliciano

    Feliz Navidad

    Performer: Alexis Ffrench.
    • Sony.
  • Sarah Quartel

    This Endris Night

    Choir: EVE. Conductor: Birgitte Næslund Madsen.
    • EVECHOIR.
  • Trad.

    A Great and Mighty Wonder

    Music Arranger: Richard Marlow. Choir: Coro. Conductor: Mark Griffiths.
    • Dal Segno.
  • Gaetano Maria Schiassi

    Weihnachtspastorale

    Ensemble: Collegium tubicense Ulm. Conductor: Simon Dach.
    • Christophorus.
  • John Rutter

    Nativity Carol

    Choir: Choir of Clare College, Cambridge. Ensemble: The Dmitri Ensemble. Conductor: Graham Ross.
    • Harmonia Mundi.
  • Josef Bonisch

    Nin singet und seid froh

    Ensemble: Moravian Wind Band.
    • HeBu Musikverlag.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 14 Dec 202509:00
  • Sat 20 Dec 202509:00
  • Christmas Day 202509:00