On Christmas Night: Carols from Merton Choir of Merton College, Oxford & Benjamin Nicholas

• Traditional:
• 1 Traditional: The Lord at first did Adam make (arr. for Choir and Organ by Michael Nicholas) 02:44
• Kerensa Briggs (b. 1991):
• 2 Briggs: A tender shoot 02:15
• John Gardiner (b. 1943):
• 3 Gardiner: Tomorrow shall be my dancing day 02:15
• Traditional:
• 4 Traditional: This is the truth sent from above (arr. for Choir and Organ by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Christopher Robinson) 02:52
• Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548 - 1611):
• 5 Victoria: O magnum mysterium 04:10
• Arvo Pärt (b. 1935):
• 6 Pärt: Morning Star 02:58
• Dobrinka Tabakova (b. 1980):
• 7 Tabakova: Of a rose sing we 05:09
• Gustav Holst (1874 - 1934):
• 8 Holst: In the bleak mid-winter (arr. for choir and orchestra by Mack Wilberg) 04:58
• Peter Tranchell (1922 - 1993):
• 9 Tranchell: People, look East (arr. for Choir and Organ by Peter Marchbank) 03:19
• Traditional:
• 10 Traditional: Sleep, little Jesus, sleep 03:15
• Hubert Parry (1848 - 1918):
• 11 Parry: Welcome, Yule! 01:30
• Peter Cornelius (b. 1951):
• 12 Cornelius: The Three Kings (arr. by Ivor Atkins) 02:37
• Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907):
• 13 Grieg: Ave maris stella 02:55
• John Rutter (b. 1945):
• 14 Rutter: Was I the lamb 03:10
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1547 - 1594):
• 15 Palestrina: Alma Redemptoris mater 02:45
• John Joubert (1927 - 2019):
• 16 Joubert: There is no rose 02:25
• Traditional:
• 17 Traditional: Sleep, Jesus, sleep 03:51
• Herbert Howells (1892 - 1983):
• 18 Howells: O mortal man 02:49
• Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963):
• 19 Poulenc: Hodie Christus natus est 02:24
• Anton Bruckner (1824 - 1896):
• 20 Bruckner: Ave Maria 03:24
• Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943):
• 21 Rachmaninoff: Bogoroditse Devo 02:43
• Gustav Holst:
• 22 Holst: On Christmas Day 03:53
• Traditional:
• 23 Traditional: Of the Father's heart begotten (arr. for Choir and Organ by David Wilcocks) 04:59
• Total Runtime 01:13:20

Info for On Christmas Night: Carols from Merton

Benjamin Nicholas and his Choir of Merton College Oxford present a starlit celebration of Advent choral music and Christmas carols from composers old and new.

Favourites including Of the Father’s Heart Begotten and In the Bleak Midwinter sit excitingly alongside new commissions and contemporary composers including Kerensa Briggs, Roxanna Panufnik, and Bulgarian-British composer Dobrinka Tabakova.

Choir of Merton College, Oxford
Benjamin Nicholas, direction

Benjamin Nicholas
is Reed Rubin Organist & Director of Music at Merton College, Oxford and Principal Conductor of The Oxford Bach Choir. As a conductor, he has appeared with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Mozart Players, The BBC Singers and The Holst Singers in works such as Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony, Holst’s Savitri and Duruflé’s Requiem.

During Benjamin’s time at Merton, the annual Passiontide at Merton festival has been established, the Dobson Organ has been installed, and the College Girls’ Choir has been founded. He was elected a Bodley Fellow of Merton in 2018.

Benjamin Nicholas has been involved in the commissioning of a great many works, and conducted the premieres of Charlotte Bray’s Bach Re-imagined in Southwark Cathedral with the City of London Sinfonia, Howard Goodall’s Veni Sancte Spiritusin Westminster Abbey and numerous choral works by Kerry Andrew, Birtwistle, Chilcott, Dove, Jackson, Martin, Muhly, Tabakova, Weir and Wilby in Tewkesbury and Oxford.

Benjamin was a chorister at Norwich Cathedral before holding organ scholarships at Chichester Cathedral, Lincoln College, Oxford and St Paul’s Cathedral. After a period as Director of Music of St Luke’s Church, Chelsea, he was Director of Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum and Director of Choral Music at Dean Close School. From 2011-2016 he served the Edington Music Festival, firstly as conductor of the Schola and then as Festival Director.

The Choir of Merton College
consists of 30 undergraduate and graduate students at Oxford University reading for degrees in a variety of subjects. The choir's primary duty is singing at regular services in the famous 13th-century Chapel.

Since the establishment of Merton’s Choral Foundation in 2008, the choir has gained an international reputation for offering the best of choral music through tours, recordings and broadcasts. In 2020, the choir won the award for best choral album at the BBC Music Magazine Awards for its recording of Gabriel Jackson’s The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. The choir’s discography on the Delphian Label has seen numerous five star reviews and many recordings have been named ‘Editor’s Choice’ by Gramophone magazine.

The choir has appeared at The Three Choirs Festival and the Cheltenham Music Festival, and recent London appearances include the concert series at St John’s Smith Square, Cadogan Hall and The Temple Church. The choir is regularly heard in concert with orchestra, and recent collaborations have seen the choir perform with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Elgar’s The Apostles), Instruments of Time and Truth (Bach’s St Matthew Passion) and Oxford Baroque (Bach’s Mass in B minor). The choir’s annual festival, Passiontide at Merton, has an established place in Oxford’s musical calendar, and has led to exciting collaborations with such groups as The Cardinall’s Musick and The Marian Consort.

Merton College Choir regularly tours overseas, and has recently visited the USA, Hong Kong and Singapore, France, Italy and Sweden. In 2017, the choir sang the first Anglican Service in St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

The choir’s commitment to contemporary music has seen numerous composers write for the choir. In recent years the choir has premiered works by Kerry Andrew, Birtwistle, Chilcott, Dove, Ešenvalds, Kendall, MacMillan, McDowall, Rutter, Tabakova and Weir. In July 2021, the choir gave the world premiere of a new work by Daniel Kidane.

This album contains no booklet.