Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without Handel’s Messiah. We find it here, today, in our Advent Calendar.

George Frideric Handel (Photo: Ann Ronan Picture Library)
Messiah is unavoidable at Christmas, and there’s so much to choose from in Handel’s great work.
In the absence of the usual Advent performances we have to rely on recordings, and of course there are those who must have massed choirs and barrel-chested tenors instead of pared-down clarity and lighter voices!
Today’s choice is a personal favourite, with impressive singing and playing by the soloists and the Brandenburg Concerto under Stephen Cleobury, with the choir of King’s College Cambridge – here’s Alastair Miles and Crispian Steele-Perkins performing ‘The Trumpet shall sound.’