A FESTIVAL OF NINE LESSONS AND CAROLS
ANNUAL CHRISTMAS EVE BROADCASTS
Since 2016, a recording of VOX’s local adaptation of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols has broadcast on Fine Music Radio on Christmas Eve, bringing this unique musical celebration to a much wider audience. Read how this broadcast has evolved, and which special features and musicians we have included over the years.
“I can’t avoid sounding ‘over the top’ but it was one of the most moving, absorbing and beautiful programmes I have heard for a long time. I thought the way it had been ‘updated’ was inspired and what’s more, the speakers delivered impeccably: engaged with their subject, clear and unhurried. Altogether a wonderful two hours. Thank you very much and congratulations to all those involved.” (2022)
“Oh my gosh, that Christmas festival of carols, readings and music was absolutely sublime… I have never enjoyed one as much. Light, balanced and really meaningful. Excellent readings! Sincere thanks to absolutely everybody who was involved.” (2021)
“THANK YOU for the wonderful Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols this evening. Truly sublime singing and a joyful and uplifting concert after this terrible year. Thank you so much. I hope you all stay well and safe and have a happy festive season and 2021.” (2020)
We’d love to hear what you thought about our broadcasts! Please drop us a line at [email protected]!
Adding to the local flavour of the 2024 broadcast, the programme concluded with a stunning smorgasbord of carols from around the world played by the Gqeberha-based Red Ochre Ensemble. All the arrangements are courtesy of Jan-Hendrik Harley, with whom we have worked closely before. Download the 2024 Festival Booklet.
“Thank you for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, we look forward to the service and delight in the music and the familiar readings. It’s an especial joy to hear Barry and Douglas. Further thanks to the Red Ochre Ensemble, some of whom visited Prince Albert earlier this year and we hope they will return in 2025! Christmas blessings to all the VOX choristers and thank you John and Kyle for the planning, preparation and love which goes into this annual treat!”
On Christmas Eve in both 2023 and 2022, the broadcast ended with a special musical offering courtesy of the Yellowwood Duo. The Yellowwod Duo, comprising husband-and-wife team Jan-Hendrik Harley and Mariechen Meyer, was formed during the lockdown in 2020. Download the order of service for the 2023 broadcast (PDF) and the 2022 broadcast (PDF).
“Thank you, one and all, for the wonderful service of Nine Lessons and Carols and the music which followed. You brought great joy to us here in the Karoo. May this be a Blessed Christmas season for you.”
“Wonderful surprise to experience your Christmas Eve service online, experienced in the comfort of our home. Well planned and delivered in an orderly manner; well thought-through. Blessed our souls tremendously. Please upload to listen and share with other loved ones across the world.”
“Loved the selection of music during the Festival and afterwards. Thanks so much indeed. Inspiring, uplifting, beautiful – a privilege.”
“Many thanks for the lovely two hours on FMR over Christmas, with the Nine Lessons and Carols, and the extras. Really enjoyable and relaxing! Wishing all involved only the best for 2023.”
The Christmas Eve 2021 broadcast incorporated lively recordings from an in-person performance earlier that month with Here be Dragons, entitled Follow That Star: A Traveller’s Companion to Christmas. Download the order of service for the 2021 broadcast (PDF).
“Thanks everyone, you made our Christmas Eve so special, and we hummed along where we could. The Carol of the Bells we have tried in our time (and failed!) – it was sung brilliantly! Have a blessed and peaceful Christmas, and a music-laden New Year!”
“Thank you for a lovely entrez to Christmas. We really enjoyed sharing and listening to the lessons and “songs”. A beautiful beginning to the Christmas season. Most grateful.”
“The service was absolutely beautiful and uplifting to the soul.”
“With my love, thanks and appreciation to the exceptionally gifted John Woodland and everyone involved in this marvellous service. I enjoyed every familiar word spoken and note sung and played! Wishing everyone a blessed Christmas and/or a very merry, very happy and joyous festive season!”
To end with a flourish, while acknowledging the peculiar context of 2020, the Christmas Eve broadcast of that year concluded with a sparkling “virtual performance” of three lively carols especially arranged by Jan-Hendrik Harley, featuring the combined forces of VOX Cape Town, early folk ensemble Here be Dragons and soprano Lente Louw. Download the order of service for the 2020 broadcast (PDF).
“Thank you for the brilliant performance of a theme which you have localised beautifully and, in my opinion, those who recognise an age-old tradition will and can be included and benefit from the centuries of experience. I did! My experience really comes from King’s College Chapel. I have a 1960s recording LP which has become dim over time, and also a newer CD production two or three producers on. Your production was special for the timing and date of broadcast and I can only commend you who organise and produce this type of classical event. Hoorah!”
“Thanks so much to you all and also to St Andrews and Here be Dragons and the soprano for a delightful programme of readings and carols this evening – a wonderful prelude to tomorrow’s Christmas celebrations! Under the most trying circumstances yet, this Year of Covid, a year as no other before in our lifetime, you pulled off a coup – one felt that one was in the same space as the celebrant, the orchestra and the choristers, so great was the professionalism of your performance and the renditions. We are greatly indebted to you for the determination, ingenuity and talent behind this evening’s Festival.”
“Thank you all for the wonderful broadcast carol service this afternoon. I loved every moment of it and thought the singing and choice of music was just perfect.”
“The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was a triumph, especially after a year such as 2020. The programme was beautifully constructed and the messages of reassurance, comfort and hope, along with the high standard of music and choral performances proves that no matter the crisis, human spirit prevails.”
A host of new and familiar music from South Africa and abroad was presented on Christmas Eve 2019, including carols by John Joubert, John Rutter and Stefan Claas, and first recordings of a brand-new carol by Stephen Carletti, an isiXhosa translation of the gentle Cradle Hymn and a choral arrangement by Hans Huyssen of Somerkersfees. Download the order of service for the 2019 broadcast (PDF).
For the first time on Christmas Eve in 2017 (and again every year since), Erik Dippenaar joined VOX Cape Town as guest organist for these broadcast. The broadcasts also featured the first recordings of two new South African works, Christmas in Africa (a setting by Maike Watson of a poem by Margaret Kollmer) and Pula, Pula! (Franco Prinsloo). Download the order of service for the 2018 broadcast (PDF) and the 2017 broadcast (PDF).
VOX Cape Town’s local adaptation of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was broadcast for the first time on Christmas Eve 2016 on Fine Music Radio, replacing the usual recording from King’s College, Cambridge. Recorded by Nolan Chiat (Create Recordings) in St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, this was a wonderful opportunity to promote local music and musicians. Traditional choral works by Rachmaninoff and Vittoria were juxtaposed alongside local choral music from closer to home including Senzenina? (“What have we done?”), Torches! and Come, Colours Rise. Download the order of service for the 2016 broadcast (PDF).