Celebrating December's Musical Calendar
Saturday 13 December 2025
St Peter's Church, Budleigh Salterton
What a creatively designed programme, celebrating twelve occasions in December’s musical calendar – ‘12 Days’.
Andrea Brown (musical director) led the evening with warmth and encouragement to both the singers and audience alike. She was joined, as usual, by the multi-talented Peter Adcock (accompanist) who added support and moments of light with organ, piano and djembe accompaniment. In addition, we welcomed the fantastic string quartet Divertimento, providing accompaniment for some items, as well as presenting some instrumental moments, which I hugely enjoyed.
Advent included Matthew Martin’s O Oriens, including the well-known melody Veni Emmanuel provided a great opening to the concert, followed by one of several a cappella performances, the popular There is no rose of such virtue by John Joubert. World AIDS day provided a distinct change when the choir performed Seasons of Love from Jonathan Larson’s musical Rent. There were some wonderful solo passages in this piece. The programme continued with celebrations of St. Nicholas, The Immaculate Conception, Human Rights Day, Votes for Women and the Wright Brothers achieving flight; a whistlestop tour of a variety of styles and works. The pedal note of Tavener’s Apolytikion of Saint Nicholas, the Macoronic writing (using more than one language) of Personent Hodie, the energy of Cecilia McDowell’s Now may we singen, and the sheer drama of Eric Whitacre’s Leonardo dreams of his Flying Machine all gave the choir much to get their teeth into. The audience carol In the bleak midwinter was a highlight because of the obbligato organ part from Peter Adcock. Poignancy, joy, innovation and festivity in the first half.
The second half allowed more time to linger as we travelled through the final days of the twelve. Whitacre’s Five Hebrew Songs (Hannukah) with melodious warmth and love, punctuated with dance-like sections, accompanied by pizzicato strings, along with choir vocalisation provided a beautiful start to the second half. Then we were treated to two folk melodies, arranged by the Danish String quartet, played superbly by guests, the Divertimento String Quartet (Yule). The performance included audience whistling and the most wonderful virtuosic violin playing – a real highlight of the concert. Another highlight was Susa Ninna by Peter Louis Van Dijk (Day of Reconciliation); this jaunting, moving performance was sublime. As Andrea Brown said, no Christmas concert like this would be right without some Bach. The choir were at their best in Jauchzet Frohlocket! from J S Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Christmas Day). The performance demonstrated precision, enjoyment and inspiration. A semi-chorus sang This Marriage by Ed Newton-Rex (Rajab) very well, in a brilliantly co-ordinated a cappella performance.
What better way to round off the concert but Bob Chilcott’s The Twelve Days of Christmas? The choir evidently thoroughly enjoyed performing this exciting piece which, in a way, was a symbol of the journey we had been on, as each Five Gold Rings features a different style. This was very well performed with great solos.
Thank you to Andrea, Peter, Divertimento and Exeter Festival Chorus for including us on this journey – many styles and genres, many combinations of voices and instruments, music spanning many eras, singing in many languages – with joy, exuberance, and moments of reflection demonstrating how much there is to celebrate in December.
Paul Stock