James MacMillan: new vocal score of Christmas Oratorio published
James MacMillan’s Christmas Oratorio, widely acclaimed as a summatory work in his output, is now available in a new vocal score published by Boosey & Hawkes. The composer conducts a performance of the full-evening work with BBC Symphony forces in the build up to Christmas at the Barbican in London on 19 December.
A new vocal score of James MacMillan’s Christmas Oratorio has been published on sale by Boosey & Hawkes. Praised since its premiere in 2021 as a magnum opus in the composer’s output, the 100-minute work combines a powerful response to liturgy and poetry, spiritually-charged choral writing and the composer’s customary kaleidoscopic orchestration. A study score of Christmas Oratorio is in preparation for publication in the Hawkes Pocket Score series in 2026.
> Buy the new Christmas Oratorio vocal score
> Listen to the London Philharmonic’s recording on Spotify
James MacMillan leads a performance of Christmas Oratorio at the Barbican on 19 December, the first time he has conducted the work in London. The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus are joined by vocal soloists Rhian Lois and Roderick Williams and the performance is scheduled to be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 over the Christmas holiday period.
> Christmas Oratorio at the Barbican
Christmas Oratorio was described by BBC Music Magazine as “one of MacMillan’s finest ever pieces… a heady mix of wonder, trepidation and profound mystery” while the Financial Times summed it up as “a rich and prodigious invention”. The Times noted how “even by MacMillan’s standards this is stunning music: profusely, lushly lyrical and often grounded in traditional tonality, yet infused with dazzlingly original instrumental and vocal ideas”.
Composed in 2019, MacMillan’s Christmas Oratorio collects together settings of poetry, liturgy and scripture which explore themes related to the birth of Jesus. Whereas many of the chorus sections draw on Latin liturgy, the reflective arias for soprano and baritone adopt vivid texts by Robert Southwell, John Donne and John Milton. Multiple aspects of Christmas are captured, balancing childhood innocence against more ominous moods threatening the Holy Family, which resonate in our own time.
MacMillan’s writing for chorus is richly varied, from carol-like celebrations, through a pair of tableaux containing the Biblical narrative according to St Matthew and the mysterious opening of St John’s Gospel, to a simple closing Scottish lullaby. Both parts of the full-evening work are framed by orchestral sinfonias, bridging the distance across the ages.
The Christmas Oratorio was given its world premiere during the recovery months following COVID lockdown in 2021, in an audience-less streamed radio broadcast from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam presented as part of the NTR ZaterdagMatinee series, with the composer conducting the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Choir. The first UK performance, recorded live, was conducted by Mark Elder at the end of the same year with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. MacMillan was on the rostrum both for the first Scottish performances in 2023 with Royal Scottish National Orchestra forces and for the Hungarian premiere in Budapest the following year. Selections from the Christmas Oratorio will receive their Australian premiere next November with the composer conducting the Melbourne Symphony and the Choir of Trinity College Melbourne.
> Read James MacMillan’s note on the Christmas Oratorio and Paul Spicer’s repertoire guide on the work
2026 brings a new MacMillan oratorio, Angels Unawares, commissioned by the Genesis Foundation and written in collaboration with the late poet and cleric Robert Willis. The hour-long work receives first performances internationally next spring with The Sixteen and Britten Sinfonia conducted by Harry Christophers.
> Further information on Work: Christmas Oratorio
Photo: James Bellorini