BBC Radio 3 | Christmas Around Europe 2017

[DaveHarries]

Greetings all,

It is nearly the time of year again and, on Sunday, BBC Radio 3 will - as always - broadcast their offering of festive music from numerous locations around Europe that they collectively refer to as "Christmas Around Europe". This year the date for it will be Sunday 17th December. For me is one of my favourite broadcasts, not only of Christmas but also of the year, and I always listen to as much of it as I possibly can.

This year's music will come from Finland, Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, Denmark, Czech Republic and Portugal (Basilica, Mafra). Details now on the BBC Radio 3 website as follows:

Part 1 (Finland, Austria): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09jc2gg

Part 2 (Nuremburg, Sofia, Copenhagen, Frankfurt): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09jc2gj

Part 3 (Brno, Mafra): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09jc2gl

I will, as ever, look forward to this. For anyone wondering there will be organ in the segment from Finland. As an aside the section from Vienna includes music by James MacMillan while the Vienna and Mafra segments contain English carols. Should be good.

Dave

[S_L]

 

Thank you for that Dave! There is a lot there to look forward to, a lot of music that, I suspect, quite a few people in the UK have not heard but is traditional in Finland, Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, the Czech Republic and  Portugal. There is quite a lot, too, that I have not heard and am looking forward to enormously as well, of course, as old favourites.

Here in the depths of rural France we, naturally, get very little feeling of the traditional 'English' Christmas and so I am, particularly, looking forward to reliving memories and hearing the 'Kings' service on Christmas Eve and particularly to hearing  the Judith Weir Illuminare Jerusalem, the classic Tavener Little Lamb and Francis Jackson's Hoy! Can I not syng but hoy as well as this year's commission, sung in Welsh, Carol Eliseus by Hugh Watkins.  

I miss a lot of things about England - excellent fish and chips, pork pies and traditional sausages, but, particularly I miss the good hymnody that you hear in 'traditional' establishments. It will be excellent to hear, once again, those traditional Christmas hymns albeit sans Willcocks descants accompanied by the splendid rebuilt Kings organ! 

Gaudete Sunday tomorrow - our Priest won't wear the 'pink kit' - it's a bit early but I wish everyone a very Happy and Holy Christmas.

 

 

[DaveHarries]

Thank you SL. I will miss some of the Sunday afternoon bit due to being in Bristol Cathedral for a service but I will have the radio back on as soon as I can after the service is over. Glad you can get BBC Radio 3 over there online: if you want to watch BBC TV over the internet you need to be in England and have an English TV licence.

A very Merry Christmas to you as well.

Dave

[S_L]

10 hours ago, DaveHarries said:

 if you want to watch BBC TV over the internet you need to be in England and have an English TV licence.

 

I don't watch UK TV via the Internet! Most Brits living in France use a Recepteur Satellite to watch UK TV on our televisions! And you don't need a TV licence to do it and, before anyone shoots me down, it is perfectly legal!

 

[Colin Pykett]

22 hours ago, S_L said:

 

I miss a lot of things about England - excellent fish and chips, pork pies and traditional sausages ...

 

Yes, but they're not very good for you!  Just think what you have gained instead - your easy cosmopolitanism, facility with languages, and the delights of living in a highly cultured country less crowded by a factor of three than the UK.  Plus a better climate and the wine and cheese (which takes us back to where we came in - not very good for you!).

Enjoy your Christmas over there.

CEP

[S_L]

Colin

Thank you very much! 

Of course you are absolutely right - and I live, surrounded by vine fields and apple orchards - and my next door neighbour makes and sells me his own red for 3 euros a bottle and his cognac retails at 12 Euros a bottle!

..................... but on a Sunday morning I miss, desperately, a good hymn!!!!