Kensington’s grand Italianate music hall is quite possibly the most iconic place in London to enjoy a Christmassy concert. But its not just traditional carols that are on offer at the infamous venue this year, with everything from Christmas classic Home Alone accompanied by a live orchestra (Dec 7) to a big band affair with yer ma’s favourite 80s crooner (‘Rick Astley’s Swinging Christmas’ on Dec 17).
Other highlights include a festive celebration of Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin with Jules Buckley and acclaimed singer Sheléa (Dec 10), Sandi Toksvig’s queer Christmas concert with the Gay Men’s Chorus and the BBC Concert Orchestra (the excellently named ‘Sandi Claus is Coming to Town’ on Dec 18) and Letters Live, a festive celebration of literary correspondence in aid of the RNLI featuring a secret line-up of guest performers (Dec 12).
And the festive season also sees the return of several popular concerts from previous years, including jazzed-up festivities with maverick pianist Jamie Cullum (‘The Pianoman at Christmas’ on Dec 6), the fifth edition of ‘Soul Christmas’ with DJ and presenter Trevor Nelson plus special guests (Dec 16), an operatic evening with Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins (Dec 11) and the ever-present ‘Guy Barker’s Big Band Christmas’ (Dec 19) which returns for its ninth consecutive year.
And then there’s the big one, ‘Carols at the Royal Albert Hall’, from Dec 16-24. Can you really say you’ve ‘done’ Christmas in London if you’ve not experienced the full majesty and power of ‘Oh Come All Ye Faithful’ belted out by over 5,000 carollers at the Royal Albert Hall? Not in our view, you can’t.