Classical Music: Gabriel Jackson The Christmas Story

Gabriel Jackson The Christmas Story

The Choir and Girl Choristers of Merton College
Owen Chan & François Cloete (organ)
Oxford Contemporary Sinfonia
Benjamin Nicholas

Delphian DCD34331
https://www.delphianrecords.com/

Gabriel Jackson has the knack of using orchestral textures and colours to make his compositions vibrant, and this skill ensures the words he uses convey messages with eloquence.

The Christmas Story is one such work, released on the Delphian label and featuring the choir of Merton College, Oxford, under Benjamin Nicholas’ direction.

Jackson has chosen the chaplain of Merton College, Revd. Dr Simon Jones, who incidentally is now dean at Lincoln Cathedral, for the libretto which tells the story of Christ’s birth, spanning the period from Advent to Candlemas; it mixes biblical narrative with liturgical texts and four specially commissioned poems by members of the College.

Dr. Jones has written a fascinating note about how he put the libretto together: ‘The Christmas Story is deeply liturgical. Its four scenes reflect the four principal seasons and feasts within the Christmas cycle—Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, and Candlemas.' A Latin liturgical text begins and ends each section.

The College's girl choristers, an independent part of its choral foundation since 2016, perform the new poems, while the full choir and an ensemble of flute, percussion, strings, saxophone, and three trombones carry the main body of the work. The latter recalls the hieratic sonorities of seventeenth-century works by Schütz and others that Jackson had in mind while composing The Christmas Story.

As Michael Emery points out in his notes on the music, ‘the very title of his piece pays homage to Heinrich Schütz’s Weihnachtshistorie. Indeed, says the composer, the piece attempts in part to reimagine the sound-world of the early Baroque. The instrumentation combines wind, brass, and stringed instruments in ways that conjure up the rich sonorities of seventeenth-century Germany and Italy (and sometimes a lean, rather Stravinskian sound-world).'

Jackson’s writing is compelling, and the powerful use of the saxophone and organ is stunningly brilliant, as is the way he uses the voices in different groupings.

Throughout the organ, colour shows the variety of stops on the College’s Dobson organ, whether they be solo stops like the clarinet or the deep resonance from the pedal section, as in Anna’s Song. At times, the music is exhilarating, with the thrilling full organ in the Toccata or the plangent O nata lux de lumine, accompanied by bells, Zimbelstern, and all the forces that bring the work to a magnificent close. However, the last minute ends quietly as we contemplate what we have just heard.

However, Emery’s notes inform the listener that ‘joy does not quite have the last word. A tiny, thoughtful peroration adds a questioning note to everything we have heard before; the joy of the Nativity, we are reminded, is not the end of the story but only its beginning. Christ’s Passion, Crucifixion, and death must follow before the ultimate triumph of the Resurrection.’

Benjamin Nicholas’ trebles are in superb form, with excellent diction and a crisp and warm tone. The viola solo links the end of the exciting Toccata and the beginning of Tribus miraculis ornatum, highlighting the tremendous a cappella singing.

Together, Jackson's meticulously crafted textures of the score are innovative, truly showcasing what is possible in contemporary music: incredible sounds and techniques that give the Christmas story a new dimension.

An exciting new release.