Gabriel Jackson (b. 1962)
The Christmas Story (2023)
Choir and Girl Choristers of Merton College
Owen Chan and François Cloete (organ)
Oxford Contemporary Sinfonia/Benjamin Nicholas
rec. 2023, Merton College Chapel, Oxford, UK
Texts and English translations included
Delphian DCD34331 [74]

An important part of Gabriel Jackson’s catalogue is devoted to short choral works, many of which have been performed and recorded by the finest choirs. Listeners who only know Jackson’s music from works such as The Christ-child, composed for the 2009 edition of King’s College, Cambridge’s Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols; or In all his works, the exquisite and deeply moving tribute to his own former choirmaster at Canterbury Cathedral, Alan Wicks, may find The Christmas Story a surprising experience, perhaps even a daunting one. Typical of Jackson’s style is multi-voiced choral writing and the employment of diatonic dissonance, features that lead to a richness of texture that is most satisfying. Both are very much in evidence in the present work, but the extensive and wide-ranging subject has challenged the composer to go further.

My MusicWeb colleague, John Quinn, was in the audience at Merton College, Oxford, in December 2023 for the second performance of The Christmas Story. His thoughtful review of this disc provides a detailed description of the work and I encourage readers to seek it out. review The first thing I want to say by way of introduction is that this remarkable work is definitely not a series of cheerful, seasonal, carol-like songs. Its 73-minutes are divided into four sections, Advent, Christmas, Epiphany and Candlemas. The Very Reverend Simon Jones, who compiled the libretto, refers in the booklet to Candlemas as a ‘bittersweet commemoration’, in reference to the way in which Christ’s story ends. (In the French traditional carol, C’est le jour de la Noël, Christ is depicted as apprentice to his carpenter father, and will have constructed crosses.) The Christmas Story ends with a resplendent setting of ‘O nata lux’ involving all the performers, but this is followed by a short instrumental postlude that leaves us to ponder on what is still to come.

Each of the four sections is further divided into more or less brief settings of text from the Gospels or other liturgical sources. There are also four specially commissioned poems from two people with Merton College connections. Sung by the Merton Girl Choristers, accompanied by the organ, they bring human rather than spiritual elements to the narrative and are deeply moving. Penny Boxall’s ‘A Guest at Cana’, for instance, skilfully evokes the miracle of the transformation of water into wine, whilst Mary Anne Clark’s ‘Lullaby of the Beasts’ presents the animals in the stable who, after a day of toil, are able in the restful evening to contemplate the infant Christ. This prepares the way for Jackson’s setting of ‘O magnum mysterium’, similar in mood to the Morten Lauridsen’s justly celebrated setting. It is the perfect vehicle for the ‘great mystery’, that Christ was born to save humanity, but that the first creatures to contemplate him were animals. Jackson’s beautifully poised, vibraphone-accompanied setting ends inconclusively, though, as does the brilliant organ interlude that follows.

In a booklet essay about the music, Michael Emery notes that Jackson’s word-setting technique ‘may sometimes appear counterintuitive’. Many listeners will agree. In the first section, Advent, we encounter text set by Handel in Messiah; the difference in approach of the two composers is greater than that demanded by the centuries that separate them. ‘Every valley shall be exalted’, for instance, is surprising not so much for its melodic line, intoned in unison by the men’s voices, but for its staccato accompaniment of trombone chords and woodblock. Yet when we arrive at ‘And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed’ the trombones’ sonorous involvement makes for real splendour, as powerful as it is understated. The following passage presents words of John the Baptist, again accompanied by the trombones in a way that many will surely find ‘counterintuitive’. Yet no-one will deny the power when we arrive at the words ‘he shall baptise you will the Holy Ghost and with fire’. For this listener, the word ‘counter-intuitive’ can be applied just as readily to the instrumental accompaniment as to the musical treatment of the text. Indeed, there are countless examples throughout the work where the meaning and message of the text is communicated more by the accompaniment than by the singing. Striking, too, that most of the vocal writing inclines to tonality, whereas the instrumental accompaniment is frequently far more chromatic and seemingly not directly related to the vocal line. The importance of the instruments is underlined by the recorded balance that gives equal weight to the two strands. Many listeners will find much of this surprising, but with each repeated hearing the beauty of the music, as well as its sense, becomes apparent. To take two further examples, I think other listeners, including those who, like me, are fervent admirers of Jackson’s music, will wonder about the motivation behind the music that accompanies the shepherds visit to view the newborn child, even as they delight in the tipsy music that sets the scene for the wedding at Cana. I only struggle, now, with the ubiquitous alto saxophone whose riffs – brilliantly played – do not yet seem justified, or at least, ‘intuitive’.

The Christmas Story was commissioned by Merton College – as was Jackson’s The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ (2013) – and the forces performing here had already given the work in public shortly before the recording. It shows, in the technical quality of the playing and singing, and in the absolute commitment to the work. Benjamin Nicholas’s direction is inspirational, and Delphian’s recording team of Paul Baxter and Jack Davis present the work in the finest possible sound.

This is a major work of art that succeeds in telling an important story in a new way. It needs to be heard.

William Hedley

Previous review: John Quinn (November 2024)

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