Performance on 3 - 21/12/2007

Petroc Trelawny introduces a concert from Merton College, Oxford, in which the BBC Singers conducted by Peter Philips perform A Tudor Christmas. There's music from all the big names of English music of the time, including Tallis, Taverner, Byrd and Gibbons, plus the first modern performances of some Christmas motets by the little-known Tudor composer Derrick Gerarde. The grand finale is arguably the most impressive and expansive piece of the era, the 40-part motet Spem in Alium by Thomas Tallis. Iain Farrington (organ) BBC Singers Peter Philips (conductor).