BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus 2025-26 Barbican Season MacMillan's Christmas Oratorio

When Sir James MacMillan completes a new choral work the world takes notice, because few living composers write with more conviction or imaginative fire. “We need this music right now” wrote The Spectator after the world premiere of his Christmas Oratorio in 2021, and this epic work finds both strangeness and splendour in the most familiar of sacred stories.

“Beauty is at the heart of our Christian faith”, says MacMillan, and the Christmas Oratorio is more than just a choral celebration of the Festive Season. It’s a feast for mind and spirit; a sonic banquet of mystery, joy and white-hot inspiration. The composer himself conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, with two superb soloists – Rhian Lois and Roderick Williams.