12 classical crackers to complete your Christmas

'Tis the season to be jolly!

Here are 12 great pieces of classical music to bring calm, order and inspiration to your Christmas week, compiled by Radio 3 presenter Rob Cowan and the Essential Classics team.

Irving Berlin's song White Christmas is a festive favourite for music lovers of all genres and persuasions. According to Rob Cowan, it’s “full of sentiment – but good sentiment”.

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“Heifetz was the most astonishing violinist,” he explains. “The clarity of his playing and the perfection of his intonation was just beyond anybody else’s ability.

“He was one of the first violinists to 'cross over' into light music, but unlike a lot of people he didn’t patronise light music.

"He treated it very seriously, playing White Christmas with the same sort of tonal purity and emotional intensity that he would have applied to a Brahms sonata.” Listen now.

2. Get your family and friends round for a festive singsong, using Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols as inspiration

If you’re a fan of Christmas carols, you’ll recognise a few of the tunes in this wonderful arrangement by Ralph Vaughan Williams. So it may come as a surprise to learn that, when the piece was first performed in 1912, some of the carols had only been collected from folk singers a few years previously by Vaughan Williams and his friend, the folk music expert Cecil Sharp. Some of them, like the Sussex Carol, are now widely known.

3. Wrap your presents to the accompaniment of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite

From the swooning Waltz of the Flowers to the spine-tingling magic of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, this piece simply IS Christmas for some people. It’s packed with familiar, hummable tunes, making it the perfect soundtrack for – and antidote to – your inevitable sticky tape crises.

4. Warm your cockles with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Christmas Eve Suite

The perfect accompaniment to any last-minute Christmas prep, this orchestral suite from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s 1895 opera accompanies the dark tale of a Ukrainian peasant woman who conspires with the devil to steal the moon. Despite the distinctly unChristmassy subject matter, it’s laden with excellent tunes and bright and brassy orchestral colour. Just the ticket for those last-minute dashes to the shops...

The Three Kings is a beautiful song by Peter Cornelius, originally written in German, that tells the story of the Three Kings' journey to Bethlehem.

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Many people in the UK may be familiar with the setting for baritone and choir popularised by the "Carols for Choirs" collections. However, Radio 3’s Rob Cowan prefers a performance by the German operatic soprano Irmgard Seefried, who made this recording in the 1950s.

“Irmgard Seefried was a singer with a particularly beautiful voice – an opera star famed for her perfomances of Mozart,” he says.

“This recording has a purity and sweetness about it that is perennial. It’s extremely lovely to hear.” Listen now.

6. Open your stocking to the exuberant strains of Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride

Believe it or not, Leroy Anderson got the inspiration for this wintry masterpiece of light music in the middle of a 1946 heatwave. Maybe it’s that sense of sunny brightness that makes the piece almost impossible to hear without gaining a new spring in your step.

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“Sleigh Ride seems to sum up the festive season,” says Rob Cowan. “The joy, the excitement, the spectre of children around a Christmas Tree, Father Christmas, reindeer, sleighs… it just says it all.

“It’s simply a joyful statement about the season. And this recording by Arthur Fiedler is certainly up there with the best of them.” Listen now.

7. Tackle the turkey with the help of Handel’s Messiah

Handel’s Messiah, though originally written for performance at Easter, has become a firm festive favourite. This oratorio has it all: exultant choruses (“Hallelujah!”), soul-shatteringly sad arias (“He was despised”), beautifully uplifting movements (“I know that my Redeemer liveth”) – in short, the highs and lows that anyone juggling several kilos of ex-bird will be able to relate to.

Another pick from presenter Rob Cowan – this time, a comparatively little-known cycle of piano pieces by Liszt, performed here by the pianist Alfred Brendel in one of his earliest recordings.

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“They’re beautifully simple little miniatures,” says Rob, “very pared back, nothing like Liszt’s earlier, much more virtuosic works.

“You may not necessarily know all the tunes in the cycle, but they’re lovely pieces. This track, The Shepherd at the Manger, is one of the few pieces that quotes a specific carol. I think you’ll recognise it.” Listen now.

9. ... and let Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ nurse you through your food coma

This oratorio by Berlioz is one of his most popular works – yet at its heart lies a strange tale of trickery. One of the most famous movements is the charming Shepherd's Farewell, which Berlioz wrote first in 1850 and mischeviously passed off as the work of an entirely fictional 17th-century composer called Ducré.

Unfortunately, the critics and audiences absolutely loved it. Some of them even went so far as to say that it could never have been written by Berlioz himself. It’s a touching, lyrical piece, perfect for the post-lunch lull – and better still, something to quiz your comatose family about. Who needs Trivial Pursuit?

10. Spend Boxing Day with Bach and his mighty Christmas Oratorio

You really will need a full day to let this Baroque masterpiece unfurl and breathe. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, a sort of cantata miniseries, was originally performed over the course of six church services in December 1734 and January 1735, although now it’s commonly performed in its entirety at concerts.

The Christmas Oratorio contains some of Bach’s most uplifting and most celebratory music – some of which you may recognise. You see Bach, like many composers of his era, made a habit of recycling music from his own back catalogue – surely one of the highest forms of re-gifting known to man. Take note.

You’ll hear plenty of festive favourites in this glorious medley by big band leader Stan Kenton.

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Kenton is one of Rob Cowan’s all-time musical heroes. “The great thing about Stan Kenton was that he was a great musical educator and innovator,” he says. “He was incredibly original, and his orchestrations were like late Stravinsky – they were so advanced.

“Although this piece was designed to appeal to a popular audience, Kenton was a highly sophisicated musician and an excellent pianist himself. Along with Duke Ellington, he was one of the great big band innovators of his time.” Listen now.

12. Detox and fortify yourself for the New Year with John Tavener’s God is With Us (A Christmas Proclamation)

Like much of John Tavener’s music, God is With Us is an exploration of the late composer’s devout Christian faith. But you don’t need to be religious to appreciate and be refreshed by this austerely beautiful piece for choir and organ, which raises from a mood of quiet contemplation to one of triumphant celebration.

Rob Cowan and Sarah Walker select the very best seasonal music and recordings every weekday morning on Essential Classics. Listen live or online for 30 days.