Christmas by Candlelight.

12-28 Dec 2006. Chiarivari Agrable, Oxfords versatile early music ensemble, present the Christmas by Candlelight Festival 2006, with concerts in the historic Exeter College chapel and the Holywell Music Room. The Three Countertenors return by popular demand with I. Berlins White Christmas and music by Monteverdi, Handel, Couperin, Dering, Schtz, Kurt Weill, Cole Porter & George Gershwin and Darkes In the bleak mid-winter (12 Dec Exeter College Chapel). Rachel Moss (recorder & baroque flute), Nick Benda (baroque oboe), Heather Birt (baroque violin) and Jacqueline Johnson (baroque cello) perform wind concertos and quartets by Bach, Fasch, Janitsch, Telemann & Vivaldi in the matinee concert Shepherds Pipe Concertos on 16 Dec directed by Kah-Ming Ng (harpsichord). Sweet Silence on 19 Dec sees Rachel Parsons (soprano) performing Handels Ssse Stille, Buxtehudes Singet dem Herrn, Einsamkeit by Krieger and Aria de nativitate Domini by Reichwein & Hahn, accompanied by Richard Wade (baroque violin), Zak Ozmo (lute & theorbo) and Kah-Ming Ng (harpsichord & chamber organ). On 21 Dec the Christmas concert Concerti Pastorali di Natale celebrates the string consort in 17th-century Italy with music by Cazzati, Cima, Farina, Fillipi, Frescobaldi, Kapsberger, Marini, Merula and Vitali, while the final concert on 28 Dec, Ringing changes in Paris to be held in the Holywell Music Room, sees Susanne Heinrich (pardessus viol), Reiko Ichise (bass viol) and Kah-Ming Ng (harpsichord) performing music by Leclair, Tessarini, Piani, Doll, Guillemain & Vivaldi as well as Sonnerie de Ste Genevive by Marais. All concerts are performed by candlelight. Admission 20-10. Concerts at 19.30 on 12, 19, 21 & 28 Dec and at 17.00 on 16 Dec.