The Queen’s College ushered in the festive season with an interesting double bill: a familiar, much-loved work paired with a world premiere, both of which took their inspiration from a range of Christmas texts.

Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols was first performed nearly 70 years ago, but it still has the power to enthral with its chant-like evocation of Christmas. In the hands of the choir, it sounded fresh and vibrant, with the purity of tone normally associated with choirboys.

Hodie Christus natus est was delivered strongly and with appropriate jubilation as the choir processed into the nave, and that powerful delivery spilled over into Wolcum Yole. But there was a wonderful tenderness in numbers such as There is no rose — in which the sopranos’ voices soared mesmerisingly into the rafters — and Balulalow. There was some wonderful harp accompaniment, too, from Oxford graduate Rachel Wick.

This was a glorious performance, in which each number felt like the rediscovery of a much-treasured possession.

And so from the familiar to the new. Welcome all Wonders, a Christmas cantata by former Queen’s organ scholar David Bednall, was commissioned for the choir to mark the opening of the college’s new Shulman auditorium. This grand, large-scale work recreates the Nativity through biblical texts and poems from the 17th to the 19th centuries, making an adventurous foray into the Christmas story with an emphasis on its darker aspects as well as its triumphs. So the slaughter of the innocents is evoked and the sacrifice of Christ foreshadowed, alongside the more familiar, celebratory events surrounding His birth.

The choir did well to cope with the demands made upon them; this was not easy stuff, but they delivered, as in the first half, with confidence and technical proficiency. Whether this work will endure for the next 70 years, and take its place alongside Britten as a festive favourite, remains to be seen.