One regular festive highlight will, alas, be under new management. Sir Stephen Cleobury, long-time musical director of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College, Cambridge, died earlier this year. This year’s service (BBC Radio 4, 24 December), is conducted by his successor, Daniel Hyde, with the customary new carol, “The Angel Gabriel”, supplied by Philip Moore, former organist and master of music at York Minster. Meanwhile, another long-established group of choristers – the Sistine Chapel Choir – can be heard in Singing for the Pope (BBC World Service, 31 December) as they prepare for the Christmas Mass. More choral pleasures are to hand in Heart and Soul: Joy to the World (BBC World Service, 22 December), featuring ensembles from Manchester’s Caribbean and LGBT communities as well as a choir of women asylum seekers.