BBC Music Christmas 2011

A choral Christmas As St John's College, Cambridge notches up 500 years, we join its choir for a festive celebration

It's a gift! From Wagner's Siegfried Idyll to a Shostakovich Violin Concerto, we peek under the wrapping paper of the greatest musical presents ever given

A Victorian tale Andrew Green explores how Prince Albert helped restore Britain's musical life back to greatness

Hansel and Gretel Neil Fisher chooses the tastiest recordings of Humperdinck's sumptuous fairy-tale opera