Decorations are in department stores, rehearsals for Nativity plays are underway … the calendar may have only just ticked over to November, but signs of the coming Christmas are already here. In truth, the recording industry has always got in early, as artists want to ensure their festive albums reach customers and listeners in plenty of time to play a meaningful role in in the celebrations – and this year Apple Music has come up with a wonderful twist on the tradition.

The streaming service has asked some of today’s leading artists – including violinists Daniel Hope and Coco Tomita, cellists Christian Pierre La Marca and Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the choir of Clare College, Cambridge and many others – to offer their own versions of their favourite Christmas works. From traditional carols to melodies from musicals, in arrangements new and old, their choices draw on their memories, both poignant and joyful, of what Christmas means to them, and is a beautiful way to begin the lead-up to the most wonderful time of the year…

You can enjoy their performances in the playlist below, while beneath it you can read some of their reflections on the choices they’ve made, and the approach they’ve taken.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cello – I Saw Three Ships

‘I Saw Three Ships is such a jolly, joyful tune. It’s actually a very simple tune, so it took a great arranger and pianist, Harry Baker, to make an arrangement that is actually quite epic, quite quirky, and really fun to do. Having fun and playing with this classic melody was so enjoyable.’

Ola Gjeilo, composer - Away in a Manger
‘Away in a Manger has been one of my favourite Christmas carols ever since I was a child. I grew up with an amazing recording of it on a King’s College, Cambridge album, which was the first CD my father brought home after my family got our first CD player. This piano version is based on a choral arrangement I wrote a few years ago. It takes a slightly melancholy approach, and I like the contrast between the lower register of the piano with saturated, kind of brooding chords and that beautiful light of the original carol melody.’

Coco Tomita, violin - White Christmas
‘The version of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas I’ve chosen is a stunning arrangement originally by the legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz. There’s a sense of melancholy in the music that’s perhaps reflective of Irving Berlin’s personal life. He wasn’t well off as a child—his family struggled a lot, and to earn money, Irving would sing on the streets. It was kind of the start to his career as the greatest songwriter. I’ve tried to find the feeling of this melancholy in the tone of sound, and Heifetz, of course, adds his jazzy flair and spin on it, which for me makes it extra special.’

Choir of Clare College, Cambridge - In the Bleak Midwinter
Graham Ross, Clare College Music Director, writes: ‘Few carols express the quiet heart of Christmas more movingly than Christina Rossetti’s 1872 poem In the Bleak Midwinter. Her words heighten the intimacy of the nativity scene in a cold, wintry landscape, away from the bright lights and festive sparkle that we encounter in so many other Christmas songs. I remember singing Gustav Holst’s beautiful 1906 setting of these words as a treble chorister in my local church choir and at carol-singing events—my arrangement recasts Holst’s harmonies within a spacious piano part that is both sonorous and delicate in equal measure. I wrote this arrangement in December 2019 whilst looking out over another beautiful white landscape: above the clouds on a flight back home to London. Looking out of a plane window, you can acknowledge both the beauty and fragility of life, and I think that some of those qualities worked their way into my arrangement of Rossetti’s poem.’

Christian-Pierre La Marca, cello - O Christmas Tree
‘O Christmas Tree means Christmas for me. When I was young, I was in a children’s choir, and we would sing all the Christmas songs, including this one, which we’d sing in French. I think there’s a version of it in any language and in any country, so I’ve always felt this carol to be very universal. And as a cellist and an artist, I feel like a citizen of the world, so with this song it feels as if I’m speaking to many of you deeply.’

Daniel Hope, violin - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
‘I’ve loved Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas since I was a kid. When you hear it wherever you are in the world, it transports you immediately into the cosy world of Christmas. We’re performing an all-instrumental version, newly transcribed by one of the greatest arrangers of our time, Paul Bateman. Listen out for the gorgeous string sound and the way Paul distributes the melodies and the dulcet tones of the piece between the different string instruments. I just do my best to float above it all!’

Alexis Ffrench, pianist and composer - Still, Still, Still
‘This is the most beautiful melody. For me, it evokes very special memories of a magical time of year. The tune for Still, Still, Still first appeared in 1865 in a folk-song collection from Austria, and the words describe the peace of the infant Jesus and his mother as the baby is sung to sleep. I chose this carol because there’s a sense of holy silence that radiates from it, and it has a kind of perfect symmetry that appeals to me. It plays so beautifully on the piano, and I’m able to imbue the melody with a depth of harmony and sonorities in order to create something really magical. I didn’t want to disturb the carol too much, but just bring to it a sense of fullness.’