Christmas Oratorio in Maribo

RECORDINGS OF THE WORKS

Johann Sebastian Bach: Juleoratoriet, BWV 248

The concert plays an excerpt of the work.

Open on YouTube (2013)All 4 parts on KulturbaseMore recordings on Kulturbase

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Christmas Oratorio in Maribo

Description

Bach’s Christmas Oratorio is one of music history’s most beloved interpretations of the Christmas story – and for Copenhagen Phil, performing the work has become a recurring Christmas tradition. Year after year audiences gather around this musical celebration of Christmas, in which the story comes alive again in Bach’s unique musical language. In the first three cantatas we encounter both the radiant joy at the birth of Jesus and the quieter reflection on the significance of the event. The opening chorus of the first cantata is pure jubilation: trumpets, timpani and choir unite in a festive sound that immediately makes clear that Christmas is an event to be celebrated. From here the music moves between magnificent choruses and intimate arias and recitatives, in which the soloists give voice to both the Evangelist’s narrative and the individual’s wonder and joy. Bach reused earlier music in the Christmas Oratorio, but transformed it with his unique ability for dramatic and musical coherence. The result is a seamless whole in which the monumental and the personal merge in a world of sound marked by warmth, clarity and depth. The acclaimed English Baroque specialist Laurence Cummings leads soloists, orchestra and Københavns Drengekor in a performance that brings Bach’s Christmas music vividly and immediately into the present. Programme: Bach / Christmas Oratorio I-III