Christmas Oratorio in Helsingør

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

Videos from Kulturbase

Address

Sct Anna Gade 38,
3000 Helsingør

Christmas Oratorio in Helsingør

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, where the story comes alive again in Bach's unique musical language. In the first three cantatas we meet 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 declares that Christmas is an event to be celebrated. From there the music moves between grand choruses and intimate arias and recitatives, where the soloists give voice both to the Evangelist's narrative and to the individual's wonder and joy. Bach reused earlier music in the Christmas Oratorio, but transformed it with his unique ability to create dramatic and musical coherence. The result is a seamless whole, where the monumental and the personal merge in a soundscape 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