The Christmas Oratorio in Københavns Domkirke

Bach's Christmas Oratorio is one of the best-loved interpretations of the Christmas story in music history - and for Copenhagen Phil, performing the work has become a recurring Christmas tradition. Year after year, audiences gather for this musical celebration of Christmas, in which the story comes to life 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 occasion to be celebrated. From there the music moves between grand choruses and intimate arias and recitatives, in which 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 gift for dramatic and musical coherence. The result is a seamless whole, in which the monumental and the personal melt together in a sound world 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

• Dirigent: Laurence Cummings / Solister: Berit Barfred-Christensensopran, Sophie Haagen, alt, Jorge Navarro Colorado, tenor & Jonathan Brown, bas / Kor: Københavns Drengekor

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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